Breaking Down the Gritty Glamour of Netflix's "Griselda"

Sofía Vergara doesn’t do anything small, and her latest project, Griselda, is no exception. The new Netflix miniseries (now streaming) is a sweeping look at the life of Griselda Blanco, the powerful Colombian crime boss and onetime queen of the cocaine trade. There’s something inherently glamorous about the era that Griselda encompasses in its eight hour-long episodes. It’s Miami! It’s the 1980s! When fashion was fashion!

Citing films like The Godfather, Gloria, Scarface, and Cocaine Cowboys as inspiration, co–costume designers Sarah Evelyn and Safowa Bright-Asare pulled plenty of period-accurate vintage for this film, including original pieces from Versace, Genny (Gianni Versace’s employer before he started his own brand), Saint Laurent, and Halston.

But the genius of Griselda’s costumes isn’t about getting lost in the drug-fueled grandiosity of the show’s plot—each costume here demonstrates a degree of restraint, maintaining Blanco’s humanity and never going too over-the-top. So while Vergara plays the part and looks great doing it, we the audience are never too taken in by the glamour. Blanco knows a thing or two about fashion—and certainly has the money to afford it—but she never lets a good look get in the way of getting the job done. The fashion here is real and authentic without being a caricature. We caught up with the costume designers for an inside look at how they brought the infamous drug lord to life.

This is a huge show. Lots of extras, lots of changes, it’s a period show. Was it difficult to source everything?

Sarah Evelyn: Any period show is big, but the thing that happens is that the way the collective consciousness [of Hollywood works], when there is one show in a given period, there are 10 shows in that period. So all the designers are vying for stuff from the costume houses. You have to sleuth around, because there’s only so much period clothing out there and there are multiple shows competing to get it.

Casting all of those extras for a period show must be tough. It’s not like a pedestrian scene in modern-day New York, where everyone can just wear whatever. Every detail—even what we see at a distance for half a second—needs to be accurate.

SE: From a costume perspective, we were truly trying to give every effort to build that world out … and a lot of the cast was from Mexico and Colombia and traveled last minute, so we were fitting most of the cast a week before shooting. But I felt like they needed to walk into our fittings and have it feel like a cocoon.

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What do you mean?

SE: We filled the fitting rom with pictures from the ’70s that inspired us, and we also made special playlists to play during fittings. As a costume designer, I feel like a mother to these characters. It’s my job to help this character come alive and grow and flourish. The best collaborations are when you show people that you are really dedicated to their space and time. Especially when you’re first meeting people, they don’t know you, so you need to build that trust really quick, with a cocoonlike environment.

What was it like to collaborate with Sofía Vergara?

SE: Sofía is a force. I feel like Sofía has this totally inspirational combination of “directed, direct, knows what she wants,” but is also soft, yummy, and loving and nurturing. She has this real amazing feminine force. And she has this very visceral reaction to costumes. She understands, “Yes, this is the character; no, this isn’t the character.” When Sofía put the clothing on and inhabited it, she really would feel what was Griselda and what wasn’t. Not every actor is as true to their character as Sofía was with Griselda. When she was making choices, she chose what looks right for Griselda, not necessarily what looks good on Sofía—not that anything could ever look bad on her! But it really wasn’t about Sofía. It was about Griselda.

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Was there anything in particular Sofía gravitated toward?

SE: Sofía really gravitated towards the wrap dress and Diane von Fürstenberg silhouettes, which in a way is so Griselda—very late ’70s, very groundbreaking. DVF was one of the first designers that started making this casual, effortless, day-to-night clothing for women. You could work in it, but also go have sex in it, then have a walk-of-shame walk and look great. In some ways, Griselda is a very modern woman, so, like, my mind was blown to have witnessed that creative synchronicity.

Are there any special vintage pieces we should watch out for?

SE: Torso Vintages [in San Francisco] sourced these fantastic Versace and Genny pieces—Genny was where Gianni Versace designed before he stated Versace. There’s also Halston and YSL in there. There’s this one scene where she’s wearing a brown leather skirt and a light brown shirt with a little bit of pattern in it—that’s Versace.

What were some of the logistical challenges you encountered while shooting?

Safowa Bright-Asare: When you’re shooting something contemporary and you have someone in a beautiful Tom Ford suit, you can go and get a knockoff for the stunt double and get away with it being not the same brand, because it’s only being seen quickly. But when you’re doing period clothing, you don’t have that luxury—you have to plan super far ahead to have things custom-made, so you have duplicates. When you’re working with vintage, you’re lucky if just one of something exists. It’s very rare to have multiples on hand.

A period film with so many stunts! That must have been challenging to costume.

SBA: Without giving anything away: We have one scene where a character overdoses and falls onto a glass table, and of course the actor has a stunt double for the stunt. But our stunt coordinator told us [the stunt double needed] to have their arms covered, because the stunt double needs to wear a wetsuit underneath the costume. And our actor has the best body and wears clothes so well that it was difficult for us to compromise and cover them up. Things like that.

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When a stunt coordinator tells you that you need to hide a wetsuit underneath a costume, how does that impact your costuming decisions?

SBA: In a perfect world, that message comes early on. If you have a great stunt coordinator, they’re communicative and you can reverse-engineer and design around it. What was unique about this production was, we were really fortunate to have a great deal of prep. In this day and age, it’s unusual to have more than 10 to 14 weeks of prep. But we had extra time to really build that background and research and deep-dive into the time periods. We’re not always able to do that, especially in this day and age, with how productions are planned. In general, it’s just amazing when you turn around and everything from the signage on the doors to what people are wearing, to the wigs, to the set dressing—everything looks like a step back in time. It’s really exciting to see everyone on a production come together.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Todd Plummer is a Boston-based writer who covers style, entertainment, and travel. He is a graduate of McGill University and Saint John’s University School of Law.

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