'Materialists': Behind the Fashion and Beauty of Summer's Most Stylish Film
Beauty
TSS Talent
Katina Danabassis
Costume designer Katina Danabassis and makeup artist Emma Strachman speak to The Set Set about how they brought director Celine Song's stylish love triangle to life.
Director Celine Song's second feature film, "Materialists" is 2025's stylish, feel-good summer film starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans. What at first appears to be a straightforward ode to a shiny Y2K rom-com—complete with soft lighting and a simmering love triangle—unfolds into a dissection and commentary on the category and on love's role in the reality of today's often transactional and optimized relationships.
Dakota Johnson in "Materialists"
"The idea was for Lucy's makeup to feel effortless but not overly glamorized."
It's also way sleeker than your average 2000s-era rom-com. "When speaking with Celine, we talked about how it's a classic love story and about making a choice between true love and material things," Katina Danabassis, costume designer for the film, tells The Set Set. "It's having to choose between the guy who is going to give you everything and the guy who is going to be your heart, so it's going to exist in the canon of rom-coms, but it's going to be smart and it's going to be chic because it's Celine."
The smart stylishness of "Materialists" is the result of a team effort between Song and the creative team coming together behind the scenes. The Set Set spoke to two of them—Danabassis and Johnson’s makeup artist Emma Strachman—on how they pulled it off, and how fashion and beauty helped create a world we can simultaneously get lost in, relate to, and fall head over heels in love with.
"This is a Silver Movie"
One line from the director put the wheels in motion for Danabassis. "She called it a 'silver movie,' and to me, that means cool tones," she says. That directive applied to many visual aspects of the film but for Danabassis, her mind went immediately to jewelry. "Lucy only wears silver," she says. This includes the silver chain and hoops she wears to work, the vintage Gucci ring and Erin Meuchner Cascade Oval Hinge Collar she pairs with her strapless blue Proenza Schouler dress when meeting Harry for the first time (and running into John), and the heart ring she wears every day—her "good luck charm," (and also vintage), adds Danabassis.
For a majority of the film, Lucy's wardrobe is full of cool-toned pieces in shades of black, navy, gray, and cream, although look closely and you might notice a shift in color palette during flashbacks and as the film progresses. "You have the city world of commerce, value, and transaction and that's Lucy's business self," explains Danabassis. "And then you return to John and you see her in florals and saturated colors; this is the romantic world and what is true to her heart."
Lucy's makeup also echoed this cool-toned directive. "I wanted her makeup to feel harmonious with the clothes and in the rooms and spaces her character occupies. Anything too warm would have looked harsh," says Strachman, whose mood board was full of '90s supermodels like Christie Turlington and Kate Moss, and the Olsen Twins circa the early 2000s. "We weren’t going full nineties, though. The idea was for Lucy's makeup to feel effortless but not overly glamorized," she explains.
Working Girl
Lucy's fashion and beauty look was all about crafting a visual identity that would help us get to know who she is: a driven, hardworking woman who has to be able to move seamlessly between her personal and professional worlds. She's the type of person many people can relate to (minus the whole going on dates with Pedro Pascal thing), which was entirely the point.
"Celine wanted Lucy's character to feel like an everywoman," explains Strachman. "That meant we had to make the character feel very grounded, visually." Through clothes, that meant building a stylish-yet-practical wardrobe with a mix of high and low brand names. Danabassis went on shopping sprees at Zara, Uniqlo, and Aritizia, but also on the Outnet, Net-a-Porter, and at her go-to vintage shops. Gucci—a designer Johnson works closely with—sent clothes for them to choose from, too. "There were some amazing things but we had to choose pieces that made sense for the character. It couldn’t feel too fashion."
What it needed to feel like was a chic capsule wardrobe that would allow Lucy to move between worlds. For work, she needed to be able to approach millionaire clients and look the part, but not in a way that was too flashy or sexy. "She's not the option, she's working for these clients, so she needs a simple closet," says Danabassis. "To me that means a classic, tried-and-true wardrobe. It's a fairly reduced color-palette. It's nice button ups, nice, high-quality basics, really good jeans and t-shirts. Just nice, beautiful pieces."
