The Catch Wardrobe & Interview with Costume Designer

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The Catch Wardrobe along with set design and story stood out to me the moment that I started watching the show. Shondaland shows, like Scandal, are known for their stellar wardrobe. The Catch wardrobe surpasses the style of Scandal! Each character has a unique style that has me intrigued. I was able to go behind the scenes of The Catch’s Wardrobe department and interview Peggy Schnitzer, costume designer for the show. I was in my element with Peggy and felt so comfortable talking about the fashion on The Catch.

Everything is archived in books in enormeous detail. The looks are photographed on set and noted in a book describing the details of where and how the items were worn. The pieces are saved and cataloged so that scenes can be re-shot.

“[We catalog everything] because a lot of times there will be many scenes that link up. We’re here doing interiors, and then a week later they’re doing exteriors. They know exactly, so they match it up by the pictures. It’s also a documentation if they ever have to do reshoots or if it ever goes to archives or, they do it for many different things. It’s done by character.”

Mireille Enos as Alice Vaughan

Alice is the main character of the show. She is the most stylish and got a hot sex scene in a wedding dress in the first episode. Peggy made the dress so that it could be unzipped and fall to the ground in one motion. I’ve tried on my fair share of wedding dresses and have to tell you that this is the first time, I have seen anything like this. The dress feels vintage, but obviously, it was made new for this show.

“I got thirties wedding dresses as inspiration that is very bias cut. Then Carlos and I bought the fabric, and we stitched it out.”

I pointed out that the all the clothes seem so small. The characters seem larger than life on screen, but then you see their suits. Alice’s dresses look smaller than a zero. Peggy responded, “They seem much larger on screen because their screen persona is very big, but Mireille is maybe five-two, but she wears a lot of heels.”

Mireille, for Alice, her stuff is a little more eclectic, There’s eclectic different boutique-y [feel to her wardrobe].

Sonya Walger as Margot Bishop

“Margot pretty much wears very sculpted body conscious. She’s a little more playful but still professional. I’ve tried to make it so it’s feminine but professional not too power suit-y for her. There’s still a very feminine edge to it.

Rose Rollins as Valerie Anderson

“She wears a lot of sheers. Rose is very eclectic. I just sort of find things that would work for her because she’s so unusual looking, beautiful, and very statuesque.”

Peter Krause as Benjamin Jones

“Peter pretty much wears a uniform, dark suits mostly white shirts, which were all made for him. You can see his little initials in there. We just thought that was something that you could identify with him. He pretty much is the consistency and the crazy inconsistency of everything else. His shirts are made custom by shirt maker that’s been making shirts since Frank Sinatra. His father was a shirt maker and so yeah no it’s good. He has a long neck, so we did a tall, strong collar. You don’t see [tall collars] that much. It’s a lot more Lindsay collars.”

Peter’s suits and shirts are on the right on the rack below.

Do you ever try to do wardrobe Easter eggs using color to mean something?

“I don’t do that, but I do try and match up little bits and pieces. I just actually saw an episode today. I try and pair off pieces- little bits of color that match people. So it all ties in together. I don’t use a lot of prints except maybe on Elvy a little bit, who plays Sophie. Once in a while, on Alice. I pretty much stick to solid colors, because I think it works best for this. There’s a lot going on, and they [prints] can be distracting sometimes. I know that they do certain colors for certain things. I don’t do that. I do other things.

The photography of the show makes it feel like an older nineteen fifties- do you tie that into the wardrobe?

“Yes, I do. First off because, if, I were to do today modern, it’s a lot boxier. My aesthetic by choice is very sixties early seventies. Very sleek. It looks good always for their bodies. The first pilot that we did was even older. It was a more nineteen forties thing, and then they changed. They rewrote the pilot. We shot one pilot and then we shot another pilot. This [one] was a lot poppier, a lot more fun, a lot more sixties. With a lot more color, a different color that was very muted color, this is pops of color. It’s a very much a designer’s dream, because there- it’s a great cast, great bodies, great visuals and the story is fantastic, and it’s, it’s fun to pair up with the story in terms of the design aspect of it.”

The shows set design is incredible. Peggy told me about how she chooses the clothes based on the location as well. The office where Alice works is very white so sometimes color must be worn to stand out. It is not a hard and fast rule because we have seen Alice wearing white in some of the office scenes, but I can image that it is also depends how the scenes will be shot. Will they be close ups or will the character simply walk through the office? Most of the B characters wear black in the office. You’ll start noticing all this as you watch the show.

A little More about The Catch

Alice Vaughan (Mireille Enos) is LA’s top private investigator — and the one woman you don’t want to mess with. But when her fiancé (Peter Krause) cons her out of millions and disappears, Alice goes on a private mission for payback. No matter where it leads or the secrets she must keep along the way, Alice will stop at nothing to catch her man. From the producers of “Scandal,” “Greys Anatomy” and “How to Get Away with Murder,” “The Catch” is a one-hour drama starring Mireille Enos, Peter Krause, Alimi Ballard, Jay Hayden, Jacky Ido, Rose Rollins, Elvy Yost and Sonya Walger. The Catch is executive-produced by Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers, Allan Heinberg and Julie Anne Robinson.