DRAMATIC MATERIAL Dressing Lucy & Co. On Screen and Off
Tasked with creating wardrobes for Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in both their public and private lives, costume designer Susan Lyall was elated to learn about Lucie Arnaz’s documentary Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie . Packed with photos and film footage fromher parents’ personal collection, it includes a treasure trove of images of the couple spending private time with family and friends, which Lyall used as a starting point for her research. “Everybody knows Lucy,” says Lyall. “But in Being the Ricardos , we were able to explore who Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were off camera. That is a whole lot more interesting.” Ball, a Hollywood starlet before conquering the small screen, was a sophisticated woman whose friends
included Katharine Hepburn and Lauren Bacall, explains Lyall. “Her wardrobe needed to say that. When you think of Lucy, you remember the polka dot dress. It’s burned into our brains. But off screen, she was casually elegant and often in trousers.” Lyall captures the evolution of Ball’s style as well as changing fashion trends over more than a decade. For the scenes from 1952 , the designer uses a palette of pale greens, grays and browns inspired by a Jackson Pollock mural. “For Lucille and Vivian Vance, the silhouette is very structured. The 1950 s was all about having a little tiny waist, so we used a certain-style bra and a waist cincher.” For the flashback scenes from the ’ 40 s, the silhouette and colors are distinctly different.
into this cool California entertainment mogul and bandleader,” Lyall notes. Wardrobe for the pair’s television characters presented a different set of challenges. Replicating the show’s costumes meant sourcing vintage fabrics and hand-making certain elements. Another challenge: The show was filmed in black and white. To find the right color for a blouse Lucy wears in one episode, Lyall had a textile expert re-create the fabric in blues, greens and fuchsia to see which one worked best: “So something that’s on the screen for maybe six seconds required dozens of decisions.” Visit AmazonStudiosGuilds.com for an In-Depth Look at the Costumes
ON THE SET (above), the actors stay comfortable in stylish, informal threads. Below, at their Chatsworth, California, home, Lucy and Desi’s clothes ref lect their glamorous yet casual lifestyle.
COSTUME DES I GNS by Susan Lyall ensured that Kidman put her best foot forward as Lucille Ball and Lucy Ricardo.
“We pulled in jewel tones. It’s straightforward Hollywood glamour for evening dresses. The shoulders are wider, the dresses slinkier.” Arnaz, she says, was “sartorially gifted,” and his costumes include suits, tuxes and pieces from his stage act. “He always looked like a million bucks, which Javier embraced. He transformed
N I NA AR I ANDA’ S wardrobe goes from frumpy to fashionable in her dual role as housewife Ethel Mertz (right) and Emmy ® -winning actress Vivian Vance.
AS LUCY, Ball was one of the first women on television to wear trousers.
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