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Interview with “L Word” Stylist Cynthia Summers

Cynthia Summers has seen the stars of The L Word naked. It’s just another day at the office for her.

As the set stylist for the Showtime series, Summers has put together power suits for Bette, dresses for Jenny and genderqueer outfits for Max since the beginning of the show. Her previous experience included working on the sets of films and television shows like Smallville, The Dead Zone and The American Mall.

Now that the series she has worked on since 2006 will be coming to a close, Summers talked to AfterEllen.com about what a lesbian looks like, which actress she loves to pick out clothes for and what she was thinking with that hat for Papi.

AfterEllen.com: What kind of research did you do before you figured out how each individual character should be dressed on The L Word?

Cynthia Summers: First the basic research I do, like on any film, is to research the specific demographic. I went to bars.

The show is in Vancouver – well we shoot in Vancouver – so I took a look at what’s happening in the lesbian scene in Vancouver and then in L.A. That’s where we’re supposed to be. Just sort of all the typical scenarios and what we all think everybody – meaning the outside world, not just lesbians – what everyone thinks that lesbians dress like.

Obviously [what they thought] wasn’t completely real or true, thank God! [Laughs]

And then from there it really became more about what Ilene Chaiken wanted to do with the show, and about our core group and who they are. They’re a group of talented, some of them affluent, some artists – you know our characters – living in LA.

A lot of what they wear and what their look entails has to speak to that as well, of where they’re actually at.

In my mind anyway, season one was a bit tame. We were brand new, and we were the only lesbian show, and we had a core design theme but we didn’t know who it would be or who we were trying to reach. We wanted to reach everyone but didn’t know who would be interested in watching. So we were kind of playing it fairly safe in season one.

After season one, Ilene always wanted it to be a show that spoke about fashion, right from the get-go. So for season two she said take what you are doing and do it 100 percent bigger.

AE: That must be nice, to have that kind of freedom. CS: It’s so totally refreshing! Fantastic! Bette’s character, for instance, is an easier one because she’s a professional woman working in the art world and she’s surrounded by art and influenced by it all the time. And she wears a lot more dresses now later on in the series, but in the beginning we were dressing her as men’s inspired suits.

I actually bought her men’s shirts and just cut them down to fit her. And she got a little more feminine as the seasons have gone on but she’s still really true to that silhouette, that song pants sort of silhouette.

And Jennifer – I’m so fortunate also be working with such great bodies. I don’t have one difficult body on the show, I really don’t! And Jennifer of course is statuesque and such a great body so going into the fashion has of course made it a lot easier for me.

So to take that sort of ’40s-inspired Hepburn/men-suit look and diversifying on it over the seasons has worked out well, and I think it’s been something that really transferred into real life, which is something that I think the show does.

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.”

AE: You couldn’t just dress Alice in a suit if you wanted to. CS: Yeah or also, you have to remember the group that we’re portraying here. They’re going to influence each other and how they dress. And what’s specific to this group is they happen to live in Los Angeles.

I’m sorry that we might not be portraying the Midwest as much as we should be. We did with Moira before she became Max, but we have to remember where we are.

And I think personally for me, the best validation I got for that, and I can’t remember who the woman was, but a group in San Francisco said, “The L Word is so femme, everything about The L Word is so femme, but you guys are in LA.” And I said “Good, that’s great.”

Because that’s exactly the truth and I’m glad people get it, because it’s not what you see in San Francisco or in the Midwest or a more hardcore list but we’re trying to portray where we are and people should just watch what they’re seeing and not be offended by it.

AE: With the more butchy characters maybe like Shane, have you tried to make her more butch at all because of the complaints? CS: Actually no. Because by the time we reached season two, the characters were very popular for who they were. No one – creators, directors or cast – wanted to change their character just to facilitate positive feedback.

I think the whole point of the show is … they’re not lesbians first, I think that’s the whole point here. These are women who function in the world with everyone in the world, and they happen to be lesbian.

We all know they’re lesbians. At the end of the day, you’re just trying to get through your day-to-day.

AE: Have you ever had a job where the fashion you worked on was so political? CS: I just should be a politician! [Laughs] Probably not. A lot of movies I’ve done and a lot of series that I’ve done, there’s always the chance of stepping on a group you’re trying to be careful about – maybe Asian people or Native Americans … or religious groups. I mean you have to be sensitive to their issues and that you’re portraying them correctly, even if you’re not portraying them in a good light.

