‘Bachelorette’ Costume Designer Anna Bingemann on Strip Clubs, Wedding Dresses, and Joan Didion
Photo courtesy of RADiUS-TWC
Katie (Isla Fisher), Regan (Kirsten Dunst), and Gena (Lizzy Caplan)
Featuring a trifecta of Ladies With Problems, Bachelorette follows high school friends Regan, Kirsten Dunst's vicious type-A+ ice queen; coked-up Gena, Lizzy Caplan, whose ex-boyfriend remarks upon seeing her: "I'm glad to see you're still fighting the good fight against the tyranny of pants," and the pitiably dumb Katie, Isla Fisher's astoundingly incompetent Club Monaco employee.
The usual debauchery ensues the evening before the level-headed and kind Becky, played by Rebel Wilson, gets hitched: drug use, strippers, and you know, ripping the bride's dress. And if there's anything pop culture lore and our own reluctant reaching for the bouquet have taught us, weddings can bring out the absolute worst in people. But superficial comparisons to other nuptial-centric comedies (we're looking at you, Bridesmaids) short-sell the characters' steady unravelings. This is hardly a washed-out rom com that offers a few giggles and swoony couplings; it's at once riotous and tender, and we had to get the scoop from the film's costume designer, Anna Bingemann.
When she isn't prettying Gwyneth Paltrow, Naomi Watts, and other bold-faced stunners for the red carpet, Bingemann does costumes for movies here and there—her first one? Vanilla Sky—and, excuse our literary fangirl squealing, is helping out on a documentary about the writer, Joan Didion (her husband's aunt). If that didn't inspire enough heart-fluttering, she chatted about researching for Bachelorette, filmed in just 24 days, in both bridal salons and strip clubs. She is a delight.
