10 Fashion Facts From Euphoria Season 2, According To Its Costume Designer

Sam Levinson was inspired by the anime series Cowboy Bebop’s Faye Valentine when writing up the character of the same name, played by Chloe Cherry, which also influenced the way Faye dressed in Euphoria. Bivens leaned on her assistant costume designer Angelina Vitto to create Faye’s look. “She grew up in Ventura County and a lot of pieces that Faye wears are things that felt nostalgic to Angelina,” says Bivens.

“Faye is someone who is shopping at thrift stores and is drawn to things that are sexy and cute and kind of pop on a thrift rack,” Vitto tells NYLON. “When sourcing her costumes I thought a lot about what kind of brands you find in a California thrift store: Roxy, Frankie B, Miss Sixty, Betsy Johnson, and random kids’ clothes.”

A direct reference to Cowboy Bebop was Faye’s Nike Uptempo sneakers, and Vitto finished her first on-screen look with a bootleg anime halter (another ode to the cartoon character’s signature style), a Miss Sixty denim pleated mini skirt, underwear from Santee Alley, knee-high socks, and Hot Topic jewelry. “We chose that look because it was fun and perfectly represented the Faye silhouette that we kept through the whole season,” adds Vitto.

As Cassie became more desperate for Nate’s attention in the second season’s third episode, Bivens knew that the script called for a total of five looks for the increasingly unhinged character. “The last look would be this Oklahoma one because the scene was written in the bathroom where the girls think she's auditioning for Oklahoma, so I knew that it needed to land that joke, but also that she actually wasn't auditioning for Oklahoma,” notes Bivens.

As a “beat” before Cassie’s memorable Oklahoma meltdown, Bivens came up with the idea of her wearing the same exact outfit as Maddy. “I wanted there to be this lead-up to the comedy, and so I pitched they would both be wearing similar outfits,” she says. Once given the OK from Levinson, Bivens dressed the two in a Maddy signature: a matching set. “Just to see Cassie in a matching set, I think, already signifies that she’s trying to emulate Maddy,” explains Bivens. “And then to put them both in similar but different outfits, I just thought that would be real comedy gold.”

Maddy’s first look in the second season, a little black cutout dress with matching long gloves, made waves online, catapulting Akna’s creative director and designer Aidan Euan into the Euphoria fandom spotlight. Bivens tasked Euan to create the custom look for Maddy — and she had Demie join the creative process, too, even fabric swatching together to find the right material for the dress.

“With any cast member, if I know that they will have an opinion, I love to involve them,” says Bivens. “Alexa is a great collaborator and she’s always willing to jump in and get involved whenever I’ve asked her to.”

With the pace of fashion moving faster than ever, creating a wardrobe for a show based in real time has its limits, too. When another new character, Samantha (Minka Kelly), came onto Euphoria that involved a scene with a walk-in closet full of clothes, Bivens opted to go the vintage route.

“I started thinking about using current fashion and I knew by the time the show came out, everyone would have already moved on to a new season. I mean, look, the show's airing during fashion month, right?” says Bivens. “So I thought, why not create this character of Samantha, the mother of the child that Maddy is babysitting, as a vintage collector? Then I could use anything and everything I would want in the closet, and I wouldn't have to stick to one aesthetic and have it make sense.” For Maddy’s outfit try-on montage, Bivens was connected to Demie’s friend Brynn Jones, who owns Aralda Vintage in Los Angeles, to help source some of the throwback looks.

When Maddy quits her babysitting job, Samantha giving her a gift from her fashion archive was a scene that was added in later. Bivens specifically chose the purple sequin Norman Norell dress because it was a color that she used a lot for Maddy in the first season.

“That matching set she wears in the carnival episode is a very similar purple — it's a royal color and I think Maddy's such a queen,” says Bivens. “It just always made sense to me that we would bring that color back in a strong way for the second season and that was the moment to do it.”

Bivens also believes that the gift choice was a nod to Samantha knowing that Maddy often spent time in her closet while on the clock. “It's Samantha’s wink, like, ‘I know you love this dress. I know you've tried it on,’” she says.

As “The Girl No One Could Get,” Lexi surprised the audience — and Euphoria viewers — by channeling a decidedly “hot” aesthetic.

“Although Lexi is referencing her sister, I had to tread delicately because there's been such a backlash to overly politically correct body positivity,” explains Bivens. “Whenever I'm working with characters and then changing their body somehow, like using enhancements to make some sort of story point, it's always something that I think about a lot. In relation to how it relates to Lexi's feelings about her sister, it completely made sense.”

To help drive home the fact that Lexi was now sporting bigger breasts and a curvy shape, Bivens made sure to dress her up in knitwear because it instantly clings to the body. “I knew I wanted a bright color, that I wanted [her outfit] to be knitwear, and that I wanted it to be some kind of halter situation,” she notes. (Lexi’s dress is from Nana Jacqueline.) “So usually I come up with design details that I want to exist in the garment, and then oftentimes with contemporary projects, I'll look for that piece in the world to see if it already exists. If it doesn't exist or I can't find quite what I'm looking for, then that’s usually when I'll build a costume.”

Though Kat’s presence was minimal this season, Bivens still made sure to tell her story through clothes. In Euphoria’s debut season, Kat (played by Barbie Ferreira) went through a major wardrobe transformation as she explored her sexuality; now, she’s going through yet another emotional journey, which is reflected in what she wears.

“She’s reverting back to her original, sort of emo, Thora Birch in Ghost World style,” notes Bivens. A great example of this is her bright green cardigan, Cramps band tee, and tie-dye skirt. “Monster high meets punk rock with a little bit of rockabilly thrown in. She’s reverting back to that original inspiration, but it’s more sophisticated.”

Hunter Schafer and Bivens are big supporters of Gogo Graham, an indie fashion label based out of Brooklyn. In fact, Schafer even made her return to the runway walking the designer’s Fall 2022 show during New York Fashion Week in February.

“We knew that we really wanted to have a Gogo moment, and with a lot of the scripts changing and scenes getting moved around, I knew that the final script for the play could be the moment because it takes place over two episodes and would get a lot of air time,” says Bivens.

In this particular season, Rue’s addiction and relationships took precedence over her wardrobe, but Bivens still made sure to include sartorial cues to accent her storyline. “I'm always looking for ways to create some sort of mood for the characters based on what they're going through psychologically and have sort of a visual roadmap for the audience of the character arc, if at all possible, without it feeling contrived,” says Bivens.

In the finale episode, Rue’s outfits may not be as fashion-forward as the rest of the Euphoria crew, but her hints of yellow — a T-shirt, a pair of pants — were a way to showcase a sense of hope for her future.

“As a costume designer, you're always looking for opportunities with each scene, with each episode, to build on what you've already started with the character. And with each detail, there's hopefully an opportunity to tell something about that character's inner psychology or something about their personality through what they choose to wear, how they choose to look,” says Bivens. “You'll see even with her hair and makeup, we're just making her look hopeful in some way. It goes for every department — that's part of that visual storytelling — all working in tandem, kind of like one big breathing, living organism that became the world of Euphoria.”