Running Point on Netflix: A Look at Kate Hudson’s Impeccable Style

Ten minutes into Running Point, Netflix’s new basketball comedy from Mindy Kaling, Elaine Ko, David Stassen, and Ike Barinholtz, I found myself making a mental shopping list: Statement belts. A slinky sweater dress. A croc-embossed leather two-piece set.

My proclivity to shop is surprising to no one, least of all me, but what was surprising was that I had been influenced by a TV show that is, on its face, about the sweaty, masculine, occasionally gaudy world of professional basketball. (Sex and the City, this is not.) But with Kate Hudson and Brenda Song in starring roles, the fashion inspiration just kept coming. I was unexpectedly energized about the prospect of a “professional wardrobe,” a concept I’d abandoned in the wake of COVID and work-from-home culture.

Running Point stars Hudson as Isla Gordon, the newly appointed president of a fictional Los Angeles basketball franchise called the Waves. The show is loosely inspired by Jeanie Buss, the president and owner of the LA Lakers. Like Isla, Buss is part of a basketball dynasty—her father, Jerry Buss, revolutionized the big business of the NBA during the ’80s—and she eventually took the reins of $7.1 billion franchise. Also like Isla, Buss faced sexism in the male dominated field, and was ruthlessly underestimated again and again.

One place their stories diverge? Their wardrobes. Where Jeanie was a California girl through and through, partial to denim and leather jackets, Isla is polished to the nines every single day—think suits, heels, and a perfect beat.

“When you work for Mindy Kaling, it’s always an aspirational show,” Salvador Pérez Jr., Kaling’s longtime collaborator, tells Glamour. “I went to the office of the Lakers, and how they dress is not how we did them. [But] they don’t have a full-time staff of 10 people to put the looks together for them. They put on what’s in their closets. For the show, we wanted to give the characters very specific looks.”

Realism, adds Perez, was not the goal. “Mindy always uses the word effortful, not effortless,” he says. Read on for more from our conversation, and stream Running Point on Netflix on February 27.

Warning, spoilers for season one ahead!

Glamour: Congrats on the show! It was really exciting to watch a delightful comedy that’s also filled with women who are fabulously dressed.

Salvador Pérez Jr.: Well, that’s why I work for Mindy Kaling, because she lets me do that.

Let’s talk about Kate Hudson’s character, Isla Gordon. What was on your mood board for her?

Isla started out as sort of the former party girl who was in Playboy Magazine, and wasn’t taken seriously, so we wanted her character to wear the clothes that were [already] in her closet.

When she first starts working in the office, she still has her party-girl clothes, but she’s having to make them professional. Her suits are much more refined towards the later episodes compared to the first suit she wears, that bright pink suit.

You don’t see her shopping, but you just assume that [she goes shopping] as she’s taking herself more seriously. She’s slightly inappropriate at first.

It was definitely like, [the Gordon brothers] are put together and polished, and the boys don’t change. Isla had an arc, and you see her grow throughout the season.

Tell me a little bit about those early Isla looks. Her “inappropriate” wardrobe even gets her in trouble at one point.

It’s always funny when you get a note from the writers like, “She has to be in a button-up blouse for that scene because the line is, ‘But it was only two buttons unbuttoned.’” You want her to look good in the scene, but it has to specifically work for the joke. So that comes first.

The writers were all panicked, and I’m like, “You guys, it’s just a button-up blouse.” But the top [needed to be from] Isla’s world. I think that the top was also sheer. It had to be slightly inappropriate. But [in her head] she’s like, “I’m just wearing a blouse.”

Where did you pull these earlier looks from?

Kate has a very particular sense of style, much like me. Having worked for Mindy Kaling for 15 years, I like a woman with a strong opinion. But what was great about Kate is that she came with her personal stylist, Sophie Lopez, so I was able to talk to Sophie a lot, and Sophie would be sending me pieces. As opposed to trying to interpret what Kate wanted, I had Sophie to help out.

So Sophie was there for the first few episodes to sort of show us, “these are the things she likes.”

The black and white houndstooth was Anine Bing, and then I brought in that Gabriela Hearst gray suit and the Generation Love tweed suit and that Sergio Hudson jacket. I found that in a clearance rack at Neiman’s. But I wanted her earlier clothes to not be as polished because she wasn’t as refined as she was towards the end.

What did that refinement look like? Was it about color, was it texture, was it being more covered up?

As you see throughout the season, there’s a lot of power suits, but her power suits were really chic. [Kate] is really good friends with the girls over at Favorite Daughter, Erin and Sara Foster, so towards the end of the season, all those fabulous suits are Favorite Daughter.

I know that Isla is loosely inspired by Jeanie Buss. Did Jeanie have any notes? Like, “Oh, that wouldn’t be possible to wear,” or something like that?

