During one of her ongoing shopping sprees to clothe the stars of "The O.C.," the show's wardrobe guru, Karla Stevens, gave The O.C. Insider a look behind the dressing room curtain to reveal her role, the latest trends, and what it takes to keep "The O.C." cast on the cutting edge of fashion!
One of the key ingredients of the success of "The O.C." has to be the fashion. How much time is spent on these shopping sprees?
KS: Well, there's a lot of shopping to do; a lot of shopping. We have eleven principal characters this season, plus weekly day players. And, on average, we have about three days in the scripts which translates for us to about 60 costumes per episode. We shoot an episode every eight days, so we're constantly out trying to find the latest and greatest pieces.
But I think I'm the luckiest person in TV because I do have, I think, the most beautiful cast to work with. And they're all very, very lovely to be around, which makes my job a lot easier.
What's the process like from shopping to fitting to show time?
KS: When we shop, we have to remember what we're shopping for with each episode, so we're not all over the place. The way that it works is that most of these smaller boutiques have what they call "Studio Services." And what they allow us to do is they allow us to pull the clothing that we would like to fit our actors and actresses.
With most of the smaller boutiques, we only pull the clothing for about 24 to 48 hours. We know who we're fitting the following day and let's say we're fitting Summer's character, I'll have five to ten shirt choices for her and pant choices.
We try stuff on, then we go through what we call the approval process. And our executive producers have to approve the wardrobe, and once its been approved by them, we set it up for the show and what we don't use and what hasn't worked comes back to the stores.
How involved are the cast members in the actual selection of the clothes they wear on the show?
KS: They're actually all really interested in style, and sometimes-even as much as we know their characters-we're not a hundred percent sure. And I will bring pieces into the fitting room that maybe I'm only 50-50 on. Sometimes they love it, sometimes they won't, but we bring enough of a selection into the fitting so we get a good fitting out of it.
It's always nice to hear what the talent responds to as well, because I really like their instincts. They all have very great personal style, so I truther their instincts and we kind of work together to make this happen, which is a nice relationship to have.
I only show my producers what the cast is happy with, and they do have a lot of say in their fittings. I want them to be happy and feeling good when they go before the cameras."
What are some of the labels that you're excited about these days?
KS: Antique Boutique is a really hot label this season. We've used a little bit on the girls and it's really lovely. It's a great label for this upcoming season. They have a really interesting wardrobe that they do.
There's also a line of clothing called Twelfth Street that we use quite often as well. They're very funky and cool, and the girls really love Twelfth Street. We try to stay as current as possible by shopping at these smaller boutiques, because they're a little more cutting edge.
We depend on great stores like Saks, Neiman's and Barney's for our staple items because they have great pieces. But I like boutiques because it's more specialty and more one-of-a-kind and I think that what we're trying to do is just stay as current as possible; knowing what might be coming in, which gives us a bump ahead. One of my favorite small boutiques is "Champagne" in Redondo Beach.
There is a difference in the time we shoot the show and the time it airs, so we have to try and stay as cutting edge as possible, so that by the time the show airs, we'll be as current fashion-wise as we can be.
How important is the script to what clothes you're deciding on?
KS: We choose clothing according to where they're going and what scene they're going to be in. So we have to also choose clothing according to what the specific scenes are; like is this an emotional scene or are they racing down the beach in love? Or whatever the case may be, you have to choose clothing that's appropriate for that.
You don't want to have somebody in this beautiful, bright-pink shirt if they're sobbing hysterically or something. You definitely want to make sure that you stay true to the script.
We also have The Bait Shop, which is our nightclub, and the sets are a little bit darker, so it's nice to add some lighter color to that set, because it helps them pop a little bit.
How have things changed for your job on "The O.C." from before it became popular and doing your job now?
KS: I think that we've established our characters so well at this point that I feel like anywhere we go, I might find a great top for someone. I think that's just an instinct that you have when you're designing. Once your characters have been developed, it becomes a lot easier.
And now, when we're out shopping, we get a lot of help. People at the boutiques love to say, "This would be great for Mischa" [laughs]. It's fun. People definitely tap into their style. And now, I know what lines and colors look good on the girls.
Mischa is very, very cutting edge; almost Prada-esque. Rachel is a little more bohemian chic. I'm definitely now at a point where I can look at a piece and say, "This is a great color for Julie's character or Kirsten's character." Or this is really outrageous, so it'll be perfect out by the pool.
I always say that creativity is a process and the more the characters evolve in their personal lives, it kind of changes. So it's ever changing, and I think that we just try to stay as current as possible.
