Breanne L. Heldman

'Limitless': Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Brian’s Crazy Sweaters

Breanne L. Heldman

·New York Bureau Chief, Yahoo Entertainment

February 16, 2016 at 4:45 PM

Wearing wacky sweaters wasn’t exactly in the character description when the costume department started to prepare to shoot the pilot for Limitless. “It happened really organically,” wardrobe designer Sarah Mae Burton tells Yahoo TV. “Jake McDorman, who plays Brian, was interested in having some sort of cardigan or funky sweater in the pilot for the period where he was not on NZT. We ran out and grabbed something on sale at Urban Outfitters, and it’s become this kind of iconic cardigan. … It’s been kind of funny as we’ve moved on and keep reusing it because we only have the one. We don’t have multiples of it.”

But they did have to find a second of the now infamous chevron sweater eventually. “We did an episode where the writers actually wrote in that Rebecca and Ike were wearing the sweater — which was so funny — so we were scouring eBay, and it turned out that someone in the writers room had one of these sweaters by chance, so we borrowed it from them.”

Behold, the Ralph Lauren Denim & Supply sweater that made us decide once and for all that we needed to write this story. And Burton was pretty pumped about the heavy knit number as well. “We get very excited when we find a good one. There’s this American flag cardigan, and when we found it, we were like, ‘Yes! Of course Brian would have this sweater.’ And it’s one of those things where you look at it and you’re like, 'Who else really wears this? Who was this sweater actually made for?'”

We don’t always second guess who might wear such woolly wonders, perhaps because McDorman looks so darn good in all of them. “It’s incredible,” Burton says in agreement. “He can really pull them off. That’s a big part of it. Not everybody can put those things on and look as cool as he does.”

Burton notes that many of Brian’s sweaters come from Tommy Hilfiger, and this bright striped number was one of the first they found following the chevron cardigan.

“This one is also Tommy Hilfiger,” Burton says. “That one we found a few months later, and, again, we were excited. Jake has such beautiful blue eyes — blue looks fabulous on him — so we knew it would be a hit.”

Episode 13, “Stop Me Before I Hug Again,” was a treasure trove of surprising sweaters, but, seeing as it saw Brian reverting a bit and referring to serial killers as Mr. Pralines & Cream and Mr. Butter Pecan, that made perfect sense. Ish. “This was an episode where we really amped up the color and the childlikeness of the sweaters,” Burton explains. “We went even further than what he normally wears because… I mean, a dinosaur’s telling us the story of a crime scene.”

“I love this one,” Burton says of Brian’s arrow-covered number in Episode 13. “It’s Paul Smith — it’s one of the ones from a higher-end designer that we picked up in a department store. It’s not a cardigan, so we’re moving into one of Brian’s newer things, and it’s a little bit of a thinner weight but it still has the fun and character that make it him.”

“It’s a challenge in and of itself: Can we find a sweater that is actually too crazy for Brian?” After seeing this mountain-covered sweater from H&M (also from Episode 13), we think not.

What does Brian wear to meet with a zoologist? A sweatshirt with an elephant on it, obvi.

“When we got picked up and started doing costume fittings, Jake came in… and he wanted to maintain a little bit of the person that Brian was before he became Brian on NZT, someone who lives in Williamsburg and shops at thrift stores and has this sort of collection of interesting things. The sweaters have become an essential part of that,” Burton says.

If you think this grey striped sweater seems a little subtle for Brian, that’s intentional. “He is smart enough that he wouldn’t wear his craziest sweaters to a meeting with the heads of the FBI unless he’s trying to point out that he isn’t one of them. There’s certainly a range of the patterns and colors and how wild they really are,” Burton says.

This was clearly another gray day at the office for Brian.

Eventually, the weather will get warmer. Burton has it covered: “Brian does have some thinner cardigans, and he has some fun shirts that have the same sort of interest and pattern to them that he’ll wear when we’re into the season and he can’t wear his big, chunky sweaters.”

Wearing wacky sweaters wasn’t exactly in the character description when the costume department started to prepare to shoot the pilot for Limitless. “It happened really organically,” wardrobe designer Sarah Mae Burton tells Yahoo TV. “Jake McDorman, who plays Brian, was interested in having some sort of cardigan or funky sweater in the pilot for the period where he was not on NZT. We ran out and grabbed something on sale at Urban Outfitters, and it’s become this kind of iconic cardigan. … It’s been kind of funny as we’ve moved on and keep reusing it because we only have the one. We don’t have multiples of it.”

Wearing wacky sweaters wasn’t exactly in the character description when the costume department started to prepare to shoot the pilot for Limitless. “It happened really organically,” wardrobe designer Sarah Mae Burton tells Yahoo TV. “Jake McDorman, who plays Brian, was interested in having some sort of cardigan or funky sweater in the pilot for the period where he was not on NZT. We ran out and grabbed something on sale at Urban Outfitters, and it’s become this kind of iconic cardigan. … It’s been kind of funny as we’ve moved on and keep reusing it because we only have the one. We don’t have multiples of it.”

Without fail, Every time we watch CBS’s new hit Limitless, we’re left with two pressing questions: What would it be like to take NZT (duh), and what the heck is up with Brian Finch’s crazy sweaters?

While we can’t answer the first one — it’s a fictional drug, you guys! — we did manage to get to the bottom of the second by grilling wardrobe designer Sarah Mae Burton… and it’s not just because actor Jake McDorman is perpetually cold.

“Brian is a guy who’s in this very serious environment within the FBI, but he isn’t that, so he’s decided he isn’t going to dress the part and he’s just going to be himself,” Burton explains in brief. “So we always look for things that have a little bit of character and life to them.”

Click through our gallery for an in-depth look at some of Brian’s wildest knits.

Limitless airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on CBS.

(All photos courtesy of CBS.)

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