Of all the memorable and acclaimed creations costume designer Rudy Mance has contributed to television and film, nothing has had the extended life and attention on it like the costumes he designed for FX‘s Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.
“I would say out of everything I’ve done, this is probably the most talked about,” says Mance. The designer, now a four-time Emmy nominee, says the response and reactions have been overwhelming but he’s incredibly proud and grateful. “Everyone has been so positive and has responded so well, but also just the fact that both John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette have been introduced to a whole new generation of people that hadn’t known who they were,” he adds. “To be able to prolong or extend their legacy has been really great.”
Mance, who was previously nominated for his work on Monster, The Alienist, and The Watcher spoke to Gold Derby about how his background in fashion helped open doors for his work on Love Story (now the most watched limited series on Hulu and Disney+), designing the dress for “The Wedding” episode and more.
Gold Derby: Can you walk us through the timeline for this? Production schedules can be hectic, did you have enough time to source and make everything?
Rudy Mance: I came from a fashion background. I was a fashion assistant at Condé Nast and a couple of others, I worked at i-D magazine in London. So in terms of the time period, I sort of had that ingrained in my memory and my knowledge for quite some time. The mid-’90s, you know, this was sort of the first time period that I started to look at and pay attention to when I was growing up. Carolyn Bessette and John F. Kennedy Jr., they were always on the mood boards and revered for their quintessential fashion style. It was daunting, but I had the background so I just sort of closed my eyes and jumped in.
When you signed on, do you kind of read the script quickly to give yourself an overview of what you’re going to have to pull and source? Did anyone give you a warning ahead of time of what you’d need?
I had an idea of the overall story arc. And sadly we all know what happened to the two of them in the end. But it is episodic television, on some projects you’re lucky and you get all of the scripts up front. But for this particular one, we would get the scripts anywhere from six days, to if we were lucky, nine days before we started filming. So it was sort of a race the entire time.
What was kind of the most enjoyable aspect of maybe flexing some of those connections? It seems like people were happy to work with you.
In terms of fashion, especially with [Carolyn], I think because she was such an icon, it sort of opened a lot of doors for us that might not have opened. That is a testament to her and her legacy and how, 30-plus years on, people really, really still do love her and are protective of her. We worked with Prada and Yohji Yamamoto was a big one that she wore a lot. Valentino, I’m trying to think who else, Manolo Blahnik, she wore a lot of Manolo. They all were very, very gracious and allowed us into their archives. We used about ninety percent vintage. It was really important for me to use as many original pieces as we could as opposed to buying it contemporary and then trying to cheat it. If they didn’t have it and we couldn’t find it vintage, then we made it.
Let’s talk about the iconic dress in your Emmy-nominated episode “The Wedding.” How did it all happen? How much time did you have to make the wedding dress?
The whole wedding itself was sort of the looming elephant in the room that I knew was coming. From the first designs through to shooting it, I think it was about six weeks on the dress. My team and I found a couturier out of Philadelphia called Anna Light who specializes in wedding gowns. We worked with her both remotely and then she would travel in on the train very graciously and bring it in and we would sort of do fittings and sort of tweak it.
And then in terms of the actual construction of the dress, one of my incredible assistants was swatching around town and she went to a fabric store called BJ. It’s been around for years. We use it on many, many productions. And just through talking to them there, the owner, who’s been there many years, was like, “Well Narciso [Rodriguez] bought that fabric from us. Do you want to see the swatch?” Because it was such an iconic piece of history and pop culture, he had saved the swatch. It was much more yellow, like a butter yellow now so the color was off, but he still had all of the information for the original mill that manufactured the fabric in Italy. So through them they connected us with the Italian mill. They shipped over the fabric and we were actually able to use the original fabric that was used for the dress. The same goes for the gloves and the veil. The company had changed names, I think they were called Lacrasia Glove Company and now they’re called Wing and Weft, but they’re still open and operating in New York City. And so we got to look at Carolyn’s original hand sketches and they reconstructed the veil and the gloves exactly as they had done for her. The last piece of the puzzle for the wedding dress was the Manolo Blahnik shoes that she wore, which they released from their archives, another version of them. So we were able to essentially recreate [her full look].
Are you surprised by the continued positive reactions and the reception at all?
I am and I’m not. I’m surprised that it’s been talked about this much, but I’m not surprised in the same breath, because so many people love [Bessette and JFK Jr.]. They were so beloved and the fact that we lost them both at such a young age, I think just compounded that. So yes and no, I would say.
Where is all the wardrobe now?
[Laughs] That is what everybody wants to know. A lot of it is still in archives. We did work with a collector who got us quite a few original pieces. and I think those have all gone up for auction since then. But a lot of them are still being archived as of now,
Did your star Sarah Pidgeon want or get to keep anything?
Yes and yes. She got a couple of pieces, Paul [Anthony Kelly] got a couple of pieces. [Sarah] of course wanted everything, but who wouldn’t? So there were a couple of pieces that they got to keep just as souvenirs.
What are you enjoying most about your job right now? Or your work in this industry?
Mance: I came into the production late, but even with that challenge, I can’t think of a better project. Anytime I work with Ryan [Murphy], this is maybe my tenth or eleventh show with him, and anytime you work with him, you know it’s going to be an interesting story. But he’s also one of these directors and producers who really does treat costume design like a main character. It’s always an integral part of his storytelling so anytime I get a call, if I’m able to, I’m there.
Do you know yet what you might wear to the Emmys? Extra attention on you talented costume designers…
[Laughs] I have an idea, but I’m not sure yet. It might be a tuxedo mixed with denim but we’ll see.
This article and video are presented by FX.
