Dressing the First Female President: “VEEP” Costume Designer Tells All
Julia Louis-Dreyfus wears a red Zac Posen gown as President Selina Meyer in season 4 of Veep. Photo: HBO
What should the first female President wear? For better or worse, it’s a topic that will likely surface during Hillary Clinton’s campaign—and, if all goes well, her presidency. But it’s a question that costume designer Kathleen Felix-Hager has been contemplating for four seasons, every Sunday night, on VEEP.
In fact, it’s a misnomer now: the show’s title character, Selina Meyer, dropped the “Vice” from her title at the end of last season, under somewhat dubious circumstances, making her the first female President of the United States. Thanks to the prodigiously talented Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Meyer certainly acts the part; it’s Felix-Hager’s job to make sure she looks it too.
“We’ve changed [her style] a little bit [since she became President],” says Felix-Hager. “When she was veep, we did more sleeveless dresses. We’ve kept that same silhouette—the pencil skirt silhouette—but we’ve covered her up a little bit more.”
Meyer’s shoulders do make a cameo, however, in episode two’s state dinner, in which she wears a red strapless Zac Posen gown. (The storyline called for a too-tight dress hand-picked by Gary—Meyer’s faithful assistant, played by Tony Hale—making it difficult for her to walk in front of the guests.) Mostly, though, the fictional President sticks to dresses and blouses, many of which Felix-Hager and her team specifically alter to cover Louis-Dreyfus’s elbows. So what is about an exposed joint that Felix-Hager finds so un-Presidential?
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as President Selina Meyer on Veep. Photo: HBO
“I think that even though there’s a power shift happening, there’s still some sort of unwritten rule where, for a woman to be taken seriously, she has to downplay her femininity and her sex appeal,” says Felix-Hager. “We were sort of trying to bridge that gap. We kept her in body-conscious, form-fitting dresses that still play up her femininity and show off her body, but we chose to cover her up a little bit, to give her a little layer of armor, a little more authority; she’s a little more protected.”
Unlike Clinton, however, Meyer wouldn’t be caught dead in a suit. “Selina never wears a suit this season,” says Felix-Hager, who instead turns to designers like Dolce & Gabbana, Victoria Beckham, and Jason Wu for strong, but feminine. “The power suit is a very traditional look for women in politics, but we wanted to do something a little bit different.” Think Michelle Obama, but in a neutral palette. In fact, red is Meyer’s bright color of choice, she wears it more than any other shade, including to the aforementioned state dinner, but Felix-Hager promises that’s no indication of the President’s purposefully obscured party. “It’s just a powerful color,” she says. “Julia loves red. I love red. And it looks great on her.”
As America struggles to catch up with fiction, Felix-Hager’s enjoying the “very fun” ride: “It was very freeing to be able to make up the rules because there’s never been a female President before,” she says, quickly adding, “That will hopefully change soon.”
Even Felix-Hager, whose job it is to think about how to dress a president who just happens to a woman, is more interested in Clinton’s politics than the former Secretary of State’s pastel pantsuits. “She’s running for the most powerful position in the world, and to be scrutinized for your clothes? Maybe that is not the most important question people should be asking,” she says. “I admire her. Her style works for her; it’s who she is and I think she looks great.”
Felix-Hager for First Stylist? Imagine the possibilities!
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