Like many people who watched The Drama, the controversial new A24 film starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as an engaged couple on the brink, I left the theater itching to talk to someone about what I saw on screen.
Yes, yes—the plot twist was wild and raised several questions about ethical gray areas and the fallibility of forgiveness. But it would be an oversight on my part not to bring up another aspect of the film worth dissecting with equal zeal: Emma’s enviable wardrobe.
Emma (Zendaya) is a bookish Bostonian engaged to Charlie (Pattinson), a curator at the Cambridge Museum of Art. They are an academic power couple—and most importantly, they have taste. Not in a performative, ripped-from-Pinterest kind of way; they seem genuinely curious and appreciative about art and culture. Emma’s personal style reflects this interest in the quality, craftsmanship, and timelessness of the pieces she selects. She is not a trend chaser; that doesn’t mean she looks dated, either. Her style is perfect contradiction—both timeless and incredibly modern.
“We tried to make sure that she never looked too obsessive about style,” Katina Danabassis, The Drama‘s costume designer, tells Glamour. “She has an understated, simple, professional look that doesn’t try too hard.”
The end result is, for want of a better word, chic. Of course Zendaya can make anything look chic, but her wardrobe in this film goes beyond her preternatural good looks and modelesque stature. Everything item of clothing, every accessory, all looks so luxurious to the point that I assumed Danabassis must have chosen to suspend reality budget-wise when putting it all together. How much does a 29-year-old in publishing make in a year, anyway?
Speaking to the LA-based costume designer, however, I learned that much of Emma’s wardrobe is shockingly affordable. All it takes is a little “shopping sensibility,” as Danabassis puts it, to make everything work. Luckily, she’s not gatekeeping what shopping sensibility looks like in real life.
Below, she shares her secrets to Emma’s classic style, her eBay search terms, the pieces Zendaya herself took home with her, and so much more.
Glamour: What was the direction you were given for Emma and what her clothing was meant to convey?
Katina Danabassis: The main word was “academic.” Both Emma and Charlie are educated and live in Boston, which is a college town. That sensibility had to be conveyed. One of my conversations with [director Kristoffer Borgli] was about making sure that she looked bookish, literally, because that’s what she does. She works at a publishing company. We tried to make sure she never looked too obsessive about style, that she had the ease of a city person. Not too New York, though her look can easily exist in New York.
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