h en Sean Flanigan joined as the hairstyling department head in its first season, he drew inspiration directly from the real-life, late 19th century New York figures that influenced the HBO period drama, like Caroline Astor (Donna Murphy) and Alva Vanderbilt, after whom Carrie Coon’s character, Bertha Russell, is fashioned. “We follow the lead of the writers as a guideline of where to go and then as we research, we can play around with it,” says Flanigan. “It’s such a pretty, romantic period.
There’s lots of history and very elaborate sorts of hairstyles that were designed.” Flanigan chatted with about what it takes to re-create those historic looks (hint: lots of wigs) and giving each female castmember her own signature style. It’s hard because, historically, the styles are established, so we’re kind of pigeonholed into a specific look for this period.
We’re not really going to the fantasy side. That’s where falls in — and their work is stunning. They’re more playing around with styles and elaborate theatrical looks.
We’re trying to keep it more natural and in the right period. We’ve designed new money and old money to have a different feel. Carrie’s much more sleek, so I took some nods from other periods and twisted it a bit to give it a little more polish.
Then you have Agnes van Rhijn [Christine Baranski] and that side who’s old money and they’re very traditional but still fun and styled. Agnes is the one who had the money, so she got s.