Minor spoilers for Chemistry courses front. On Apple TV+ Chemistry coursesbrilliant scientist Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larsen) turns her love of chemistry into a popular cooking show, Dinner at Six. After a rocky start in episode five, the demanding culinary artist finds her recipe for success by teaching her fellow multitasking women how to prepare inventive meals—all while spreading the gospel of science. As she inspires her fans to dream bigger than the social norms of the early 60s patriarchy, Elizabeth wears a cinched-waisted lab coat dazzling with emerald sequins and sequin embellishments (pictured above) – a moving away from the plaid uniform he wore at the Hastings Research Institute.
Early, costume designer Mirren Gordon-Crozier; used the favorite autumn motif to emphasize Elizabeth’s status as a lonely female laboratory assistant. Dark tartan A-line skirts, button-down plaids and conservative knits associate her with the scientists, the less competent men who bark at her coffee orders. Her all-business aesthetic also sets her apart from the rest of the female staff, secretaries who dress in soft pastels with stylish details like collars and shiny ribbons.
“I really wanted her to differentiate herself from the other secretaries, but also to fade a little [the crowd of] the male scientists,” says Gordon-Crozier. “Plaid is also more of a traditionally ‘masculine’ print. It’s not like florals or ditsy prints.”
Furthermore, neither pattern style would have resonated with Elizabeth’s constitutional and analytical mindset, who prefers her music to be “predictable” rather than “clogged”. (Until her late soul mate and professional partner Dr. Calvin Evans, played by Lewis Pullman, warmed her up to jazz, that is.) “Elizabeth Zott would pull the plaids, which are very angular and square and [have] defined angles,” confirms Gordon-Crozier. “It’s a pattern that would sum up her personality.”
After Elizabeth is forced to leave Hastings, the plaid takes on a different meaning and depicts the special bond between her and her daughter Mad (Alice Halsey), who is also gifted, headstrong and sharp. During a grocery run, Elizabeth, in green and red pedals, comforts Mad, who looks adorable in a glen check wool coat. “The madman is a bit small [Elizabeth]… it’s so close,” says Gordon-Crozier. “She really despises her mother.” Mad’s mix of Sherlock Holmes prints is also timely as the resourceful eight-year-old begins to research the background of her father, who died before she was born.
At one point, Elizabeth supports herself and Mad by charging her former colleagues to solve problems and perfect their lab findings. Her new work outfit features pieces like a men’s argyle pullover vest, a green buffalo shirt and high-waisted trousers. “At Hastings, it was a requirement for women to wear skirts… [so] it’s a power move in a way,” says Gordon-Crozier. “THE [men] they ask her for help. She can wear whatever she wants. She doesn’t need to dress for men anymore.”
For the scene where Elizabeth tears down the kitchen and rebuilds it into a workshop, Gordon-Crozier dressed Larsen in utility denim. The costume designer painstakingly sourced “broken and alive” jeans from Etsy, eBay and costume rental houses. “The best thing is to get that denim unicorn,” she says of the mid-century design elements like front pockets, side zippers, and super-high waists. “I was on the hunt for the most interesting distressed jeans, hoping for the ones with color, the ones with character marks,” says Gordon-Crozier. “I really thought she was going to start wearing this kind of work attire when she’s building her kitchen.”
For more intimate scenes, such as when Elizabeth imagines chatting with the late Calvin while sitting on her kitchen floor, Gordon-Crozier dressed Larsen in a college argyle knit (worn over a white short-sleeved shirt), dark jeans with cuffs and sports shoes.
“I erotic vests on her and a lot of the scientists wore a vest under their lab coats,” says Gordon-Crozier, who hunted through the boys’ department of stores and apparel for the look. “It brings interest and texture to a bland white palette. But especially for her it is unique and you don’t see many women wearing them [at the time.” Plus, Gordon-Crozier imagined that Larson’s character would shop secondhand (an activity that began gaining in popularity in the mid-’50s), which fits the scientist’s pragmatic values and tight budget. “That was my backstory to her choosing her garb,” says Gordon-Crozier.
After begrudgingly accepting to host a cooking show, Elizabeth struggles in a studio-mandated pink floral dress, featuring a capelet that restricts her hand movements and a frilly Pepto Bismol-hued apron during dress rehearsal. The later gets ditched when Elizabeth points out that “a lab coat has more surface area than an apron.”
As the show goes on, like its wearer, Elizabeth’s trademark apron-alternative undergoes an evolution, leading to the aforementioned bedazzled style, which bookends the series. For inspiration, Gordon-Crozier looked to the all-white haute couture room of the “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams” exhibit. “It’s so beautiful. All these [test garments] they’re different shapes and silhouettes, but they’re all in one color palette,” says Gordon-Crozier. “That really gave me the idea to make her these haute couture lab coats.”
The varied silhouettes of the lab coats feature interchangeable and modular abilities that even a non-fashionable character like Elizabeth would appreciate. For example, the New Look nipped-waisted jacket features removable sequin-trimmed collars (with coordinating sequin belts) in green, blue and black. “We started embroidering her initials to give her more personalization,” says Gordon-Crozier.
In the finale, Elizabeth exhorts an audience member to follow her ambitions while looking imperiously stylish in a single-breasted blazer-style lab coat, with a silk chiffon scarf tucked into the lapel. “This was everyone’s favorite coat,” says Gordon-Crozier, who was inspired by an early ’60s jacket with a “big ring” on the collar. “You could tie the scarf, many different ways too, or put another colored scarf through it. It’s very versatile, so that was the fun part of it.”
The elaborate experimentation with her previously edgy business attire also represents Elizabeth reaching a turning point where she can finally take a breather and enjoy her accomplishments. “As a woman who used to try to blend into the background at work, she’s now able to peacock and have fun with it,” says Gordon-Crozier. “He can appreciate fashion in its restrictive form of lab coats. We just wanted to show that she has a lightness to her as well.”
The result is a feast for the eyes.
Chemistry courses airs Fridays on Apple TV+.
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