Lyn Paolo is no stranger to dressing for the White House. The British costume designer has outfitted scores of television actors portraying power players on 'The West Wing' and 'Scandal.' For her work on the latter, the hit ABC drama that was created by Shonda Rhimes and featuresKerry Washington as gladiator-in-white Olivia Pope, Paolo was honored as Costume Designer of the Year at the Variety and WWD Stylemakers event.
According to Washington, Paolo is such a force that she "shuts things down" just like Pope. She's also compassionate enough to cry with her leading lady when they both collapsed from making 19 costume changes in a single episode. In fact, Washington credited Paolo for being the first to conceptualize the character Olivia Pope saying, "She made me figure out who this character is ... Lyn and I agreed that this was going to be a woman that was not afraid to run in heels and that was it. We knew that we wanted to redefine the power suit."
"I had never worked this hard in my life and Lyn was equally as exhausted, and we walked into a room and we cried together for about 10 minutes and at that point I knew that I would be friends with her forever because she takes clothes seriously," she shared. "This is a woman who is willing to cry until we get it right, and we have been crying and laughing ever since," said Washington referring to how much thought went into the show's wardrobe.
In a conversation with Variety's Debra Birnbaum, the duo discussed the new power suit, the fashion line they designed for The Limited, the importance of social media and the beautiful sweater by The Row that they purposely destroyed on the show.
Variety: What's it like when you get a script for the show?
Lyn Paolo: I think things are a little different for Kerry and I than they are on other shows. Depending on the show and my relationship with the actor and the writer, there is a lot of prep. A pilot is different than a movie, it's different than a television show. With Kerry and I, at this point we're sort of symbiotic. I don't know if you noticed but we didn't talk (beforehand) but we showed up in exactly the same colors today. I don't know Olivia Pope as well as Shonda and Kerry know Olivia Pope. They live in her skin and so, for me, it's important I run around and I read the script. I think, well, this is what I'd like to do but then Olivia Pope doesn't come to life until Kerry and I have our moment together in the room.
Variety: Kerry, what about you? What input do you have?
Kerry Washington: I think one of the things that's important about what Lyn does that kind of distinguishes her from some of the other honorees today is that costume design is really about telling a story. I love to put together a moment on the carpet. I love it. It's like creating an amazing, performance-art moment. But costume design is different because you are telling a story. And so you have to think about theme and you have to think about mood and you have to think about personality. And Lyn does all of that through clothes, and so she helps us be who we are. She breaks down every episode, every moment. She's tracking what accessories I wear, she's tracking the color palette, she's tracking the mood, she's looking at language. She's really a fundamental part of the storytelling machine.
