Heidi Bivens, the costume designer for the HBO series Euphoria, has always had an innate awareness of how clothes identify us. “I understood early on how making decisions about what you put on was communicating something to the world,” says Bivens in Euphoria Fashion, a new book published by A24 that catalogs the making of the show’s looks. “I understood the power of navigating different groups of people by choosing whether or not to stand out or not.”
Hunter Schafer and Zendaya as Jules and Rue.
Courtesy of A24
This understanding is clear to even the most casual viewer of her work. A glimpse at the screen on a Sunday night reveals the masculine apathy of Nate’s tee-shirts and jeans, the baby pinks and blues of Cassie, a girl spilling into womanhood, the security blanket role of Rue’s burgundy hoodie.
The book, like the series, is intricate and exquisitely designed. The cloth-bound volume is filled with Nick Knight-inspired flat lays of iconic costumes like Maddy’s I.AM.GIA set, conversations with the cast and creator Sam Levinson, and a forward by Jeremy Scott. “I had spoken with the book’s editor, LinYee Yuan, early on about wanting the book to feel in-depth and comprehensive about the craft of costume design,” Bivens tells me. “I told them, ‘Please just put as many photographs and behind-the-scenes shots that people have not seen yet in the book.’ But I also wanted it to be balanced with an academic approach and to have real fashion journalists who are interested in the history and the social context, current and past, of clothing.”
An essay titled Bound: Normcore as Fashion Bondage by William Van Meter explores the pointedly average clothing of the show’s toxic male protagonists, Nate and his father, Cal. “They are wolves in sheep’s clothing,” asserts Van Meter. “And honey, those sheep are kinky, conflicted, and norm to the core.” In another essay, Memes, Moods, and Miu Miu Eras, Biz Sherbert examines the internet’s…
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