California Apparel News

Paris, Berlin, Monte Carlo—the Jet Set age of the 1960s is the setting for “Pan Am,” the new original series by Sony Pictures Television on ABC.

Starring Christina Ricci, Mike Vogel and Kelli Garner, the show takes inspiration from the glamorous international lifestyles of Pan Am’s stewardesses and airline pilots. Their iconic uniforms and the fashionable costumes are making a splash on television. With smart, feminine dresses and sharp men’s suits of the ’60s already trending in fashion, the show expands on the style of the era from a worldwide perspective.

Enter costume designer Ane Crabtree, who was called upon to create the stylish looks for the show. Crabtree first studied painting in the UnitedStates and England before attending the Fashion Institute of Technology to study fashion design. Eventually, her career led her to design for the three-dimensional canvas of the film and television screens. Credits include “Without A Trace,” “LAX” and creating the look for HBO’s “The Sopranos.” Crabtree said that by studying the fashions of the era for “Pan Am”—including the designs of Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin and Chanel—the “fashion girl” in her has come out in a big way.

California Apparel News Fashion Editor N. Jayne Seward caught up with Crabtree in a few spare minutes for a phone interview while the designer was on set shooting “Pan Am.” Here is a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the costumes for the hit show.

How did you research the show? Early on, we had a bit of a storyline but not very much. And so, we did look at quite a lot of Life magazines. I actually bought up the whole collection from January to December for 1963. We also looked at documentaries and footage from different moments in history. For instance, JFK’s speech in Berlin. Thank goodness for YouTube. There are elements of things that we can look at online, from books and then also from fashion magazines, of course, for the clothing of the time.

Are you building the costumes and the uniforms?

We always want to do everything, design it all. Unfortunately, because it’s a TV show, there’s not a lot of time. So, right now we’re designing about 50 percent. Sometime more, sometimes less given the story, but it’s all vintage otherwise.

Were you able to find some of the original Pan Am uniforms?

There was one that we had on loan from a San Francisco museum that was an original that was measured within every inch of its life and then sent back. We followed it very, very true to pattern— except that we heightened the color a little bit for camera. With the kind of filming that we’re doing, [the original] looked a bit gray, so it wasn’t so exciting, so we did heighten that a little bit.

Fashion is a big part of the era. How do you capture the time period —1963—and give individuality to the characters?

I have to start with the story or else it just becomes a fashion piece. People have to connect with the characters. I see what the journey is within that episode and further, and we start to build from the inside out [for] everybody. We find out little, little bits from Maggie’s back story and we throw that in. I’m a girl from the South and Midwest, so my storyline in ’63 is going to be different from somebody else who was raised closer to New York like some of the other characters. Colette is French. So all of that is absolutely taken into consideration as we’re creating the costumes. And also where they’re headed—whether it’s careerwise or what country they’re going to—they’re really young women and young men, so they would have had this more adventuresome spirit and youthful quality to their clothing than anyone else. There was this spirited movement from England and from America that happened in music and fashion, so we also grabbed from that, too.

How do you add the travel element to the costumes?

These girls traveled everywhere. And in any given episode we could go from two to four countries. So, whether it’s Asia or Europe—within Italy, Germany, France—we don’t even know where we’re headed next half the time. They had to have a small suitcase with clothing that they could have fun in but also could be presentable in depending on what their duties were when they go to the place where they were headed.

What is the look for each character?

Everybody has their niche now because we’re in episode nine, and so Christina has the really adventuresome clothing. Her color palette is bright and that sort of brash American spirit. Her stuff is exciting, but in the same way that hers is very out there and American, Colette’s is pretty exciting because she’s French. Everything is understatedly sexy. She has softer, blushy colors. So I love that, too.

Laura is more the All-American girl next door—the Cybill Shepherd or the Lauren Hutton from the 1960s when she was a model—she’s that girl or Jean Shrimpton, Grace Kelly. So that’s exciting in its own way. And then Kate, I probably identify the most with Kate, personally speaking, because she has a very Kate Hepburn elegantly man-tailored style in her look.There is a little bit of me in each one of them. I always think, quot;Oh, people are going to love that on Christina more than someone else,quot; and then someone writes in, quot;Oh, I really love Laura’s blue Bardot two-piece in Berlin.quot; So it’s hard to say really. I like them all, I have to be honest. And I love the men's. I love Dean and Ted’s clothing as well. I wish I could rock a little skinny suit myself.

Is there a focus on the style of the men of the era as well?

Oh yeah, I love the men’s just as much as the women’s. The women’s is so exciting because it’s so feminine and we’re headed back that way now in fashion. But the men’s stuff, too, is quite exciting because I think that we’re are also turning toward more gentlemanly, fashionable looks for guys. I see it on the streets here in New York, certainly. When I’m back home in L.A., I see young men in their skinny suits, their bow ties, their skinny ties—and they’re rocking hats here, too.For the show, it’s very important because the guys—they’re all very young as well, and they have to feel that they are back in that time. So we’re putting vintage suits on them. The waistlines are way higher than they’re used to, and maybe the silhouettes are even leaner than what they’re used to.So it’s been an adjustment, but I think they all love it, actually. During their fittings they say, quot;Where are my high pants?quot;

The time period overlaps “Mad Men,” so there must be the obvious comparisons. How do you create an original look and/or are you mostly focused on the authenticity of the time period?

