Images via Maggie Barry's Instagram profile maggiebarryfashion
Maggie Barry's Mad Dash to Make Melissa McCarthy's Oscars' Bunny Cape
Fashion-and-costume designer Maggie Barry is accustomed to working fast. But when the Oscars called, Barry assembled overnight Melissa McCarthy’s rabbit covered cape for the 91st Academy Awards on Feb. 24.
On the night of Feb. 22, Barry got a call from Oscars stylist Katja Cahill for a special favor. Oscar joke writers wanted McCarthy to wear a costume spoofing nominated movies. Could Barry put together a cape covered in stuffed bunny toys to parody "The Favorite"? Could she also put together a cape that McCarthy’s co-presenter Brian Tyree Henry could wear? It would be inspired by "Mary Poppins Returns."
When she accepted, Barry was told to assemble complex costume pieces in less than a day. “No pressure!,” Barry said.
Barry has a history of making costumes for rock bands and musicians ranging from Van Halen to Katy Perry. Barry tried to make some bunnies, but they looked like road kill, she said. So, she and Cahill sent stylists on a mad dash to various stores to find bunny toys to sew onto the cape. Then they had to actually put the capes together. “It was literally a small army of people sewing, assembling and beading,” Barry recalled.
The other pieces worn by McCarthy and Henry were rented from costume houses. McCarthy wore a collar ruff inspired by the film "Mary Queen of Scots," a tribal belt inspired by "Black Panther" and a Western hat inspired by "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs."
