A few years ago, or during fashion 5-6 collections ago, Vassilis Zulias presented a short jacket with an open large yellow brocade collar and two front pockets. It was a very impressive creation by the Greek designer, but “no one paid any attention to it”, as he says “K”. But that’s when Patricia Field introduced Vassilis Zulia to Darren Starr, the producer of the super-successful Netflix series Emily in Paris, which resulted in a yellow flowered jacket draped over Lily Collins’ shoulders one day. The rest is history. “To date, we have sold 1,000 pieces in Greece and abroad,” emphasizes the designer.

We are discussing yesterday’s roundtable on “Costume Design in Television”, the opening of the 4th Athens Fashion Film Festival (March 14-16) at the Athens Conservatory. Abroad, we are in the golden age of TV costume design, with TV shows creating fashion, making a statement and inspiring viewers. In Greece, we are undoubtedly experiencing the spring of TV series. Has the role of the costume designer been upgraded accordingly? “No,” answers “K” Maria Kontodima, costume designer for Kalytera Mas Khoni (ERT) and Old Caravan. “There are several professions that also add weight to the suit. In many shows, the point is to wear skirts and blouses so that the actor has to change.” In addition to “Our Best Years” – “I will cry when they end this year” – Mrs. Kontodima also singles out the series “Ten”, a TV adaptation of the novel of the same name by M. Karagatsis (“Alpha”, 2007). “This is my job that I rely on. The series and movies I made with Christoforos Papakaliatis were also excellent. I was focused on my work.”

In Maestro, Papakaliatis worked on costumes with Evelina Darzenda and Anna Zotou. As they say in “K”, lately it is beginning to be realized that the costume designer can be critical to the success of the series. “Clothing can help reflect a character’s personality and lifestyle, even define relationships between different characters. Subconsciously, the choice of clothing evokes a range of emotions in the mind of the viewer, helping the actor to maintain his role.

“Few works also attach great importance to the costume, in many TV shows they ask to wear skirts and blouses,” says Maria Kontodima.

Issues and research

Each work has its own problems and requires in-depth research. In Our Best Years, Mrs. Kontodima read History. “You have to know the economic socio-political environment in which you place the family. Her social status, her financial potential.” However, he considers modern series to be more demanding. “It’s very difficult to create a character,” he says. According to Evelina Darzenda and Anna Zotow, the main difficulty in modern productions is the uniformity in people’s clothes. “Today, we stand out only because of our aesthetics, regardless of social or economic background. Therefore, the difficulty for the costume designer is to “shape” each character with a separate, own style and elements that automatically make him unique. With Maestro, another problem was that the series is set in the summer, and filming lasted until February!

Series like “Emily in Paris” or the earlier “Sex and the City”, where clothing plays a major role, are an exception. Typically, the costume designer has to be the unsung hero, “disappear” into the rest of the ensemble. “You can’t steal the eyes of an actor, his performance, what the script and the director want to show,” emphasizes Ms. Kontodima.

Vasilis Zulias watches with awe the work of Greek dressmakers. “Recently we have seen some very wonderful costume productions like Wild Bees and Bracelet of Fire. I admire costume designers because I know the difficult conditions under which they work. They often buy clothes with their own money to get a good result. For “Emily” the clothes were paid for in advance, the budgets in these productions are not limited. Now I’m working with the same producer (Darren Starr) again on the Netflix series Glamour, starring Kim Cattrall, and on clothes that they paid for in advance.”