The costume designer behind The Devil Wears Prada 2

Brought to you by Macy's: a little interview with Molly Rogers, the underground renegade behind some of the most fashionable media out there. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Avery Trufelman?

  This is a little miniature episode that is sponsored by Macy's. So I've never done a sponsored branded episode before and I promise I wouldn't do it if I didn't think you'd really like it because this is who I got to talk to.

• 0:15Speaker 01

  My name is Molly Rogers and I'm a, guess, a costume designer for, well, I'm a human being, thank goodness. I'm not AI. You're not having an interview with AI.

• 0:26Avery Trufelman?

  Well, the thing is, you're not just any costume designer. Like, you've worked on, like, the most fashion-y things in the world. Can you name some of the titles you've worked

• 0:34Speaker 01

  I have. I have. I've been very, very blessed to have worked on the original Sex in the City and the two Sex in the City movies and Ugly Betty and I did And Just Like That. And I worked under Patricia Field and she doesn't like me saying that. She likes me to say with her on the first Devil Wears Prada and the second one is coming out, which I did solo.

• 1:02Avery Trufelman?

  There are a lot of different listeners to this program, some of whom will be like, "Oh, my God, Pat Field," and some will be like, "What? Who's that?" Because so many of the projects you've worked on are like, they're about fashion. Like, these take place in the fashion world, but I think a lot of people would be a little surprised to learn that a lot of these fashion shows come from underground artist figures. I don't know if you'd want to call yourself that, but you're definitely much more in the alternative underground New York scene than like the, the

• 1:36Speaker 01

  Totally. Avery, thank you. Yes, that is very, very true. Pat and myself and Pat's girlfriend at the time, who also worked on Sex in the City and Assistance, we were all downtown night people. We had a different perspective than someone uptown that worked at Vogue and sat on the front row of fashion shows.

• 2:01Avery Trufelman?

  The costumes for the Devil Wears Prada and Sex in the City were designed by punks and former club kids. Back in the day, Patricia Field was a downtown New York fixture with her cherry red hair and her cigarette rasp and her tendency to date younger women. On 8th Street, Pat had a boutique that sold bedazzled hoodies and rhinestone bustiers and mirrored t-shirts and wigs in every color.

• 2:24Speaker 01

  She had a very famous store. It was like downtown Central. It was our clubhouse and everybody went there, everybody.

• 2:34Avery Trufelman?

  Keith Haring drew a mural on Pat's window. RuPaul modeled for her. Amanda Lepore worked her makeup counter. Her regulars were Patti Smith and Debbie Harry and later Lady Gaga and Missy Elliott. Pat Field's boutique was in the center of everything. Molly was captivated by it.

• 2:52Speaker 01

  I had read, and I don't recall where, I had read some small little article, I think in a music magazine, about a woman who had a store in Greenwich Village. And I didn't know New York from anything. Something very witchy poo happened, I don't know what. And in the back of my mind, I was like, I'm gonna meet that lady one day. There was something in that small little article that made me go to New York. And the day I landed in New York, Friday the 13th, July 1984, if my memory is correct, very witchy also, I walked over to Pat's store on 8th Street.

• 3:35Speaker 01

  And I walked in, I had a paper dress on and dreadlocks and my southern accent, so it was all twisted and warped. And she was in there with Mary Paul, who some people probably don't know, but she's a French stylist who styled Madonna in 84 in the beginning. And they were looking at rubber bracelets, which Madonna made a trend, a huge trend. I remember being so... Intimidated, I'm sure she was standing there with two cigarettes lit and Mary Paul. And it was a tough crowd. And there I was, my little paper dress on and my accent.

• 4:17Speaker 01

  Who knows what I seemed like to them, but I introduced myself and asked her for a job. And she was like, do you know how to fold T-shirts? And I was like, well, I don't know, but I could try. And she said, well, there's Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat T-shirts in the back. Those two guys had made some T-shirts for Pat and go back there and fold them for me. And I started work there.

• 4:41Avery Trufelman?

