Behind the Scenes of 'The Mindy Project,' 'Supergirl,' 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' and More Fall TV Costumes

The fall TV premieres keep right on coming with the October debuts — which could also be called the badass women list (Supergirl, Dr. Mindy Lahiri, Dr. Joan Watson... ), more superheroes (Superman, Arrow, The Flash and villains!), family dysfunction, er, dynamics
("Jane the Virgin," Shameless," "Fresh Off the Boat") or shows that are just plain hard to explain ("Westworld," "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"). But let's just have nine costume designers — and one series star — tell us about what new looks and story lines to expect this season.

Westworld

 

With "Game of Thrones" heading into its penultimate season, it sounds like HBO found its successor with "Westworld," a sci-fi-Western thriller. In the dystopian future, rich One-Percenters live out their fantasies in a virtual reality-esque Wild West theme park by interacting with robots, including fresh-faced Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and madame Maeve (Thandie Newton). In short: stunning costumes, suspense, violence and orgies, HBO style.
For the "Westworld" period looks, costume designer Ane Crabtree looked to '60s Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns, early 1900s imagery and the runway. Coincidentally, as she was prepping the series, fashion experienced a "Victoriana meets Western gunslinger" moment via Stella McCartney, Chloé, Marni and Valentino. For the future-dwelling 99-percenters staffing the underground park and its wealthy patrons, Crabtree took inspiration from the Bauhaus movement, '60s Italian and French cinema and '90s Prada, Calvin Klein and Donna Karan. (Trish Summerville designed the pilot.)
But don't think of "Westworld" as some bosom-heaving period piece with damsels in distress."The cool thing about 'Westworld' is that the women are always as strong as the men," Crabtree says. "That hopefully will come across in the costumes and in the fashion of it."

"Shameless"

 

The Gallagher family is experiencing some role swaps this season — or in Frank's (William H. Macy) case, an entirely new "family" named after (and dressed like) his real one. Although, the off-the-rails patriarch goes a bit too far with the "new Fiona" wearing more, um, revealing clothing that his daughter, the "real Fiona" (Emmy Rossum), would never wear. "This being a very obvious insult from Frank to Fiona," Lyn Paolo explains via e-mail.
Fiona stays gainfully employed and appropriately dressed at Patsy's Pies while she attempts to update the staff uniforms. "Which may or may not go down well with the ladies who work at the diner," Paolo hints. As brother Lip (Jeremy Allen White) confronts newfound (sorta) sobriety, his wardrobe reflects his struggles. "Lip will be less self-aware about how he is dressing, there maybe subtle hints of how Frank dresses layered into Lip's look," Paolo says. "This is in an effort to remind the audience that Frank too, at one point, was the bright young thing in his family and he went down a path that lead him away from what could have lifted him out of the Gallagher world."