Costume Designer Shanna Mair On How Fashion Completes A Character In Hallmark’s Savoring Paris
It's always about the fashion, especially in the City of Lights, where you are constantly walking a runway of your own. One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz explores it fist hand in Savoring Paris, one of four original movies that are part of Hallmark Channel’s Passport to Love programming. Lenz plays Ella, a food chain executive who has had enough of her American life. Finding it hard to be happy, Ella longs for her college days in Paris, where she felt like she owned the world. She embarks on a soul-searching journey to Paris in hopes of finding herself again, navigating love, and, of course, indulging in all the cheese she can buy.
But as I said, one can’t go to Paris without a few fashion statements. Ella’s transition from corporate America to her vacation days in Paris is not just translated through her persona but through her wardrobe. Costume designer Shanna Mair talks a little about what it takes to create a character. “It's important that the actor feels like the character in their costume to help them give the best performance possible,” she said. “The direction of the costumes needed to illustrate a clear arc of the character's journey from humdrum corporate life to her rejuvenated zest for life and self-love.”
Understanding who the character is as a whole has a big effect on how the character looks. Since Ella is an American, Mair did research on what women and men were wearing and studied how they could incorporate that with her American background. There are other things to take into account, like “the actor's body type, flattering colors, and the actions required in the scenes.” You have to consider the entire character and how you want them to be delivered to the audience in a tasteful way.
Just as the character is bringing her vision board to life and embracing her love of Paris, Mair creates mood boards and then gets to all of our favorite parts: the shopping! “A combination of online shopping at Sézane and ASOS, and physical shopping at Zara, Pull & Bear, Reserved, Humanic, and H&M, allowed us to create classic Parisian silhouettes that evolve with the character's journey,” shared Mair, giving us the perfect list of stores to add to our list. Lenz even included some pieces from her own wardrobe, like the neck scarf from Pierre Louis Mascha, adding to the realism of her character.
Ella’s style is a dream collaboration of American and Paris fashion and hopes to leave the audience feeling like they too are ready to go on their very own trip to Paris. Running away to Paris with an entirely new wardrobe doesn’t sound terrible, if you ask me.
Savoring Paris premieres June 8 on Hallmark Channel.