  And the rest is history. Molly worked at Pat's store. And then Pat morphed into one of the most famous costume designers of the screen. And then so did Molly. So you didn't plan on becoming a costume designer?

• 4:54Speaker 01

  No, I never knew what I was gonna do. I felt like everybody around me had figured out what they were gonna do for the rest of their lives. I know that's not true, but I really felt like I was wandering. And I'm so glad the wandering turned into like a path. Because I was never really that interested in clothes. And I'm a lot like Pat. I don't know what the it bag is. Pat was always like that. You know, you have assistants that are younger that can tell you the it bag is the rose bloody blah. I have people that are interested and can inform me that way.

• 5:37Avery Trufelman?

  But Molly's assistants also have to be particular kinds of people.

• 5:41Speaker 01

  Girls come up to me and say, I love to shop. Can I work for you? No, that is the wrong thing to say to me. If you love to shop, that's telling me personally that you love to shop for yourself.

• 6:00Speaker 01

  And that does not make a very good shopper. If you come up to me and say, I am so familiar with Pat's style and the downtown scene. And I am so, I know the hottest nightclub right now is a secret spot in Brooklyn. And I go there five nights a week. I will be like, you are the kind of shopper that will bring me something that I have never seen. And that's what I'm interested in. That's what I think is a wider eye. It's like looking at the bigger picture. And one of Pat, I want to say this about Pat too.

• 6:45Speaker 01

  One of her most dreaded questions from a reporter would be, how do you find what's going to be a trend? And she was like, I don't subscribe to trends. And I see what I like and I go for it. And that's how I was brought up by her.

• 7:09Avery Trufelman?

  Does it feel like you're sort of injecting downtown style in a mainstream way?

• 7:14Speaker 01

  I mean, I don't get too many ideas from an Upper East Side housewife. You know, we built Charlotte on that look.

• 7:23Avery Trufelman?

  Right.

• 7:24Speaker 01

  So, yeah, I guess so. I guess downtown, street, something that has a little edge to it. And I get almost all my inspiration from the street. And that is the New York street or the Paris street or the Tokyo street. If you are trying to do contemporary fashion projects, your inspiration, you have to be contemporary yourself. So when a movie calls for me to, because I work in such a contemporary, usually such a contemporary script, that you can go out and shop it. It's about how you interpret it and style it.

• 8:08Avery Trufelman?

  So do you have any tips for people? Like, how do you actually go about observing the streets?

• 8:13Speaker 01

  I don't have my head in my device. I open my eyes. You need to open your eyes and look around and see what's right in front of you.

• 8:27Avery Trufelman?

  I feel like so much of the work you've done is about pushing the boundaries of what people can wear and what they could, you know, like, why not wear a tutu on the street, you know? Why not?

• 8:36Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:36Avery Trufelman?

  Do something, why wear a dirndl, where, where something?

• 8:39Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:39Avery Trufelman?

  A little nutty. And I think people, do you have any advice for people who might be a little new at risk-taking when it comes to what they wear?

• 8:48Speaker 01

  I think it's important, Pat taught me this, to take something that has a specific purpose.

• 8:57Avery Trufelman?

  Yeah.

• 8:57Speaker 01

  And to give it that twist, that Sex and the City twist, and put it towards another use. If you feel like your wardrobe is flat, let's say, and you want a little twist to it, then take a scarf, for example, instead of putting it around your neck or putting it around your hair or head. I'm sure some people have seen this a million times, but some people haven't. Tie two together and wear it as a belt. Do you know what I mean?

• 9:31Avery Trufelman?

  Wow.

• 9:33Speaker 01

  Woo, groundbreaking. No, take an article of clothing and make it do something other than what it's supposed to do. You, you experiment and you have fun. Have fun. Do you like an article of clothing? Then by all means, get it and wear it with good health.

• 9:56Avery Trufelman?

  Well, I wanted to ask, because, you know, I remember when I would take kind of risks in clothes and people would make comments or be like, you know, did you get dressed in the dark? You get like?

