The Gilded Age looks like living art—but Kasia Walicka-Maimone reveals the research, strategy, color, and craft behind every gown.

Costume designer Kasia Walicka Maimone joins Voice of Costume to discuss designing HBO's The Gilded Age, the Julian Fellowes period drama where 1880s New York society becomes a runway of power, wealth, old money, new money, and visual storytelling. Kasia traces her path from growing up in rural Poland, surrounded by nature and imagination, to making her own clothes, studying culture and literature, designing theater, opera, film, and eventually building the massive costume world of The Gilded Age.

She reveals the extraordinary research process behind the series, including a visual library of more than 50,000 period images, inspiration from painters like John Singer Sargent, and the surprising truth that the 1880s were far more colorful than black-and-white photography suggests. Kasia explains how jewel tones, artificial dyes, silhouettes, organic shapes, asymmetry, and historical references help define characters, class, taste, and transformation.

The conversation also pulls back the curtain on the enormous team effort behind the costumes: design boards, fabric sourcing, budget strategy, repeat garments, in-house makers, tailoring, and the puzzle of creating museum-worthy period clothing on a television schedule. A rich conversation about beauty, history, collaboration, leadership, and the privilege of building a world over multiple seasons.

A must-listen for:

Fans of The Gilded Age, HBO period dramas, Julian Fellowes, 1880s fashion, New York society, Bertha Russell, Marian Brook, John Singer Sargent, historical costume design, period dramas, fashion history, and behind-the-scenes television craft.

The "Voice of Costume" is the first podcast created between working costume designers sharing stories, inspiration, struggles, and insights into the creative career of costume design. A behind-the-scenes podcast to showcase the voices of Costume Designers around the world. Listen in on this inspirational, one-on-one conversation with Catherine Baumgardner.

Audio available wherever you get podcasts.

https://voiceofcostume.com/

What do our clothes reveal when status, shame, ambition, and self-protection begin controlling the person we pretend to be?

Costume designer Olga Mill joins Voice of Costume for a thoughtful deep dive into Season 2 of Netflix's BEEF, exploring how clothing can expose the hidden anxieties beneath wealth, taste, success, and carefully constructed identities.

Olga traces her journey from immigrating from Ukraine and learning to "read the room" visually to studying costume design at NYU and cold-calling her way onto Boardwalk Empire. She then reveals how the costumes of BEEF distinguish Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z, while also showing that every generation wrestles with the same desire to feel original, accomplished, secure, and seen.

The conversation explores Carey Mulligan's Lindsay, whose fear of appearing "basic" produces an elevated but increasingly suffocating world of bold patterns, curated luxury, emerging designers, and Montecito style. Olga also discusses building characters with Oscar Isaac and Charles Melton, drawing inspiration from Instagram, art photography, regional fashion, the Fisher King myth, generational cycles, class aspiration, and emotional decay.

Beyond fashion, this becomes an honest conversation about vulnerability, creative collaboration, fear of rejection, identity, status, shame, and the freedom that comes from separating your worth from your work.

Fans of BEEF, Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac, Charles Melton, Netflix dramas, A24, costume design, luxury fashion, generational culture, character psychology, and emotionally layered storytelling.

The "Voice of Costume" is the first podcast created between working costume designers sharing stories, inspiration, struggles, and insights into the creative career of costume design. A behind-the-scenes podcast to showcase the voices of Costume Designers around the world. Listen in on this inspirational, one-on-one conversation with Catherine Baumgardner.

Audio available wherever you get podcasts.

https://voiceofcostume.com/

Legendary costume designer Colleen Atwood joins Voice of Costume for a fascinating look inside the gothic fashion and visual storytelling of Netflix's Wednesday. She explains how costume design begins with reality, then shifts slightly into the strange, stylized world of Tim Burton—where clothing must feel imaginative while remaining true to the character wearing it.

Colleen explores Wednesday Addams' emotional evolution, her growing friendship with Enid Sinclair, and how costumes subtly express isolation, connection, and personal growth. She reveals how Wednesday's deliberately limited black-and-white palette creates opportunities to experiment with silhouette, texture, movement, function, and tonal contrast—especially during action sequences and the spectacular Venetian gala.

The conversation also dives into Enid's deepening color palette, Morticia Addams' sculptural wardrobe, red-lined sleeves, Day of the Dead embroidery, and how Catherine Zeta-Jones' dance background helps bring dramatic costumes to life. Colleen discusses her longtime collaboration with Tim Burton, her obsession with fit and construction, and why costumes must look compelling from every camera angle—not merely beautiful from the front.

A must-listen for fans of Wednesday, Jenna Ortega, Tim Burton, gothic fashion, the Addams Family, Netflix behind-the-scenes stories, costume design, and cinematic world-building.

The "Voice of Costume" is the first podcast created between working costume designers sharing stories, inspiration, struggles, and insights into the creative career of costume design. A behind-the-scenes podcast to showcase the voices of Costume Designers around the world. Listen in on this inspirational, one-on-one conversation with Catherine Baumgardner.

Audio available wherever you get podcasts.

https://voiceofcostume.com/