In “Another Simple Favor,” Renee Ehrlich Kalfus’ Costumes Hold More Than Meets The Eye

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Warning: Spoilers for Another Sinple Favor below! Proceed with caution!

“A Simple Favor” frenemies Emily (Blake Lively) and Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) are back on our screens with Paul Feig’s “Another Simple Favor.” Naturally, plenty of dramatic fashion is in store, thanks to costume designer Renee Ehrlich Kalfus. For the Amazon MGM Studios sequel’s production in Capri, extravagance was on the menu with thousands of Louboutin heels, haute couture, and plenty of twists and surprises. Below, we chatted with Kalfus on Lively and Kendrick’s onscreen return, secretly referencing the first film’s viral looks, and the accessory debacle that started the first days of shooting in Italy.

You designed costumes for Another Simple Favor after designing for A Simple Favor in 2018. How did you approach returning to this world for the sequel? One of the real starting-off points was Paul [Feig]. This was going to be a very specific location in Italy, a wedding weekend celebration of a massive Italian mafia family and all of the guests. It was a completely different starting point than the first one, which was, How do we establish those two characters in Connecticut, both working and becoming friends through school and the kids? This was the return of the two “frenemies,” as everybody’s been saying. It was Paul who came to us and said, “There was a wedding in Capri,”—exactly the location we shot in, which was the tip of the island. He said, “There was this wedding in 2016 that was so over-the-top.” We looked at it. The cinematographer, the production designer, and myself all looked at this thing, and Paul just said, “This is gigantic. This is big. I want this over-the-top wedding.” That was exactly the starting point, and it was like, “Okay, we’re going big.”

The looks are definitely extravagant! How did you “go big” when creating those new costumes for Emily and Stephanie? There was an outrageousness to these costumes that were very imposing, and a lot had to do with scale and silhouette. I do start with mood boards, and we have this big wedding. You were looking at all sorts of giant wedding gowns, and I wound up working with a New York latex maker and creating a bustier of latex and leggings, and then having the very famous Tirelli costume shop build my design of the skirt. This skirt literally takes up so much room—it was so intimidating and so over-the-top that you couldn’t get near the character as she went down the aisle. She had a 40-foot veil on, again, this very huge statement, that was then dipped in dried blood-red at the end and red crystals to create a moment where you said, “What’s next, what’s going to come?” It was a lot of attempts at entertainment, really going for it. I said to Paul, “We’re just going to be outrageous and go for it.” And he said, “Yeah, we’re here to entertain, and let’s dazzle them.” It’s just fun to go at it and be able to create things that can draw that kind of attention.

What are some brands or designers that Emily wore in the film—and did you include any hints related to the plot? Yes, definitely. When we first see her come back and invite Stephanie to this wedding, she is in a suit that was designed and made in my workshop with very talented cutter drapers that references her prison garb. It has a horizontal stripe, and it completely references old prison gear. We did start with moodboards, and the moodboards encompass real designer items, iconic movie looks, and that suit when she walks into the bookstore is a reference to that. Her costume that I designed when she’s sitting, as a gangster on the plane stairs is, again, she’s marrying into the mob. It’s a nod, almost like, “Look, stuff is going to happen.” And she gets off of the plane as a complete socialite in this Tamara Ralph. That pantsuit of satin and pearls was hers, and we worked with them on a few costumes. And that also was like, “Look, I’m here, everybody, watch out.” It was a very intimidating, bridal, imposing look, getting off the plane and into the boat that arrives at Capri.

How did you approach dressing Stephanie again? Her style was always more practical than Emily’s, but it’s different this time around. One of the tensions, obviously, is between those two characters. When Stephanie was invited, you could tell she was completely reluctant, but she was going to go. Her character had evolved. She wasn’t following this charismatic Emily anymore in a love-hate kind of way; she was her own. She was determined and defiant not to dress the part. So, she arrives off the plane in sweats and sneakers. This was a discussion that Anna [Kendrick] and I had, and she was completely happy to be in sneakers, and also to play the foil to be able to say, “What are you wearing? What are you doing?” She was always the grounding narrator and the ultimate detective. It seemed like a great idea to really contrast that, and I think it worked. Because she’s mature and a fully-formed character, she would pack and know how to dress for those events that she was invited for as maid of honor, and she did. What you’re sensing is that she was never really a participant. She was always the observer, and always to chronicle, to the audience, the tale and what’s going on here. She gave us that information, and her quiet, regular costuming choices reflect that.

