1980s Sex Appeal Is So Back, Just Ask the Costume Designers of ‘The Shards’

Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of “The Shards” drips with campy 1980s excess: girls in plunging rayon jumpsuits and boys in high-waisted denim so tight only a pair of scissors could remove them. The show’s joint costume designers Lou Eyrich and Joshua Marsh entered the project with a reverence for the source material, as well as the freedom to expand it. As Eyrich puts it, the duo took a “color outside the lines” approach to styling, pairing leather pants with prep school uniforms.

In episode one, the sexy and mysterious Robert Mallory (Homer Gere) is introduced to the viewer by his high-waisted leather. “He wore black leather pants like a second skin with his school blazer,” the show’s narrator Bret announces. But the dialogue didn't need to call out the pants for audiences to notice or admire them. The bottoms in question are the perfectly fitting vintage pair of ’80s leather sourced at Sony Pictures Costumes; though throughout the show, the vintage silhouette was replicated by custom leather maker Jonathan A. Logan, who created several pairs based on the original.

For Mallory’s slick ’80s aesthetic, Murphy pointed the design duo towards a plethora of “sexy early ’80s films” and iconography. The list included “Dressed to Kill,” “Body Double,” and glamour photography from Herb Ritz, and Helmut Newton and Hurrell. Gere’s character takes inspiration from the actor’s real-life father, Richard Gere’s iconic, Armani-adorned portrayal of a sexy male prostitute in “American Gigolo.”  The 1980 film became an overarching reference for the show’s costumes, informing its sophisticated color palette, clean lines, and suave sex appeal. ”It was more about the way that the kind of clothing made you feel, it was glamorous and sexy in a unique way,” Marsh explains, describing how there was no one costume or clothing item that referenced the film. 

“I know that Robert Mallory is described as this hyper-prep fantasy in the book, but we wanted to create something that felt a bit more traveled and subversive,” Marsh says. His version of Mallory incorporated the aesthetic of the New Romantic style with statement pieces like a black neck kerchief and leather pants. “The idea of infusing Mallory with the new wave and that kind of Duran Duran-esque element was exciting. It wasn't fashion that everyone could do, and there's something kind of intoxicating about that.” 

To capture the essence of Ellis’ exacting prose, Eyrich and Marsh went to great lengths to maintain period accuracy. The show drew from a healthy mix of vintage rentals in LA, contemporary reproductions of things that have been made the same since the ’80s, custom pieces, and reproductions of vintage pieces that were not in pristine enough condition to be worn by the wealthy characters that comprise the cast. When it came to putting each character in the perfectly fitting pair of denim, they drew from classic ’80s brands like Britannia, Gloria Vanderbilt, Martini, and Wrangler. For each pair that made it into the show, Eyrich recalls cycling through a rack of 20 potential options. 

The dichotomies within the friend group—Golden Boy Thom (Graham Gampbell) vs reserved writer Brett (Igby Rigney), uptight Susan (Kaia Gerber) vs fun-loving Debbie (Hayes Warner)— are heightened through their respective outfit choices. Using old prep school yearbooks for reference, they studied the ways that students styled and individualized their uniforms. Susan is often in frilly blouses and diamond earrings, while Debbie leans more toward late-70s glamour. “Debbie always has that extra button,” Marsh notes, “and Susan has an extra air of professionalism.” 

In the season finale, Mallory attends a black-tie party amidst the chaos of murders and breakups erupting around him, wearing a cropped jacket with wide-leg trousers and a dashing neckerchief with an open collar. Marsh describes the look as “pirate-forward,” drawing on the character’s reputation of dangerous, enthralling allure. “Susan has evolved the most by the finale, she has become more aware of her sexuality and has been dressing not only for her figure, but in a way that's more sensual and adult,” Marsh says. Gerber sports a purple silk jersey, single-shoulder silhouette fashioned with a belt. The custom build was created to accentuate her youth while still juxtaposing Debbie’s fabulous red “cupcake dress” based on a red mylar ballgown photographed in Studio 54.

“The Shards” resists fashion tropes by honing in on a specific subset of the ’80s. As Marsh says, the style in the show “is specific to West Coast elegance, yet it's also a direct result of culture being created by cinema itself.” He adds,  “The hope is that the clothes feel specifically West Coast in their feel and styling, yet elevated just beyond in fabrication and versatility, maintaining a connection to the literal pop culture of ’81.”