Lovecraft Country gets Emmy nominated for their costumes and we had a chance to speak to designer Dayna Pink

HBO may have canceled Lovecraft Country after only one season, but the series is going out swinging, snagging 18 Emmy nominations on its way out the door. But one category that we were really excited to see get nominated was costume design.

Earlier this year, we had a chance to speak to Dayna Pink, the Costume Designer for Lovecraft Country. It was a chance to get a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at what went into bringing this series to life, and also a chance to learn more about what it takes to make the looks on our screen work in terms of fitting the fashion of a period and the story you are trying to tell.

And even though HBO may have decided that they were not going to continue the story, it still seems important to shine a spotlight on the hard work that went into creating this unique Lovecraftian world on our screens. Knowing that Dayna Pink and her team’s work is being recognized by the Television Academy is just a bit of icing on the cake.

If you have ever worked with a costume designer, on the set of a production of any kind, or even just read interviews with designers, then you know that there is a lot of thought that goes into picking the right looks for a scene or setting. And with Lovecraft Country, it was as much about channeling the 1950s as it was adding in the little touches that make this drama a true science fiction horror.

Lovecraft Country’s Costume Designer Dayna Pink talks to Culturess about what went into bringing this series to life

One of the biggest things we wanted to know about the work that went into bringing Lovecraft Country to life was what inspired the looks that we saw in the series. And according to Pink,

"Well, we did research on the period, of course, and then from there, again there was a fantasy element to this show that we weren’t bound to just that period. So, we were inspired by that time, and then it was where are we, what’s the setting, what’s the story that we’re telling.You know we got to really do what we wanted to do, we had some room to play. So we’re really lucky to not have to just, look at the letter of what was happening at that moment and stick to it."

When it came to dressing the men of the series, while you might think that could be easy or even maybe boring, Dayna Pink has a background in men’s fashion so for her, this was something fun to work on.

And while we wanted to know if it was difficult to create looks for the men versus the women, according to her,

"I love men’s clothes. I have a background in men’s fashion. So, really, even though there’s less options than with women, it isn’t difficult. It’s all really interesting to me and again it’s the silhouette of the pant that was different. It was the fit of the suits that were different. There are different details and, you know different things that were happening in that period that aren’t happening today. But again, what is relevant today? What would, in today’s eye, look good and that’s what we focused on."

Considering Lovecraft Country is as much a period piece, as it is a fantasy and a horror drama, it makes sense that anyone working on the project behind the scenes would need to be able to capture all of that in a moment. And thanks to the costume design, it feels as if everything blended seamlessly (which is of course why they were nominated for an Emmy!).

In fact, one might argue that in a series like this, it would almost be harder to make it look like this was a science fiction set in the 1950s because of the limits to what someone in the 1950s might wear. And yet, thanks to Dayna Pink and her team, Lovecraft Country was able to beautifully bring together these elements of a period piece combined with Lovecraft horror. That doesn’t seem like an easy task and yet, they made it happen.

Of course, as with any costume work, we always want to know if there is a favorite look. And while it may be hard to pick one over the course of an entire season, we still had to ask Dayna if she had a favorite.

"Wow. I mean, there were several. The first looks of Ruby and Leti at the block party were two of my favorite things. Just trying to figure out who they were as characters at the beginning, and being able to create those. At that moment Ruby knew they were going to be seen and they were going to be on stage and so even though at the moment when Leti showed up, she didn’t necessarily know she was going to be on stage, but she came to make a splash. So, we really took those two looks very seriously, and thought a lot about them and created them, and changed them and switched them and they evolved until they were ready. Those are two of my favorites.Of course I love all the Hippolyta stuff from the ‘I Am’ episode. You know her warrior looks, and her dancer look, I love. And there’s so many.I love, love, love Atticus and the T-shirt, his first T shirt that he wore was the first piece I found for that whole show. And it was a vintage t shirt, and I just had picked it up and saw it and knew that that was going to be the base of everything he did. And it just worked on him beautifully and then we had to recreate it, so we made it with dye fabrics and we did it. But that was just him in a simple t shirt which said so much to me, that wasn’t white, it was seafoam, it was almost white but it wasn’t, it was all the perfect things."

Honestly, even a t-shirt can have an impact on a scene, and thanks to Dayna Pink and her creative team, we got some magic in those costumes. And whether it was a simple look or something more, it is obvious that Lovecraft Country was as much a labor of love for the costume team as it was the people who were actually on the screen as well.

What did you think of the costumes in Lovecraft Country? Are you excited by the Emmy nominations for the series? Let us know in the comments.