• 10:07Speaker 01

  Right.

• 10:07Avery Trufelman?

  Feedback. And I know you've gotten your fair share of feedback. Yeah.

• 10:13Speaker 01

  I was telling someone the other day, I got a death threat for putting that hat. On Carrie in the Park, that hat was called My Head in the Clouds, and it was a real soft floaty hat. And everybody had an opinion. But you know what? I liked it and she liked it. And I liked the artist that made that hat. And so a comment about, did you get dressed in the dark? Or whatever, doesn't really mean anything to me. Because I liked it and I can stand on that. You know what I mean?

• 10:51Avery Trufelman?

  Can I, can I ask you about Devil Wears Prada 2?

• 10:54Speaker 01

  A million girls would kill to not only work on the first one, but then work on the second one. I feel like I've been hit by lightning. And hopefully, people will like it. And if they do not, I sure had fun doing it. And I want, I really want to enjoy it. And I hope people will enjoy it. I just wonder, are we able, including myself? Am I able, is the audience able to go and just go somewhere in the movie and not be like, well, I would have chosen a different one, you know?

• 11:31Avery Trufelman?

  But I do think it evidences, I do like that people have opinions. Even if they're sharp opinions, I do like that they care and they weigh in.

• 11:39Speaker 01

  I do too. I don't like death threats over a hat.

• 11:43Avery Trufelman?

  No, I'm sorry.

• 11:46Avery Trufelman?

  And here is why this little mini episode is sponsored by Macy's. It's where you can get a little piece of Molly Rogers's style for yourself.

• 11:54Speaker 01

  I have created a collection with Macy's that I'm super excited about. One of the reasons why I was attracted to doing a collection with Macy's is because it just has such a New York legacy, which most of the shows that I've worked on have as well and take place in very New York at the core.

• 12:15Avery Trufelman?

  Macy's is one of the last great department stores. It's a New York institution. It's the funder of the Thanksgiving parade and the Fourth of July fireworks. They have a tradition where the whole staff lines up to applaud the first shoppers who come in every morning. And last time I went in there, I was like, wow, this building is remarkable. Listen to that. They still have a wooden escalator in the store. It's from the 1920s. Macy's is a special place.

• 12:39Speaker 01

  So it all felt really like a good connection. But I wanted to create something that maybe was unexpected to see at Macy's. And I hope I did that because I brought kind of my favorite things, all of my values or ideas into a collection. I like to tell people, there's a beautifully wafer thin, paper thin duster in the Macy's collection. And it's a beautiful blue. I don't know if I'd call it cerulean. We'd have to... And I don't know if it's going to be trending, that blue. I just know that I liked it, you know? I don't go by predictions or forecasts.

• 13:23Speaker 01

  And it's paper thin. A thin duster coat like that has nothing to do with weather conditions. It's not going to keep you warm, keep you not from not getting wet. It is literally a piece of jewelry in a way that you can add as a little addition. And it's something that if I saw in a store, I would want to see wafting across a New York City street. Also, there's an idea that I have always wanted to reimagine. There's a green five-pocket pant in the collection. And Macy's helped me put the pocket on the back of the pant, right above the bum.

• 14:06Speaker 01

  So it's like a fanny pack, but it's already incorporated into the pant.

• 14:10Avery Trufelman?

  That pant with the built-in fanny pack, so cool. Why hasn't anyone done that before? So when is your line coming out at Macy's?

• 14:18Speaker 01

  May 6th, right at the beginning of the wonderful, beautiful weather. And I hope that I will see people in it and enjoying it.

• 14:30Avery Trufelman?

  If you see someone wearing it, are you going to go up to them?

• 14:32Speaker 01

  I might, yeah. Where did you get that fabulous jacket? That would be so much fun.

• 14:39Avery Trufelman?

  That's reason enough to get the collection, to get a chance to meet you.

• 14:43Speaker 01

  Yay!

• 14:44Avery Trufelman?

  The collection Molly Rogers Made with Macy's is available now.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  Yay, Macy's!