The film has lots of new characters, including Allison Janey, Alex Newell, and Michele Morrone. Were there any moments you loved from dressing these new faces? Loved the boys, the Italian characters, her husband [Morrone] as this gorgeous male in fabulous costumes, much of which was Dolce & Gabbana for him. Henry [Golding], of course, is always very beautifully dressed, and as reluctant as [Shawn] was, he just knew how to dress to come to an island. He is mostly in Ralph Lauren. Alex was a great foil, and she was really happy to go on this trip and be this sidekick and have some fun. She looked happy and into the vacation. I would say everyone brought a joy of being there. I wanted it to reflect the joy of being in Capri, in this Isle of Capri, in this beautiful location. There’s a nod to all of that in florals, and colors, the colors that are evocative. It was great dressing everybody. It was a lot of fun, because it was an occasional piece in an exotic location. It couldn’t have been more fun! I did want to bring up Allison Janney and Elizabeth Perkins, because those characters were a unit and an exaggerated place in terms of design, color, fabric, print, and I wanted to bring a lot of attention to them. They were totally funny and wild characters, so I felt I had a freedom with both of those female characters.

There’s a huge cast and lots of events in the film! What’s the secret to costuming such a huge project? There are times when a costume designer is challenged with a big cast, and it is a process that you go through and you work on. I approach it with a lot of storyboards. I do a lot of discussing with the production designer, and Paul, and the DP, what we’re doing. Please, can you film the end of this veil which is 40 feet behind her? Can you approach her from the feet, because she’s walking in these insane boots? That is a collaboration I do. I make a lot of moodboards, because within that I can both discover a palette, a look. You have a puzzle as a designer, to put all these pieces together at any given time. You stand back, you create a look, you have a vision, and then it’s a lot of people working with you. I have brilliant crews, and it’s a matter of choice and selection, what do you borrow, what do you build, what do you shop? There’s all those interesting things to solve. We had many, many, many extras, and I had a fabulous Italian crew. If you walked into our shop, it looked like a clothing shop, a shoe shop, an accessories shop. We had several incredible cutter drapers, stitchers. We had a whole other alterations area. We really were able to, with the talent that is available. Something that we do as designers for costumes is try to create as much as we can I- house. It’s the most amazing thing to be able to do, hundreds and hundreds. In fact, I wrote to my own supervisor, Well, how many shoes do you think we had—just the women’s? He said, “Oh, hundreds thousands.” It was very well-organized, and we had a lot of choices. We made a lot of choices, and through the process of designing and fitting, we found, hopefully, the right choices, the right costumes.

Emily exclusively wears Christian Louboutin heels in the film! How did that choice come about? Well, happily, [Blake] works with and is friendly with [Christian] Louboutin. They provided—both in the first film and this film—boxes and boxes of Louboutin shoes which could go with any any of her outfits, or anyone’s outfit. We had the good fortune of collaborating with them.

There’s a plot twist where it’s revealed that Emily’s twin, Charity, is alive and has stolen her identity. How did you differentiate Blake Lively’s costumes when she played these two sisters? There was a nod to a lacy Victorian-ish, updated Victorian look that Charity has, in both black and white. When she was innocent, she was in this white stuff with dolls, trying to seduce her own sister. Then, she went into heavy mourning after in black lace, and you see that. Then, there was a combination when she was morphing, where it was black and white—for example, walking through the town with that giant hat. That was a white blouse on layers of silk skirts and tank tops and lace gloves, and that had a combination of the black and white. There was all that information there, in the colorway, and the fact that it had this doll reference.

People still love A Simple Favor‘s costumes, seven years later! Did you reference any looks or moments from the first film in the new costumes? The suiting was a nod to the first one. There were ways in which I wanted to surprise audiences with [the original] costumes, like taking off her jacket, and it’s a dickie, it’s not a proper vest, and then she unclasped her cuffs and they’re not part of the shirt. Just a little bit of shock value and a little bit of fun with costumes, actually almost having a say, or acting. I tried to do that in the first one. I think it caught people’s eyes, whether it was understood or not. It was a bit of a, “Whoa, What’s going on?” It’s a surprise, I feel, when you watch the film with people there’s a surprise. When [Emily] enters the bookstore, that is a reference to the suit and walking into the scene and the way in which she was shot as a direct reference, I would say [to the first film], and a chance for the costumes to help her be as intimidating a character as she is, and untrustworthy, unapproachable, and intimidating.

Were any pieces a challenge to source or get through customs? The wedding was shot on the very first day of filming. If you don’t have everything, you’re a full ferry ride away from the mainland, and you’re on a tiny little island that’s pretty much quiet during the time we shot. It wasn’t full-blown, and it’s not like it has fabric stores. We spent a lot of time getting ready for that, and then [we were] like, “Oh my god, do we have everything?” We took over an entire villa in Capri that was the costume shop with as much available to us should there be something missing. And it turns out, the second day of shooting, this suit that came from Tamara Ralph did not have the white hat that came with it. We had to fly somebody to London, London had to fly down to Naples, somebody from the island had to go across [in] the ferry and get it, so that we could have it by six o’clock in the morning to shoot. That was our first drama, that was day two. There were a lot of challenges shooting on an island and shooting on location, and there’s a lot of challenges when you have this amount of big costumes. It’s a big costume piece.

We just have one simple favor left to ask you: Do you have a favorite look you designed for Another Simple Favor? It has to be the wedding gown on the veil, because it is such a centerpiece of the story. It’s the reason the whole thing happened. I’m going to say the obvious, it’s the wedding.

All images: Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

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