In ‘Sterling Point’ Summer Camp Vintage Meets NYC Cool Girl
Fashion
Fashion
Costume designer Marissa Schwartz explains how she transformed Annie Jacobson’s style from a Chanel-adorned “fish out of water” to a Muskoka local over the course of eight, binge-worthy episodes.
In the series of the summer, “Sterling Point,” Annie Jacobson (Ella Rubin) flees Manhattan for her grandfather’s cottage off Lake Muskoka, oblivious to the adventures that await her—and how to appropriately dress for them. Right off the bat, Annie's all-white travel outfit and silk It-girl outerwear mark her as an outsider, too pristine and strain-prone for a rural lake getaway. “It's such a good moment in the pilot when [Annie] gets on the plane and she's draped in her beautiful, dreamy Dries Van Noten coat, almost like a blanket, and takes her Ambien,” says costume designer Marissa Schwartz. “She was not dressing for the assignment,” she explains, noting that Annie’s wardrobe would be suited to high-society destinations like the Hamptons or St. Barts.
Ella Rubin in "Sterling Point."
Amazon
Going into the project, Schwartz knew that she didn't want the costumes to look like stock images of a YA television show. “It was super important to me to make sure that people who are watching the show saw themselves in it because when it comes to YA there's such a universal relatability to the story,” she explained. “I get tripped up if I'm noticing things that feel incongruent with the environment.” In order to get it right, Schwartz drew inspiration from candid NYC streetwear photography. Combining her knowledge of Toronto style, where there is “a distinct look to a downtown girl” with Rubin’s insight into NYC created a joint hit list of brands that informed Annie's character. The list included everything from Garage, Ardene, and Brandy Melville (pillars of every girl's childhood) to more niche brands like Paloma Wool, Cou Cou Intimates, and Gil Rodriguez.
Shop Our Annie-inspired Arsenal of Basics
For Schwartz, it was important to relay Annie’s wealth and access through her clothing while still staying true to the sensibilities of a high schooler. “We would infuse the Still Here jeans that you see in episode one with a tank top from Ardene, because she's a teen girl, right?” Schwartz says. “She still goes to Urban Outfitters and Brandy Melville, but then she sleeps in Leset pajamas or a cute little top from Cou Cou, showing this nice blend of elevation with general accessibility.”
Schwartz describes the course of her fittings with Rubin as “the merging of the basics.” Her search for the perfect basic white tank ranged from a $10 mall brand tank to a $200 designer one. “We landed with a ten-dollar tank top simply because it looked the best and it felt like the most authentic version of what a teen girl might actually put on her body for this travel day,” Schwartz says. “The dollar sign doesn't equal the best. Sometimes I'll get into that haze of like, it's expensive, so it must be better, but that's really not the case most of the time.”
When Chanel expressed interest in featuring its pieces in the series, Schwartz was intentional about only incorporating items from the fashion house that felt authentic to the character. In her view, no matter how wealthy, no teenage girl would be casually rocking a two-piece tweed set straight off the Matthieu Blazy runway. A Brandy Melville tank paired with classic designer accessories gifted by her dad, however, felt entirely believable—which is where Annie’s Chanel bag and watch come in. The Chanel dress Annie borrows from her wealthy friend’s mother is from the Spring/Summer 2023 collection and was written into the script as a piece that originally belonged to an older generation.
The cast of "Sterling Point."
Amazon
Amélie Hoeferle and Ella Rubin in "Sterling Point."
Amazon
The cast of "Sterling Point."
Amazon
Amélie Hoeferle and Ella Rubin in "Sterling Point."
Amazon
In episode three, Annie accessorizes a handmade vintage yellow tennis skirt and Flore Flore T-shirt with her signature Frye boots and blue suede Chanel bag. Occupying the mind of a teenage girl, Schwartz wanted an accessory that was more trendy than classic, opting for something she imagined a teenage girl would pick out from the current season’s runway as a birthday gift.
As Annie spends more time in Muskoka, she acclimates to the environment and starts to naturally adopt the style of her new friends on the island, and her adoptive mother who resided in the cottage. In episode six, Annie returns home from a night out and slips into a cozy T-shirt she finds lying around the cottage. “I fell in love with [the graphic] when our buyers brought it in. It is a white T-shirt with a print of these two seagulls flying, and it's this really soft artistic landscape that had such a rich depth to it.” Schwartz says. Because the graphic was printed on a Hanes T-shirt, its origin was difficult to trace. The clearance team eventually identified it as the work of a late artist whose family owned the rights and approved its use on the condition that the shirt be returned after production wrapped. “I get chills telling that story because there's so much of the same out there, and then you get to find these really unique, special things that have life.”
