Since 2013, fans of the New York Times bestseller The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat have been waiting for Edward Kelsey Moore’s endearing book to come to the big screen. The wait is finally over, and with an all-star cast to boot! Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Sanaa Lathan, and Uzo Aduba will bring Odette, Barbara Jean, and Clarice to life in the Hulu adaptation. This story of true friendship spans decades, but their bond is tested during the happiest time of their lives. They face their most difficult trials together, but will their friendship endure?
Well, we can’t tell you the answer to that. We don’t want to give anything away. What we can tell you is that they pass these tests with incredible style. This story isn’t just told by the characters, but also by their wardrobes. With fashion from the 1950s to the late 1990s, you’re in for a treat.
BGN interviewed costume designer Whitney Anne Adams via Zoom for the film The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat about how she got into costume design, how she managed to dress characters for three eras and why costume design is so important.
How did you get into costume design?
I’ve been doing theater my whole life, but costume design wasn’t a career option for me. I was in pre-med and was terrible at chemistry and math. My only fun class was Introduction to Theater Design, and I discovered costume design. I gave my parents a PowerPoint presentation about changing my major and couldn’t really describe why. I just felt it.
There have only been a few times in my life where I knew it was the right answer without having a proper explanation. I changed my major within the first three weeks of college, and that was the best thing I’ve ever experienced. As a teenager, I was a big movie buff. When I look back now, it all fits together. Then my first film was The Great Gatsbyas an assistant to Catherine Martin. This experience and being on that set really confirmed that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
How did your research, inspiration and creativity come together to design the costumes for the film?
My first step was reading the script and then the book for The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat several times so I could get a feel for all the characters. I put together a spreadsheet and pulled all the visual references from both of them. So that was my basis for each character. I could choose what worked best for the story we were telling. Then I started researching, pulling things from literally everywhere. It was like collecting every visual reference in the world and then sorting them by character.
How did you approach the challenge of reflecting fashion trends from the 50s to the 90s while maintaining a consistent aesthetic?
I had to work in four very different time periods and do a lot of research. I got hold of contemporary catalogs, magazines and books from each period. I watched a lot of films from each era. I also really love Flickr because so many people share their personal family albums publicly. I was able to do a lot of research on real people from the real world because magazines and films don’t help you. So it was very important to me to find out what people really looked like. I got hold of a lot of yearbooks from those eras so I could see the real people. Buying old yearbooks on eBay is kind of my favorite research tool.
How did you use the costumes to reflect the characters’ unique personalities and the evolution of their friendship over the decades?
The most important thing for me is that they feel like a real trio. I didn’t want their costumes to match, but I wanted them to work together, so I got every costume there was. We also built a lot of things ourselves, like Odette’s orange dress. Each scene has its own board where I put all the photos from the fittings. I made sure that all the actors felt comfortable with each other and that their costumes looked cohesive, especially when they’re in the booth in the diner. I wanted them to feel like a team and like sisters, so it was about finding their own personalities in there.
Clarice is organized and honest. Odette is fiery and wild. And then there’s Barbara Jean, who comes home from her mother’s funeral wearing her hand-me-downs. I took that and incorporated it. Each piece is from a character’s perspective. I had to find out where each piece came from, how they got it, how long they’d had it, and where it was made. I answered all of those questions for everything I put on their bodies.
What were the biggest challenges in designing the costumes for this film and how did you overcome them?
We had a pretty tight schedule. I had to cram four decades of research into two weeks, and that was just me. We only shot for 30 days, and we had a lot to fit into that time. We had 162 main costumes in total, and 67 of them were just our Supremes. That’s a lot of costumes for six actors. I had to go to LA, New York, and Atlanta.
We rented costumes, went to every vintage store in all these towns, searched online. We made a lot of costumes ourselves. Then we had to bring all the clothes to Wilmington, North Carolina, because we were shooting in an area where there wasn’t much. There’s a vintage store in town, Jess James and Company; they saved my ass several times. And then you have to tell the story across the decades and make sure the characters stay true to themselves as they get older. You have to keep a lot of wheels turning.
How do you think the costumes support the narrative in this film?
Costumes are such an important part of storytelling. You really need to see that these are real people. It reinforces everything these characters are going through when they feel real and grounded to you. Portraying them through all their clothing and making them seem like the unique, interesting people they are is so important to getting to the emotional places the story needs to take you. If they seem bland, lack depth, or don’t feel like real people, you’ve lost the audience.
The costumes are sure to captivate you and the story will make you want to stay. Grab your best friends, some tissues and your favorite snacks! The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat will air on August 23, 2024 on Hulu.