As for makeup, Lucy's needed to look fresh and not overly done, but still freshly made up. "She's a woman who wears makeup," says Strachmen. "People use makeup in many ways but it can be empowering and used like armor. For Lucy, I felt it helps her get into the mindset of: 'I'm going to have a great day. We're going to make matches, people are going to fall in love and I'm going to crush my job.'"
Real-Life Inspirations
Danabassis had a few iconic New Yorkers in mind when putting together the looks for "Materialists." John F. Kennedy Jr. heavily influenced Harry's wardrobes, which was full of pieces from designers like Elder Statesmen (his knits), Zegna (his tuxedo), Ralph Lauren Purple Label (his "countryside" jacket), Brooks Brothers (his undershirts), Darius Jewels (his emerald-and-gold signet ring), and Hermès (among other things, his boxers).
Lucy had a tinge of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy; her mother, Melanie Griffith, in "Working Girl," as well as one very stylish New Yorker Danabassis once spotted walking down Bowery several years ago. "She was wearing a skirt suit and thigh-high platform boots and I was like, my God, I don’t see that every day," says Danabassis. "From that moment on, I wanted to put someone in a skirt suit and I felt this was the perfect opportunity—Lucy had to wear a skirt suit the first time we saw her." It took a lot of searching but the final look was made up of a silk shirt, oversized Aritizia blazer, and vintage Versace skirt that Danabassis tailored to be shorter, ensuring the ensemble felt like a bad bitch on her way to work in 2025 versus 1980s cosplay.
For Chris Evans' character John, Danabassis wanted him to look like a guy who has lived in Brooklyn for a long time and has a bit of a uniform. Nearly all of his clothes are vintage pieces Danabassis sourced around the city, from his Levi's jeans to his Carhartt jacket. "Celine mentioned she wanted to see that he's been wearing the same clothes for a really long time, even his hole-y boxers," says Danabassis. One of her favorite pieces for John is his "Silence Equals Death" t-shirt, not just for its "amazing graphic," but also because it comes with an important message—the pink triangle was an important symbol of allyship during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
Many of the agents from the matchmaking agency are also inspired by people both Song and Danabassis have met over the years—from Song's experience working as a matchmaker to a matchmaker Danabassis met at a birthday party once. "There's all different kinds of girls in there—the goth, the sweetie, the one who wears streetwear—so it's just this interesting melting pot of different people and styles."
New York Will Always Be a Character
Celine Song, Dakota Johnson, and Chris Evans on the set of "Materialists"
"If you're making a movie in New York, the city is always a character."
"If you're making a movie in New York, the city is always a character," laughs Strachman. "There's a bullishness about living in New York, especially a character like Lucy who is very driven and passionate about their job, so I think that was an important energy to encompass in the way she looks."
To capture this energy and the everyday reality of New York, Strachman reached out to friends who w
ork in business in New York City and asked them to take her through their makeup routine. "A lot of them don’t wear a ton of makeup, they have maybe five products they’re obsessed with." To create a look that felt polished but still effortless—a little bit like if Lucy had done it herself, 10 minutes before she has to run out the door—Strachman relied heavily on foolproof cream formulas from companies like Westman Atelier, MAC, Rare Beauty, and Victoria Beckham Beauty, all brand names you'd totally expect to find in a New Yorker's makeup bag in 2025.
For Danabassis, capturing the essence of New York meant using a lot of black in Lucy's wardrobe, often a big no-no for film. The trick was finding pieces that had dimensionality in the form of a print or a texture, like the Another Tomorrow fringed skirt Lucy wears when whisked off to Harry's apartment for the first time. "The camera doesn’t always love black, but if you use it strategically, it has a lot of power."
The Jewelry Tells the Story
For a film as sleek and sophisticated as "Materialists," blatant sartorial references to love and romance would feel clunky and out of place. Instead, Danabassis used jewelry and prints to subconsciously reference the rom-com nature of it all. In pivotal scenes with John, Lucy's wearing florals — a blouse and a dress, both Dôen — and if you look closely, you'll spot her wearing a few secret silver hearts, like the one dangling her ring and the necklace she sports in a few key scenes throughout the film (with both John and Harry).
Even more subtle is the fact that Lucy wears silver jewelry and Pedro wears gold. "It’s a small detail but it's doing a bit of signaling," says Katina. "I don’t mind mixing metals, but traditional people don't, so you can make a bit of a jump and say alchemically, the two of them are not a match."
