In the Apple TV series “Margo’s Got Money Troubles,” Elle Fanning plays the title character, a young woman who drops out of college when she discovers she’s pregnant from a fling with her English professor. To earn a living as a single parent, she channels her creativity into the Hungry Ghost, a green-skinned retro-futuristic alien character modeled after the fembots of the 1960s (think “Barbarella” and “The Jetsons”) that she debuts on OnlyFans.
Margo is the child of a flamboyant former Hooters waitress, Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer), and a former professional wrestler, Jinx (Nick Offerman), so she understands the value of visual impact. “She comes from a world of people who dress the part, like her mother and her father, and they know what to wear to get what they want,” costume designer Mirren Gordon-Crozier said. “She falls into that quite easily.”
Because Margo is working with a limited budget and the amateur sewing skills of her roommate Susie (Thaddea Graham), the custom-created Hungry Ghost costume looks intentionally homemade. It’s made of silver spandex (a nod to Jinx’s wrestling world), a clear vinyl miniskirt and chunky boots that Gordon-Crozier found in a rave shop and decorated with moons and stars. For the shape of the bra, “I really wanted cone because it’s kitsch, and there’s a lot of humor in her OnlyFans videos,” Gordon-Crozier said.
Rico Nasty and Lindsey Normington play Margo’s OnlyFans mentors, who appear in her videos as cowgirls dressed in pink lace bodysuits with bedazzled gun holsters and sporting braids that stretch to the floor. “I asked Jaime (Leigh McIntosh), the hair person, if she would make their hair into lassos,” Gordon-Crozier said. “That’s the fun of it.”
Welcome to the Jungle
Shyanne has a closetful of animal prints. “They say leopard is a neutral,” Gordon-Crozier said with a laugh. “We did a lot of secondhand shopping for her because her style is out of date. She’s still wearing the pleather leggings and the knee-high boots and the fur vest, like a Real Housewife — you know, Orange County, 20 years ago.”
While Shyanne is the show’s most enthusiastic fan of the big-cat theme, it pops up as a unifying motif for several characters. The ex-wrestler lawyer Lace (Nicole Kidman) sports a vintage Dolce & Gabbana acid yellow and black tiger-print dress; Jinx rocks a number of leopard- print T-shirts; and Margo dons snakeskin-print pants and a matching jacket. “She has more of a funky style than her mother and father, like vintage eclectic,” Gordon-Crozier said. “But I wanted to tie them together with prints and fabrics.”
A Teddy Bear in Disguise
Jinx’s style, like his ex-wife’s, is frozen in time, dating back to his heyday in the ring. “With his wrestling background, what would he be attracted to? Leather and flashy patterns,” the designer said. “But he’s obviously very soft inside and not at all like his hard exterior as a wrestler. So we wanted his home clothes to be, like, his faded Jinx tank top and T-shirt.”
He also wears short-sleeve, button-down shirts in a variety of loud, colorful patterns, all sourced secondhand. “Those shirts aren’t easy to find — the right pattern that’s edgy enough that he would wear it and lightweight so it shows that you’re in California,” she said. “He sticks to his uniform a little bit, but he also hasn’t shopped in a very long time.” If he did spring for a new pair of shoes to wear around the house, the costume team reckoned, they would be black Crocs. “We thought that was funny,” Gordon-Crozier said. “He would buy the black ones, not a bright color, because he’s still trying to be sleek.”
Musty Old Money
On the opposite end of the sartorial spectrum is Elizabeth (Marcia Gay Harden), the philandering college professor’s deep-pocketed mother who tries to intimidate Margo and her family. “My backstory was that she comes from the East Coast and lives in California but hasn’t adjusted to the temperature and still dresses like her mother — like, extra, extra conservative, doesn’t show her knees, still wears stockings,” Gordon-Crozier said. Instead of giving Elizabeth a classic old-money Chanel ensemble, she opted for a vintage knit suit from St. John, a luxury American brand with a fustier image, in a color scheme that echoes the character’s coiffure: “The streak in her hair influenced me. I was like, OK, she needs to be in black and white, a little bit like Cruella de Vil.”
This story first ran in the Down to the Wire Comedy issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
The post Fembots, Animal Prints and Old Money: Inside the Costumes of ‘Margo’s Got Money Troubles’ appeared first on TheWrap.
