The Hidden Messages in Hulu's Paradise Costume Design

Forbes

07-05-2025

Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) and Samantha "Sinatra" Redmond (Julianne Nicholson) face off in Hulu's 'Paradise.' Courtesy of Hulu/Disney
Paradise has a deceptively simple premise. Deep within Cheyenne Mountain, a la Stargate , a much more old fashioned version of science fiction, construction has been secretly going on. Underground a cabal of uber wealthy CEOs has created a version of Eden, or More's Utopia , just in case the world falls apart. Of course the world then falls apart. It's a well written, rather timely series, and the excellent costumes add depth and dimension to the series which could not be achieved any other way.
I met with the costume designer for the series' first season, Sarah Evelyn, to talk to her about the incredibly nuanced series, about deciding how to dress the inhabitants of this Brave New World, especially since it is riddled with literary and cinematic Easter Eggs, tiny references woven into the narrative in a seemingly endless series of winks and nods from show creator Dan Fogelman.
'It was interesting to think about how you would plan for that many people to move somewhere,' Evelyn told me, 'where there wouldn't be clothing readily available and how you would start those kinds of really important systems because we need to be dressed. I really thought a lot about how the clothing and the visuals would really do a lot of supporting. Like the social stability of these people who had just gone through a humongous trauma, must be on the edge, don't know what's going to happen, completely insecure. I thought that so much of the plan would have been how to keep the social fabric intertwined enough so that no one would want to take it down.'
President Cal Bradford (James Marsden) before his cabinet. Courtesy of Hulu/Disney
Ira Levin, the 20th century master of horror, is an immediately obvious reference. The saccharine, saturated palette evokes a novel that became a film twice, disturbing generations of readers and audiences alike.
'I think that there definitely was a Stepford vibe,' Evelyn said, 'because that reflected what was happening in the dome. But we thought to ourselves, you know, okay, if this was going to happen, there would be someone who was in charge of production design, basically. And that person would have a creative designer working under them. And they would have a head of textiles working under them, because you would have to procure all this stuff to be ready to receive all sorts of people underground in a world that you want to make feel very normal. Because I felt like that would be really important for social stability. And the clothing would be super important for social stability. Not only would it be things that you would want to biodegrade naturally, or things that you could reuse again, you'd want to have nice, peaceful colors. You'd want to have simple silhouettes. You'd want to have things that almost referred back to a more nostalgic time, like the 1950s and 60s. And then, as time went on, I felt like it would be the kids that started to kind of put these things together in new ways, you know, and that would start style and fashion trend in the dome. And so we did a lot of that.'
Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) and Presley (Aliyah Mastin) in "Paradise." Courtesy of Hulu/Disney
Watching the series, Evelyn's diligent efforts shine through in the tiny details, like the hairstyle on our main character's daughter, Presley (Aliyah Mastin). Her hair is beautiful, it obviously took effort and skill. It is hair that evokes memories of staying up too late with one's teenage girlfriends, doing each other's hair and nails. She feels like a real person, and Mastin's excellent acting benefits from Evelyn's thoughtful character design. I was very curious about the youngest generation in this mountain bunker. Why there were uniforms at their school, how the kids would adjust after one reality ends and another begins. How that would come across in the clothes.
'I felt like there would definitely be uniforms,' Evelyn said, 'because you're trying to make everyone feel very normal. You're trying to make everyone feel very much on the same level. A couple of years ago, I worked in Australia and my kids came with me. In Australia, everybody wears uniforms and you have one uniform and you wash it once a week. I also felt like that would be necessary. Had I been in charge of a world like this, I would have made the same decision. I would have felt like everything that had to do with clothing would be both creating a sense of comfort, but giving people enough leeway, the kids enough leeway, the creative people enough leeway, to feel like they could do something with it. That they could have some freedoms. I thought there would be a lot of cotton T-shirts and sweatpants and things with plastic that you could grow into and grow out of and give to someone else. Or cut up or whatever.'
President Cal Bradford (James Marsden) and Agent Collins (Sterling K. Brown) walk past a Marine in the White House. Courtesy of Disney/Hulu
Since many of the characters in this show are Secret Service, including our wonderful protagonist Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown), and those they protect, there are obviously a lot of suits. Speaking very generally, men's clothing hasn't been very decorative for the last hundred and fifty years. The Business Man in his Suit is very much a thing, we can all imagine him easily, and in great numbers it would be easy for characters to seem to blur, or for details intended to lead to inference to be mixed.
'Those things are so nuanced,' Evelyn told me about the spectrum of beautiful bespoke menswear. 'A lot of the time I think it is about the tailoring. It's about the collar. It's about the shoes. It's about the tie. You know, you can't costume amazing acting. That's one thing that I feel like Sterling really has, just so much depth and so many layers. I felt like one thing I could really do for him and do for the character, I feel like whenever there's a character like this, I definitely like to think about kind of like the lexicon of cinema and who these men have traditionally been in cinema. So like always going back to thinking about important heroes in cinema. And thinking about that kind of tailoring. And then also thinking about the person that I'm working with and what's happening in the story. Good tailoring, choice of lapel, choice of whether it's single-breasted or double-breasted, choice on collar and choice on tie does a lot. I definitely did not put him in a spread collar. I definitely put him in a point collar. And kept the tailoring really simple, kept the suits really simple. I kept the ties pretty simple. I felt like he was understated and under the radar and wasn't interested in getting the attention and was really interested in being like a man who lived by these morals and beliefs that he really prescribed. And then just letting him do the rest.'
Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) and Samantha "Sinatra" Redmond (Julianne Nicholson). Courtesy of Hulu/Disney
'I really love suiting, but suiting is really, really hard,' Evelyn told me when I asked her about the challenge of keeping all these characters distinct. 'I'm obsessed with watching videos about Savile Row tailors. In my next life, I want to be a Savile Row tailor. I feel like suiting is the most interesting, like, three-dimensional engineering. Many, many suits, most suits that come off the rack, do not fit American men especially well. It was really important to me to have really well tailored suiting, which means we did a lot of custom made and we did a lot of really particular alterations, which I think makes the difference on TV. '
I asked her why that was, why the tailoring and cut of the suits added so much, because they make an undeniable difference. A crisp professional air is implied by the presence of anyone wearing clothing made to fit their specific body.
'I think we actually aren't that used to looking at well-tailored clothes,' the designer said thoughtfully. 'I don't mean that in a pretentious way at all. I say that in a craftsperson way, because so much is fast fashion now and because things that are bespoke are so expensive, unfortunately, and that these are really actually very, very beautiful crafts that we're losing. I mean, talk about the importance of the crafts. Talk about the importance of tradesmen. So getting to really work on that, and having the production really support that idea was just really meaningful, and who doesn't feel amazing in a well-tailored suit?'
Nicole Robinson (Krys Marshall) in "Paradise" Courtesy of Hulu/Disney
Of course, it is not only men who wear suits. There are many things this show does exceptionally well, but my favorite part is the character development we are treated to throughout, and how tightly those transitions are connected to wardrobe. In the real world, and in the world of Paradise , it is not always a simple thing, to know who is good or bad, or what those words even mean. Samantha Redmond (Julianne Nicholson), AKA 'Sinatra' to the Secret Service, is a perfect example. We learn early on about the horrific trauma that created a woman capable of literally building a new world.
'With Sinatra,' Evelyn explained, 'it was really important to do really good tailoring; she was dressing to portray a message. And the message was kind of like, I'm soft and I'm really strong. You don't need to worry. I got this. Sometimes she would have strong shoulders, but she would also have maybe a little bit of a drapier blouse. One idea that I thought was interesting about the character that we tried to show in the costumes was that people are capable of both being monsters and not being monsters. As much as that's a really uncomfortable thought, I would really prefer to think that people were absolutely a good person or a bad person. I don't like the idea that those two things can reside together. But I think in her they did. I think she was very damaged by her life experience, got very rigid. She had come up, she became a founder. I feel like once you're a founder, you learn how to sell. And in a lot of ways, she was a saleswoman. And she dressed the part.'
Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) and her son at the grocery store. Courtesy of Disney/Hulu
Cognitive dissonance is something hard to sit with. Perhaps that's why it feels so important, so vital, maybe especially given the current state of the world. Living in the future is a very weird experience, and we see a pretty clear reflection of how that could go with Paradise . How do you dress an antagonist, a probable villain, a self-described monster, without resorting to cliche, without making the character into a parody or caricature?
'I think it's like the little things,' Evelyn told me. 'For example, when she was at the fair, you know, we saw her in jeans and T-shirt. And it's like, you know, when you see her it is something very, very relatable. And then later we see her in a Saint Laurent suit. That's got a little bit of a gangster vibe because it's houndstooth.
Agent Robinson (Krys Marshall) in "Paradise." Courtesy of Hulu/Disney
I asked Evelyn if this show was science fiction and it was obvious how much she enjoyed thinking about that question. Apparently the show was originally pitched in a way that was much more genre, but evolved over the time production takes. After all, the real world is feeling more and more dystopian every day, and art does its work best in contrast to reality.
'I used to really like to read science fiction, actually, like, as an escape. And I have to say, I am feeling different because I feel like science fiction is not an escape right now. I feel like an escape is things like Fast and the Furious . Stories that were clear about good and bad. And you knew the good guy was going to win, even though it was going to be a little hard, you know?'
I understood exactly what she meant and I am sure you will too. After all, it was not that long ago that fascists wore uniforms or arm bands, or at least understood the power of a well tailored suit.
Poster art for Hulu's "Paradise." Courtesy of Disney/Hulu
The full first season of Paradise is available now on Hulu. A second season was greenlit earlier this month. MORE FROM FORBES Forbes Thousands Of Costumes Were Handmade For Amazon Prime's 'House Of David' By Rachel Elspeth Gross Forbes Janie Bryant Recreates The End Of The Wild West For Paramount's '1923' By Rachel Elspeth Gross Forbes In 'Watson' The Costumes Help Make A Medical Mystery Unlike Any Other By Rachel Elspeth Gross