A Q&A With ‘The White Lotus’ Costume Designer

Are you watching The White Lotus season three? I’m excited for the 90-minute finale coming up on Sunday. This week, I was thrilled to speak to Alex Bovaird, the brilliant costume designer behind all three seasons, about Parker Posey, boat shoes, and lots and lots of sweat…

Your career sounds like a dream! But of course every job has hard parts, often behind the scenes. What’s something tricky you faced?
All the sweat. A person is either a sweat-er or they’re not, and if you’re a sweat-er, you’re going to profusely sweat in Thailand. Walton Goggins, who plays Rick, was profuse. We brought Thompson Tees from the U.S. to soak up everyone’s sweat; we cut out the necks so you couldn’t see them underneath clothes. The armpit material looks like a sanitary towel — pretty gross!

What about Tim Ratliff? He seems sweaty, like, as a personality.
Tim was bone dry; we actually had to apply costume sweat.

My British grandfather always said that men sweat and women glow.
The women had ice packs; Parker [Posey] had one almost continuously between her thighs.

Was it fun to dress Parker Posey’s character, the Southern matriarch Victoria Ratliff?
Yes! We knew she and Timothy would open and close her bag a lot for the Lorazepam, so we had to find the perfect chic bag — the Gucci one with the bamboo handle is old-school and looks good with everything. In a perfect world, it would look more worn, but I borrowed bags from the brands and I have to give them back.

I love Piper’s dresses. She wears at least three from Ciao Lucia. Was that a choice, since she’s a recent college grad who might be loyal to a favorite brand?
We actually just found a collection that hit the right notes. Ciao Lucia dresses are whimsical, and Piper is ethereal — or at least thinks she is. You can style the dresses to make them sexy, but at Piper’s height, the length of the dresses felt chaste.

What about the boys? Saxon is so…that guy.
As a costume designer, you want to stereotype a little, so the audience can say, oooh I know who this person is. Particularly in the arrivals episode, we turned that up and made it louder. My husband and I live in the South, and there are brands that I’ve only seen there, like Southern Tide. We also dressed Saxon in Polo and Brooks Brothers. We wanted to make him cheesy — not like ‘dadcore’ but like literal dad.

That’s hilarious.
But we never want to go too far. After the first episode, I was like, let’s not do the sunglasses Croakies and the boat shoes, let’s take one element away. We’re not Zoolander. We want to be satire, not comedy.

Honestly, Saxon really grew on me. By the seventh episode, he almost seems sweet.
He has a journey, so his fits get slightly cuter; that was on purpose. We were like, Wow, you actually look kind of handsome.

What about Belinda? I loved her pink caftan with the green leaves and fish.
Belinda loves a good flow. She’s never been a guest at the White Lotus, so she wants to look like one as much as she can. She doesn’t want to look like poor Belinda. She wants to be Cinderella.

The three female friends are always together. How did you differentiate them?
At first, they’re all just cool girls. But as the season progresses, you notice that Laurie is more comfortable. When she goes out for the day, she wears loose traveler pants with her little backpack and nerdier hat. Kate is more prissy. And Jaclyn is the actress; she wants attention.

What’s an example of revealing those traits through their costumes?
When they come back after their big night out, Laurie peels off her clothes and jumps in the pool. Jaclyn comes out in a ridiculously flamboyant leopard-print suit with a robe — she has a big flouce-y look-at-me moment. And Kate actually puts pajamas on and gets MORE dressed.

Of all the characters, who do you dress most like?
I’m an older Chelsea. I’m British, she’s British; there’s an eccentric throwing-things-together panache that the Brits sometimes have. For her character, we shopped secondhand and chopped off her dresses to make them shorter.

Have people made any comments about the clothes that have surprised you?
I sometimes take a cheeky peek online when I’m on the loo, but mostly I stay off social media. We put many little clues in the costume design, but I haven’t seen anyone notice them yet. Maybe I’ll divulge them after the finale.

If you had a magic wand, what location would you choose for White Lotus’s fourth season?
The Swiss Alps. I wouldn’t mind getting people out of bikinis and into coats. We could have European royals in sweaters and furs and earmuffs. We could do a really mean aprés ski vibe.

Thank you, Alex! Follow her on Instagram, if you’d like; and she also has a ShopMy page with clothes inspired by each character.

P.S. Q&As with the costume designers of Fleabag, Girls and Crazy Rich Asians.