Interview with “L Word” Stylist Cynthia Summers

Most people watch a show or watch a movie and they want to be inspired — whether they want to be inspired to have that in their lives, or be inspired because it opens up their eyes or to other people doing that.

All the feedback that we’ve gotten from fans probably is that Bette and Shane are two of the characters that have done that. They’ve really influenced people and people are not afraid to emulate them. Someone’s always asking me about Shane —  “How do you feel about Shane look-alikes walking around?” — because you pretty much see them everywhere.

You know, all I can say to that is, you know, good! If it’s not coming from an inspired sort of perspective — fashion comes from within, I’m a firm believe in that. But I truly do feel fashion comes from within, and everybody has a fashion sense within themselves, whether they want to actually pursue that or whether they have the ability to but I think everyone should use it as self-expression.

It makes me feel very happy that people do that with The L Word. I think it’s done a lot for the show.

AE: It does a lot for the lesbian community too, though, because it gives the perspective that lesbians are actually into fashion. It’s obviously a big misconception that lesbians aren’t really into style or fashion. Did you have to deal with that when you were first thinking of the show? I mean I’m from the Midwest so you don’t always see the greatest fashion when you go out.
CS: But you try right?

AE: I’m trying, I just don’t know if other people are trying! [Laughs]
CS: Exactly, but you know what, if you look anywhere in America, there’s people that don’t care what they look like.

AE: It’s true.
CS: There’s always going to be people whose life isn’t really about what’s on their body, or maybe they’re into other aspects of life. But for people who want to show the world who they are through how they look, I think it’s really important.

It’s not that you have to go out there in couture. I think on The L Word, everyone could afford couture somehow, that [even] at the very beginning, one of the characters (Jenny actually) after she left her husband and became a lesbian, she’d have pieces that people who would say to me, “How does this character afford Dior?” or “How does this character afford a Balenciaga bag?”

And I’m like, you know what, at this stage I don’t even know if the audience is gonna get that that’s a Dior piece or not, because the way she wears it is so incongruous to the way the designer put it out there. That’s my point exactly.

For the sake of argument, say she took a skirt and decided to wear it as a hat on her head, that’s her self-expression and because it’s a couture piece doesn’t mean — do you know what I’m saying?

AE: Yes. Would you say that’s the biggest complaint you get with your work specifically with The L Word? “How can they afford whatever it is they are wearing?”
CS: You know, that definitely was it, up until probably the beginning of season four. And now, certainly from a female perspective it’s no contest, like “There’s no way she bought that in LA!” The fashion down here is crazy — it’s crazy good though.

The cast, personally, have grown and are more adventurous with their fashion. That was probably the biggest complaint.

That and “Where are all the butch lesbians on the show?” To that I always say, “Well, I didn’t write it.”