Jennifer Starzyk (‘The Iron Claw’ costume designer) on replicating the look of an iconic 1980s wrestling family [Exclusive Video Interview]
Jennifer Starzyk admits that she knew next to nothing about professional wrestling or the real-life family the film depicts before she signed on to design the costumes for the A24 release “The Iron Claw.” She was surprised at what she discovered. “What I found out is it was live theater,” she observes. “It’s these insanely athletic, talented people that not only need to be completely strong and inhuman with strength, but there’s choreography, there’s costumes, there’s showmanship. I mean, it was just the most exciting thing to get into. It was such a gift…There’s just so many nuances in our movie with patriarchy and brotherhood and striving and where it gets you in life. Wrestling is its own thing as an ancient sport, and it’s very masculine. But there’s dress-up involved.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
That dress-up part is where Starzyk comes in. “The Iron Claw” tells the story of the Von Erich brothers professional wrestling dynasty of the early 1980s, through glorious triumph and ultimately wrenching tragedy. It stars Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White. And in terms of the costumes, it’s about far more than shorts, tank tops, knee pads and boots. “You have a lot of different body types, and we had to specifically cut a pattern for each of our cast (members). Not only did it have to look correct from the front, the back and the side, it also had to be period accurate and try to convey the wrestling trunk style of the time – which was a little bit higher, hitting around the belly button area. It wasn’t as simply as you’d imagine.”
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It was quite the research project in addition to a fashion challenge for Starzyk. She dove into YouTube to watch the real-life Von Erichs (Kevin, David, Kerry, Chris and Mike) in action in their prime as well as documentaries. Starzyk was fortunate to partner with a company that had the proper machine and manpower to make the old style shorts in bulk – quickly. “I don’t think we would have been able to manage it without them,” she admits. There were also the robes and boots that were part of the pioneering look of the brothers. “It was really a static sport before them. This was before Hulk Hogan and all of these other guys who followed.”
The boots were another issue. “We had a very specific kind of boot that we had to have,” Starzyk says, “and we needed somebody that would have the finesse of knowing what the toe shape was, the fit and so on and so forth. So I Googled and looked on Instagram for ‘Von Erich wrestling boots.’ Somebody popped up and the best thing you know, I’m DM-ing with Ray from Ace Boots. And he was tickled pink. He’s from Texas. Wrestling’s a big part of his culture. He had to be under tremendous stress and demand with our schedule. Twice he had to personally drive the boots to us. It was so cool.”
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No one knew the anxiety involved in generating costumes for a project of this scale and focus, Starzyk believes. The cast members arrived the day of shooting and picked up their costumes, oblivious to the hassle. “Nobody has to know the whole backstory, until now,” she says.
This is to say nothing of the fact that each wrestling actor in “The Iron Claw” had his own look, much as the actual brothers did. “Kevin was the American jock with the silhouette almost of a zip-up hoodie,” she explains. “David was like the western one, a little bit country, a little bit rock ‘n’ roll. And he wore what I called the ‘Midnight Cowboy; jacket. Kerry’s vibe was the 1980s rock star, so he sometimes wore headbands and a shorty robe like you’d wear out of the shower. And then Mike – who got dragged into wrestling later – would be in a polo and corduroy shorts, not fitting in at all. We also wanted to make sure they had an arc between when they started and when they ended, and (their look) got more elaborate and more rock star as it went on, and brighter.”
“The Iron Claw” from A24 is being released in theaters on December 22.
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