Lady Gaga made her small-screen debut on Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story: Hotel, where she plays bloodthirsty hotel owner Countess Elizabeth. The performer steals the show with her onscreen outfits that have been custom-created by Michael Costello and Ashi Studio. Not only did the show's costume designer, Lou Eyrich, partner with those designers, she also worked with Emmy-nominated designer Michael Schmidt for Gaga's elaborate glove.
No list of TV's best-dressed characters would be complete without Empire's Cookie (played by Taraji P. Henson). Though the entire cast is always well-dressed, no one makes the same fashion impact as Cookie, who has worn everything from Moschino to Chanel in the show's second season. According to costume designer Paolo Nieddu, creator Lee Daniels wanted her look to "come from a real person, because she's not a celebrity."
Nineties fashion is perfectly captured in the ABC comedy Fresh Off the Boat, which follows a Taiwanese family living in Orlando and struggling to live the American Dream. Costume designer Debra McGuire (Friends and New Girl) dresses hip-hop obsessed Eddie Huang (Hudson Yang) in oversize tees, basketball jerseys and must-have sneakers (Air Jordans, included), and tiger mom Jessica Huang (Constance Wu) in patterned fit-and-flare dresses, high-waisted pants and sun visors.
The Netflix comedy — based loosely on the life of Aziz Ansari, who also co-created and stars in the series — has been garnering rave reviews for nailing topics that range from race and family to career and dating. But that's not all — the show also features cool menswear looks. According to costume designer Dana Covarrubias (Louie), she dressed Ansari's character in Band of Outsiders (RIP), Steven Alan, Gant and Unis.
When the show's characters, sorority girls, are all named Chanel, it only makes sense that their wardrobe (think pearls, tweed and rhinestones) complement the name. Costume designer Lou Eyrich told Fashionista that she looked at the old Style.com (now VogueRunway.com) during her research and referred to Chanel and Jeremy Scott for Moschino for inspiration.
Whenever we see a bright yellow cardigan, we can't help but immediately think of Netflix's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. "Yellow is totally a bold color, and you kind of need balls to wear it, I feel. It's definitely a choice. There were a few outfits when we did the pilot, and we ended up on that one because it was such a statement for her," costume designer Tina Nigro told Pret-a-Reporter of dressing Ellie Kemper in the bright color.
The new musical comedy on the CW, set in West Covina, Calif., might not have the most fashion-forward outfits on the small screen, but it's the musical sequences ("The Sexy Getting Ready Song" and "Good at Yoga") and flashbacks that let costume designer Melina Root have a little fun. "She’s not stylish. She is always a little bit off…and doesn’t have a natural sense of style," Root told the Costume Designers Guild of Rachel Bloom's ex-boyfriend-obsessed character, Rebecca Bunch. "She shops late online and buys 12 pairs of the same shoe. Her greatest form of expression is in the fantasies."
When costume designer Leslie Schilling was tasked with dressing the cast (consisting of Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks, among many other boldfacers) in retro '80s garb, she turned to American Apparel and Ditto jeans. "Because we needed a lot of multiples for stunts, and characters had to wear them for 30 days in a row, we couldn’t rely on vintage," Schilling explained to The New York Times about why she opted for American Apparel.
In the second season of FX series Fargo, Kirsten Dunst plays an ambitious hairdresser named Peggy who is styled in the most eye-catching, '70s-inspired looks. "We started up purchasing a lot of vintage stuff months in advance, so we ended up with quite a large collection," costume designer Carol Case told Vogue, adding that her mom had a big stack of 1970s Simplicity sewing patterns that her team also used.
Though House of Cards is in its third season, it's the first time that stylist Kemal Harris is dressing Robin Wright for her character (she also styles Wright for red-carpet events). In season three, Claire Underwood (Wright) is still wearing extremely tailored pieces but in bolder colors, as seen with this burgundy two-piece that Harris designed for her.