I know Janie [Bryant, costumer designer for quot;Mad Menquot;] and I know the show, but I’ve never seen it aside from stills that might be on the Internet. My approach and process is just to come from a place that is my own.I read our scripts, and certainly, I want to have the integrity of 1963 be very, very present and no other era. I know “Mad Men” is there. It’s obvious that it’s a hit show. I’m really happy for Janie. I think anybody that culls from 1963 or the ’60s tends to look at history, books, photos, films of that time and the icons are really present—Grace Kelly, James Dean, Steve McQueen, Elizabeth Taylor. We all have the same icons. We just do it in our own way.

How do you put your personal flair into designing the costumes?

I was a painter and an artist before I was a costume designer, and I worked in fashion as well. So I think all of those things bring something else to the table. It just depends on what exactly you’re saying, but I think that my process is I go for the intellectual and the psychological and try to dissect the scene. And then I say, quot;Okay, what was happening in fashion that was really exciting that’s going to be realistic and not take away from and not to just have an empty fashion moment, but to have something that matters to the scene?quot; and then [say] quot;Oh wow, it’s so beautiful,quot;—if it works.I try to have a very real approach to the clothing. It’s not that we’re making a documentary, but I try to start there because I want folks to be absolutely immersed in it and to not look at it as just a historical piece but to feel as though they can relate to the characters today. A lot of the clothing that is so iconic is very classic in nature and can stand on two legs today. The classic chemise, the pencil skirt, the trench coat—those silhouettes are timeless, and so my take on things is to, yes, create 1963 because it’s a fantasy for people who are watching and it’s thrilling fashionwise, but to also say, quot;Oh, I can wear those things today and I can find those things today and it’s lady-like and beautiful and actually in style right this moment.quot;

What is it like to work with Christina Ricci? There was rumors about her being displeased with the lingerie. What happened?

Oh, that’s so funny. I’ve heard those things as well, but I can tell you that all the girls love the clothes—and the boys, too. I think it really helps to take them to this place of ’63 because they’re all young. They never experienced it.Christina—her mom was a fashion model during that time, so she grew up seeing images of her mom from that time, and she loves it. She is actually very attached to her longline bra and her girdle. I read one funny thing—I think she was trying to be funny—like it takes forever to get into the thing, which is true. They are built so solid. It’s almost shocking and surprising how structured they are. It’s like Spanx, of course, in what it does, but the fabric is so thick and the elastic is so dense that it does take sometimes two people to get the girls into their girdles.But they all remark that they stand really straight and tall. The longline bra gives you an instant perfect posture, which is important. So [Christina] always asks, “Where is my longline bra? I want my bra.”

What are the challenges of creating the costumes for the show?

I think the biggest thing is time. It’s a TV show, it’s really fast-paced, storylines can change on the day.You have to be on your toes and make sure that you have even more than you designed because they might change a scenario in a country, and we want to make sure that we get it absolutely historically accurate. We don’t want it to be just a generalized portrait of Asia or a generalized portrait of Europe. We really want it to be real. So that’s a huge challenge.And then, there aren’t a lot of costume houses in New York, where the show is based. Most of the costume houses—90 percent—are in Los Angeles. So that’s a challenge because everything has to be shipped over. I do utilize a giant vintage clothing–filled barn [called Right to the Moon, Alice] in upstate New York, but even that is a six-hour drive to get clothes for the show. So it’s [challenging] finding pieces spur-of-the-moment quickly. It’s dressing not only 30 to 40 speaking roles but 200 to 400 extras all in vintage clothing down to the underwear. I think that’s our biggest hurdle, and so to make that happen, I have, on any given day, 18 to 26 costumers helping.It’s the biggest show I’ve ever worked on. I hear that we’re even bigger than “Boardwalk Empire” because the show is on location, we have these different countries. It’s pretty giant; it’s like a giant circus.

Where do you shop for the clothes in New York?

[The vintage barn] is an actual business called Right to the Moon, Alice. It’s a husband-and-wife team that worked on Broadway and started this vintage-clothing business. They sell to a lot of vintage markets, and they sell to a lot of stores. They are used quite a lot by folks on the East Coast for film and TV. And I also use one beautiful vintage store—really tiny—in Red Hook, Brooklyn, called Bopkat Vintage. And that’s where we go for last-minute stuff for men’s and women’s. And then there’s one fantastic jewelry place. Whenever I go to get stuff from Alice’s, it’s such a long drive and I think I’ll turn it into a beautiful weekend trip because it’s gorgeous,—just outside of New York. So I go to Right to the Moon, Alice, and then I go to this beautiful town called Callicoon, N.Y. And it’s a place called Lee Hartwell Antiques, and he has the most divine jewelry, the most beautiful stuff. So I’ve just gone there recently on the last holiday and pulled beautiful antique jewelry for all the girls.