Blake Lively’s wardrobe and what’s “normal”

How “normal” is it for actors to have their say on set to change wardrobe, script, lighting, and other elements?

Blake Lively on the set of the 'It Ends With Us' on January 6, 2024 (Tatiana / BACKGRID)

Dear Squawkers,

This newsletter started out as an answer to one of our mailbag questions last week and then it just got longer and longer so I’ve turned it into a newsletter. Much of it is about Blake Lively but we’re also talking here about wardrobe and production and some of my personal experiences from being on set.

Here’s the original question from Alice:

“How “normal” is it for actors to have their say on set and change something related to wardrobe, the script, lighting, marking, etc? After watching Blake Lively’s Forbes interview I’m genuinely curious is this is normal. Like, does Gwyneth come to set asking to change the pants she’s been assigned to wear? Is it normal to improv a scene if you’re Robert Pattinson?”

The ideal working relationship between an actor and the costume designer is collaborative. Costume designers and hair and makeup artists also study scripts, like everyone else involved with the project, because they’re working on how to present the characters. But unlike a set designer, for example, whose responsibility is to create a home or an office or school that would fit into a character’s life, etc, costume designers and hair and makeup artists’ work must fit ON the character’s body; their canvas is the actual body of the actor. Of course there has to be some cooperation. So you know what’s confusing to me about this wardrobe situation on It Ends With Us?

Eric Daman was the costumer designer on the film. He and Blake Lively have worked together before because he was also the costumer designer on Gossip Girl. According to Justin Baldoni, Blake “overstepped … boundaries, sidelining the production’s costume designer — a seasoned professional with a longstanding working relationship with [Blake].”

Back in August, Eric Daman talked about Blake’s wardrobe for the film, telling PEOPLE that:

“[It Ends With Us] was really about coming back together for us. Blake would send me ideas. She wanted Lily to have a unique, very special kind of look. Because everyone is aware that it's Blake and I back together again after 10 years and we have a track record that we want to keep up. So it was important that there was a cool factor to this character.

And I think because there wasn't intense description in the book about how Lily dressed, it kind of opened up the field for us to play. We both came to the table with ideas of how that would be, and they were very similar. We had one initial fitting and then I think from that fitting, we wanted to tweak it and maybe add in a little bit more masculine vintage street, lean into the menswear vibe.”

So these are two people with a long history. They may have miscalculated (we’ll come back to that in a minute) on what they ended up creating in terms of the character’s wardrobe, but for me this doesn’t totally line up with the narrative that Justin’s laid out in his claim. Like when he says that Blake would bombard the costume designer all night with ideas and photos, and that it was intrusive and “overstepping”, does this take into account that these two had an established shorthand from a years-long series on television with over 100 episodes and that if they were already close, and friends, it may not have been that offside?