AE: You can’t be everything to everyone. CS: My God, it’s a very tall order!

AE: So there’s news that there’s going to be a spin-off: Will you be involved with that at all?

CS: I would love to be involved with it, absolutely. There’s lots of rumors and lots of different directions. And I think that something will happen, I just don’t know what. I think all the rumors are all because it’s pointed to that, but we just don’t know who it will be.

AE: Who is your favorite character to dress on the show? CS: Oh, I hate that question!

AE: I know, I’m sorry! Then who lets you have the most fun? CS: Oh my goodness. There’s not just one! Jennifer’s at the top of my list, because Jennifer is an actress who definitely wants to be in command of her performance from top to bottom.

I love her and we get along famously, but when I first met her, she has this presence so she’s a little bit intimidating before you get to know her and know who she wants her character to be. She’s one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met.

AE: So many women are going to be jealous of you. CS: Jennifer is so smart. She knows everything. You cannot trip her up! From the very beginning it’s been “Why would Bette wear this?” or “Why would Bette wear that?” Scriptually you need to know but on a different level even, she wants to know for her character, so I’m kind of like sweating!

AE: You can’t just like throw something pretty at her. CS: After season one, as with most of the cast, she totally trusted me and we have a working relationship. I do with all of them, really, but Jennifer is my favorite individually. It’s great and she just shows up and puts stuff on.

CS: And Jenny, that’s a tough one because her character is and always will be all over the map. That’s the beauty of Jenny. People love to hate her. We found a middle ground for Jenny but it makes sense to come back to a point of reference when I think, “What the hell is she doing now? Why is she doing that? My God!”

Shane has been constantly changing as well. I do an inspiration board at the beginning of every season and the inspiration for her is very, very young early ’70s Mick Jagger. So it’s very sort of very-tight-pants-and-shirts, crazy hair which she came in herself.

It’s been versatile over the seasons but we keep the rock thing for her and it truly works.

AE: So I need to know about the infamous Papi hat. CS: [Laughs]

AE: Did you listen to feedback on that character and decide it wasn’t working? How did you feel about dressing her and how she was portrayed? CS: It’s hard when you have a new character that comes in for a season, or comes in for six episodes, and has a really big role to play, and also has a big visual role to play.

A lot of times, unfortunately, we don’t have enough time to prepare that at the beginning. When you come to a new season, you don’t always have a script right away or a lot of background on a new character. We’ll get an inkling of what’s coming, but don’t always have the specifics. The character is written a certain way and then you have to cast that character, and sometimes casting is not exactly what you wanted or you have someone fabulous that brings something quite different to the character.

I think that from the beginning with Papi, that was kind of evident. Janina, who is fantastic – she was written different than Janina, and we struggled with her a little bit in the beginning and I think it showed, unfortunately.

From a wardrobe point of view, she was overdressed. But I think we were trying really hard but we were trying too hard.

It’s typical, unfortunately. We’ve got a huge, huge cast and trying to bring someone new in. She’s a little bit like Shane, but not like Shane. She’s going to be Latina, but not like that. That’s a challenge!

AE: What kind of research did you do with Tasha, especially when it comes to her down time when she’s not at the military base? CS: Tasha’s changing a little bit, and I can’t really reference that right now. It’s more difficult to dress very specific clothing like military.

When she first started, she was more or less always in her uniform, or sweat pants and a T-shirt. For us she was the military, she was embodying everything about gays in the military, lesbians in the military. And we wanted to always remind the audience that’s who the character is. We couldn’t be on the base all the time surrounded by her people, so we needed to see it with her everywhere she was. Her wardrobe was hugely dictated by her character.

Now we’ll see her loosen up a bit, but she’s still staying quite butch because we really don’t deviate far from slacks or jeans or a motorcycle jacket. [Laughs]

Poor Rose, she sees amazing wardrobe go by all the time and says “OK, what pair of pants am I wearing today?” She’s gorgeous and got a body to die for!

The rest of the cast, at the end of every season, they say “This would look great on Rose” and find pieces in their wardrobe closet they can give to Rose, because she’s not taking her uniform home.

AE: Right, like why would she want another pair of sweatpants? CS: Exactly!

The final season of The L Word debuts on Showtime this Sunday at 9pm EST/PST.

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