No. What I got from Jeanie and her assistant was the sort of protocol around the game, the boys, the teams, that kind of stuff. And then she would come to set and see how fabulous Kate was. She’s like, “I never dressed that fabulously, but thank you for making me look that good.” She always complimented how good Kate looked

Jeanie’s a really sort of casual, laid-back California girl, and Isla’s version of it was just very done. There was never an outfit that wasn’t thought through. It was always polished and put together and that was the fun part about it. And Kate was very involved.

Kate has very particular…I would lay out trays of jewelry as opposed to, “Here are your earrings.” Because when I worked with Mindy on The Mindy Project, I was like, “Here are two earring choices.” And then Mindy was like, “Okay, great.” [But] Kate wanted trays of jewelry and then she got to choose her jewelry depending on her mood.

Tell me a little bit about Brenda Song’s character Ali Lee’s wardrobe.

Brenda’s character said the most outrageous things, so you had to dress her seriously.

Even though her boss was kind of crazy and out there, [Ali] had to be the calm in the world. She was together, prim—she wore little tweed suits. I wanted her to be the antithesis of Isla. She had to be the calm in the storm.

I noticed she didn’t wear a lot of color.

The colors were a little more subtle, but also, Brenda is the tiniest human being. I didn’t know clothes came that small. She was always impressed that we found clothes that were small enough for her. Of course, we also do a lot of alterations.

Also, Kate’s tall, Kate’s 5’7”, and you put her in four-inch pumps, she’s 5’11”, and Brenda was 5’1” on a good day. So she was always in a stacked, six-inch heel. Even then, you have little tiny Brenda up against these 6’8” basketball players.

Tell me about Justin Theroux’s scarf. What’s the story there?

It’s so funny, when we started this, Justin was at a resort in Mexico. We were talking about the character [wearing] Yves Saint Laurent and all that kind of stuff. But he’s like, “I’m at this resort in Mexico and they gave us these really great cashmere scarves and I’m obsessed with them.” He’s like, “I want the character to wear scarves [when he’s in rehab].”

Well, anybody who knows me knows that I don’t leave the house without a scarf and I was like, “Oh girl, I’ll get you a scarf.” It became this whole thing about cashmere layers. He was totally going, “I’m zen, I’m in rehab, but my rehab is Buddha beads and cashmere scarves and cashmere twin sets.”

It was so absurd, but he just loved it because it was like, “Here, have some more cashmere.”

And he wanted white Birkenstocks and white Crocs. [Co-creator] Dave Stassen hated it. He’s like, “No, I want him in black and Yves Saint Laurent.” I’m like, “Yes, when he’s not in rehab, he’ll wear Yves Saint Laurent.” But in rehab, we had so much fun. We went to the Krishna store and got him Buddha beads. I ran into him at the premiere and he was like, “Man, the scarves stole the show, Sal.”

I have a question about Kate’s look, specifically when she’s going to Lev’s ball, she’s wearing that gorgeous corset gown. In the scene she’s ripping her bra off while she’s getting out of the car—

We had to engineer all of that. I’m like, “You guys, she really wouldn’t [get dressed like] that in a car.” They’re like, “Yeah, but it’s funny.” I’m like, “Okay.”

But watching her do it… Kate is a beautiful woman and there’s a Lucille Ball quality to it. Lucille Ball was so beautiful, but her comedic shots—if she had to fall down, tumble over, she was so game for it. I think that people don’t realize what a triple-threat Kate Hudson is, until this show. Because she’s funny, she’s beautiful. And again, watching her do that scene over and over again, we were cracking up.

Any shopping tips for people who might want to emulate Isla’s office wardrobe?

The rule that we followed is that we never tried to hide her femininity. We embraced it.

Because it’s a business world, why do women have to dress masculine? Why can’t you wear a fabulous feminine suit in the business world? And we should change the conversation and let women be women and be beautiful and powerful in their femininity.

It’s a lot of effort [to dress that way], and that’s why Mindy always uses the word effortful, not effortless. And why not put the effort in? I think that if you go to work dressed as a boss lady, isn’t that going to empower you? Aren’t you going to have a better time if you’re dressed fabulously? Aren’t you going to have more authority when you’re dressed fabulously? And I think that was Kate. Isla had to be in charge and forceful, and people had to respect her. So it was like, make her impeccable.

I totally agree. After working from home during COVID I hit a point where I was like, “I don’t want to wear sweatpants anymore.”

COVID took [getting dressed up] away.

I couldn’t do the Mindy Project today because the clothes aren’t out there. People have gotten very casual. They’re working from home. Trying to find a pencil skirt that’s not black does not exist. I cannot find a colored pencil skirt anywhere.

People have gotten very safe and comfortable and casual and I want to change it. That’s why we did this world where people went to work, put together and polished. Isla never wore denim, ever. And LA is such a denim place.

As a former Angeleno, I was going to say…

Yeah. I’m like, “No, we’re not doing denim. Just as a rule, we’re not doing denim.” I wanted this to be effortful so everybody dressed.

So are you a sports guy now?

I’ve become a sports guy. Look, give me a six-foot tall, handsome man in basketball, I’m happy.

Running Point is now streaming on Netflix.

Courtesy of brand