Mekel Bailey designed perhaps some of the most-watched costumes of the year. No small feat for the Netflix hit. Popularity aside for the compelling drama, the costumes had depth and history, and in the case of Martha (Jessie Gunning), a reflection of an unhealthy state of mind. The Baby Reindeer costume designer helps create both familiar and rich characters.
The reception to the Richard Gadd-created show is, as the proud costume designer put it, “surreal.” Gadd put full faith into Bailey. The faith paid off, resulting in some unforgettable costumes, sometimes mundane, sometimes terrifying, sometimes both — especially for Martha.
Recently, Bailey spoke with Immersive Media about how he chose to define the characters in the bleak world of Baby Reindeer.
Let’s start with Teri (Nava Mau). She’s the one character with a clear sense of self and identity. How’d you start with defining Terri?
Funny enough from my initial mood board for Teri, when you then look at the end result, they’re so far apart. In the beginning, only having the pilot episode, there wasn’t much about Teri in the beginning. She’s introduced later. Once we confirmed who the cast was, then we started to roll the ball with Nava and building that character.
It was really to define that she’s this element of joy to his life. There’s this funness to her. She brings in this new energy that he’s never had before and she’s a safe place, so trying to combine those two. So, you’ll see a lot of her in these crop tops, short mini skirts on the dates, but then in her day job or in the her house, once the fight has happened, you see more of this reformed person who’s quite put together still. It was a process Nava was very involved in, playing with different shapes.
Definitely the main thing for her was the crop tops, the color, this infusion of color, especially when you first meet Nava at the table when they’re having the dates.
I like the fact that Martha is very unsuspecting, just not someone you would immediately notice in day-to-day life. Was that the goal?
You never want it to be straight away so obvious, right? You don’t want her to be questioned. You want, “Oh, I never assumed, oh, I never saw that coming.” You didn’t want it to be such a straight thing from her costume. However, where you do see Martha depends on her different states of mind. How the costumes play into that. Whether it’s the prints or the florals or the animal prints or it’s full color, then we start to go a bit more gray and suck out the color when she’s really in the bad state. That’s what amplified Martha’s emotional state within the costume.
What questions did you have about who she is as a person? What did you need to answer to get her costumes right?
Well, there’s clearly a mental health issue with Martha along with many other tones, layers. She’s a a very layered character. There’s the element of that, these misshapes, this uncertainty what’s going on here, and kind of jumbling it all together. When you see these awful fits and everything doesn’t fit or it’s just put together very haphazardly, that’s consciously done knowing that, well, where is her state of mind?
So for example, the date scene in the cafe, very on in episode one, very happy. She’s dressed up for that. When you start to come through to episode five or six and she’s at the bus stop, we’ve sucked out the grays and those purples.
Like you said, a lot of Martha’s costumes don’t fit quite right. Did you go to a lot of secondhand stores?
I would say 95% of Martha’s wardrobe and the entire cast was predominantly secondhand thrift shops. Just everything had to be used, worn in already had its own story. I didn’t want nothing to be brand new because it just wouldn’t be right. It’s not a glossy commercial. It’s not a fashion shoot. It’s not a fashion story. It’s a true story, and for me personally, the only way to compliment that would be through real clothes, not clothes that you just buy and break down.
It has to have that little tear or that little thread loose that you’re like, please don’t fall apart. We only got one of you. But all of the costume format had to have that depth to it. So yeah, it was a trial and error going store to store, post-code to post-code, going all around London, day by day, week by week.
Some days it wasn’t good days. Some days I’d walk in with different charity shops and I wouldn’t find nothing, and then other days there’d be rails and rails of things or different options, but then always filtering it down. I’d find size first, then filter it down by the colors, and then I’ll build it and then select by that.
What about the 5% that was new?
The 5% of stuff that was bought would just be the undergarments or her leggings, her underwear, her bra, little things like that, just basics that you’re not going to see to the camera.
Let’s talk about Donny’s suit. It’s so sad. What was your vision for it?
It was meant to have many pockets in it, and it was meant to be very oversized. We played a lot with the shape. So, where it was the big shoulders, we went in and we went out and we went in and out. There was a lot of trying to understand what do we want this suit to say and how do we want to articulate that to the audience? So, then we lost the pockets. Then it was more about the shape of the shoulders.
So you’ll see it does slightly come out, and then it more kind of fitted around the body and then just making sure that the broken down a bit. When you look at it closely in certain episodes, you’ll see it is fraying at the cuffs, it’s broken down on the back, and there’s a bit of stain.
This suit is his safe place. He feels like a superman, because when he’s on stage as a comedian, that’s where he becomes his true self and he feels most free. When you take it off, then we reveal the true Donny.
Did he have a lot of photos for you or references or just anything Richard shared that helped you in research?
Not with the suit. I went to Richard’s house right at the beginning to his flat, and we sat down, we spoke about him, spoke about me, we spoke about everything. But then he also showed me his own closet and his own wardrobe. So, to get a true sense of how Richard dresses, who is obviously Donny, but how do we push the two and still make it separate, but still bring in elements of that?
What were the differences between Richard and Donny? How did you want them to meet in the middle?
Good point. Where did they meet in the middle? I guess just the not trying to be too loud, not trying to be in your face. That’s not Richard, and that’s not Donny either way. I think more with Richard in his day to day, it would be a bit more polished. With Donny, it could just be a bit more broken down and less care and attention to it.
The elements of where you bring in the true Richard is with his comedy hat, that was his true prop hat and little things like that. So, it was more the props. That was a true element of Richard.
When you’re out and about, do you ever look at what someone wears and think about what it says about them?
All day, every day. I was on the balcony about half an hour ago, just standing there, looking down and just watching everybody. Why do you have those shoes on? Why are you wearing that shirt? Little small things just say so much about human beings. When I’m on the train and on the bus, when I’m cycling my bike forever, I’m people watching. My mind starts to go wild with that, because I just think human beings in ourselves are just amazing when you just really take a moment to understand that.
But then, yeah, how individual we all are. We all have so much going on, but with clothes and with costume, what that can do for a person, whether it’s confidence, whether it’s hide in away, whether you want to be seen, whether you don’t want to be seen, having a hoodie up, all of these little things when you have your skin out and arms out, legs out, all of those sub context, what does that mean or evoke, or what are you trying to say?
Last question: What are you most proud of about your work on Baby Reindeer?
The most fulfilling part is the team element. There was such unison, especially within the costume team across all departments. For such a heavy emotional show, there was never a day where I’m like, oh, got to go to work today. Every day was a joy from the heads down to the bottom up. It’s a well-made show with well-made people, you what I mean?
Everyone is doing their best. Also, just the love and support from the producers. Matthew [Multo], Ed [Macdonald], and Matt [Jarvis], they really pushed me. I learned so much. Baby Reindeer is my longest job to date on a series. I had all that anxiety and fear in the beginning of, am I able to do this? Can I do this? By the end of it, having Richard and the team being like,”Mate, we just saw you just flew.” Amazing. That was definitely a huge accomplishment for me.
Baby Reindeer is available to stream on Netflix.
