How Kathy Bates Inspired the Fashion of ‘Matlock’—and Got a Top Designer to Un-Retire (EXCLUSIVE)
Inside the chic, courtroom-ready wardrobe designed for Kathy Bates’ return to primetime
Matlock, the long-running ’80s series starring Andy Griffith as the quirky title character, was one of the best-loved legal dramas. Last year, the show came back into the cultural conversation thanks to a meta, gender-flipped not-quite-reboot featuring the great Kathy Bates in the title role of Madeline “Matty” Matlock, a crafty lawyer who turns people’s age-based preconceived notions on their heads, all while leading a double life.
At the law firm, Matty rocks a polished wardrobe of well-tailored suits, and at 76, Bates looks better than ever, all while giving a powerhouse performance. Woman’s World sat down with the show’s costume designer, Hope Hanafin, who previously worked on shows like The Newsroom and movies like 500 Days of Summer, to discuss the influence of the original series, the art of making fashion feel put-together yet accessible and the joy of collaborating with Kathy Bates.
Woman’s World: Did you reference Andy Griffith’s look in the original ‘Matlock’ to create Kathy Bates’ style for the new version?
Hope Hanafin: We didn’t have many references, but in episode two, there was a dream sequence where we replicated what Andy Griffith wore. Of course, that show took place in a different part of the country at a different time, but the holdover is in terms of the consistency of what Matty Matlock wears. There’s a modesty not only in the shapes, but in the fabrics.
There’s nothing more iconic than a Southern gentleman in a seersucker suit, but Matty Matlock wears primarily blue pantsuits. It’s designed for Kathy to look wonderful, but also for Matty’s character to blend into the scenery and not draw attention to herself. In that regard, the two characters share an approach to their clothes.
WW: Given that Matty primarily wears blue, what draws you to that color, and what role does color play in the costumes?
HH: Those eyes of hers are so gorgeous, and the blue suits are a bit of a cheat in that if you put blue against blue, her eyes pop even more on camera. Kathy also has the most gorgeous complexion, and it’s a rosier complexion, not tawny or peachy, so the blues that we chose help highlight that as well. I’m a woman of a certain age. I’m five years younger than she is, and she has much better skin than I do!
She also has a modest uniform. It doesn’t draw attention to itself, but it’s not dead-on New York, where everyone’s wearing black, so it gives her a little bit more of a suburban look. It shows her as an outsider, but it’s been a uniform for working women for a very long time.
WW: Were most of the costumes bought off-the-rack or custom-made?
HH: It’s a mix. There were a few suits in the beginning that we had made for her, and it was a delight to find those fabrics and buttons and have all of that work for her. As the show progressed, we needed so many suits so quickly that we were unable to keep that pattern up, so we were happy to find modestly priced suits that her character would have purchased in the marketplace.
Since Kathy is so svelte these days, it was easy for her to walk into things, which was a joy for the two of us. We did make a lot of her blouses, and we modified almost everything, changing buttons, shortening things, adding a bow, taking off a bow. Very little went from the rack straight to the camera, but much of it was purchased and then adjusted or altered. The pace was a new episode every eight days, and the production required two of everything for her, so we just didn’t have time to go from page to screen that often.
WW: With the show being set in the real world in the present day, how do you make the fashion feel relatable?
HH: In my imagination I had a closet where Madeline kept her “Matty” clothes, and those clothes were primarily from Ann Taylor, Talbot’s, Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s. We also purchased a fair amount online.
It’s been important to me to have accessible fashions in pretty much all the work that I’ve done. It goes against the trend, but I prefer to put characters in clothes that they could afford. The word aspirational is bandied around a lot these days, but to me, it has more to do with how much something costs than its value. I think Matty Matlock and [her true persona] Madeline Kingston are aspirational characters, but Matty’s clothes should be accessible to any working woman.
We do a lot of repeating clothes on the show, like pairing the same blouse with a different jacket or different pants. Her jewelry is also very modest. She has little pearl earrings, like something that a woman would have bought for herself. It’s nothing extravagant, as opposed to what she wears at home, which are all museum pieces that reference her husband, who’s an art historian, and they’re something that he would have bought for her. Those looks are more unusual and show a history between the two characters, whereas what she wears at work doesn’t give anything away.
WW: What is your working relationship with Kathy Bates like?
HH: This is my third project with Kathy. I had actually retired and she asked me to come out of retirement and do the show with her. One of the joys of it is that in the first thing I did with her, My Sister’s Keeper (2002), she was playing a schizophrenic who liked to wear knitted Afghans, and our second project, Warm Springs (2005), where she played Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s physical therapist, took place in the ’20s, so I’ve gone from down-market looks to period clothes to having the chance to do contemporary fashion with her.
At the same time, she has a completely different body type than when we worked together in the past, so the concern about whether things would fit and look good was removed because she’s worked so hard and done so well. She can wear anything since her weight loss, and her face is so gorgeous. I really wanted to feature that face, and TV shoots mostly from the waist up. I’ve kept things fairly quiet around that area, and Kathy really bought into it.
We would get excited and jump around the fitting room because it was just so fun, and she’s said that to reach for a rack and put something on and have it glide on her was very rewarding. I was concentrating on things other than “Will this fit?” and looking for the details, but framing her face was the number one objective, because she’s so expressive.
We bonded over a lot of things. We’re both cancer survivors and we share a worldview. There are a lot of touchpoints, but my admiration for her as an actress goes ahead of anything, and she is truly the loveliest human being. Because we had a prior relationship, she could be really honest. If I brought something to the fitting room, she could look at it and say no, and it would be okay.
There was a comfort and honesty with each other that made the process easy. I could experiment and try new things, because I knew she would let me know if she didn’t like them, and she always felt comfortable to say what she did and didn’t like. Sometimes a costume would be right for the character, but not for her, and sometimes it would be wrong for the character, but she’d still wear it to a press event. We were always mindful of both functions.
WW: Were there any challenges you faced in designing costumes for the show?
HH: This is the first real network show that I’ve done. I usually do HBO shows or miniseries or movies. The speed of it was really interesting. You don’t have the time to ruminate over things. That was the biggest challenge by far. Other than that, I had everything I needed. I had a wonderful crew. My assistant, Hannah Jacobs, is now the designer for the second season, because I’ve gone back into my retirement.
The cast was respectful and easy to work with, and just loving in every way. We became family immediately, and there weren’t many challenges except for logistics. Part of the logistics have to do with the supply chain and the decline of retail stores. Stores no longer have the kind of stock that they used to. The world has also become so casual, and in Los Angeles finding things that were more formal and office-appropriate but not boring could be a challenge.
WW: Do you have any fashion advice for our readers?
HH: I think women should have permission to always wear flats. They’re better for mature women, and Kathy always wears flats on the show whether she’s Madeline Matlock or Madeline Kingston. I think it’s something that’s really changed in fashion. I used to run around New York in heels, and I’d never do that now. It’s really relaxed, and we’re finally learning our lesson when it comes to shoes. There are so many great flats out now, and they don’t all have to look like “old lady” shoes or nurse shoes. And even nurse shoes have gotten hip!
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