Defying Gravity's Monique Prudhomme - Clothes Call

Defying Gravity costume designer Monique Prudhomme (photo by/copyright of Kim McCarthy)

It was over a year ago that a group of very talented people came together in Vancouver, British Columbia to create the Sci-Fi/Sci-Fact TV series Defying Gravity. It tells the story of a multi-national crew of male and female astronauts on a six-year journey to explore our solar system on-board the spaceship Antares. Along the way, they discover exactly who and what is, in fact, really driving their mission. Among the creative minds that worked on the show is costume designer Monique Prudhomme, who was able to use her keen eye for both the present and futuristic worlds when creating attire for the show's characters.

"When I was first approached to do this project, I was interested in doing a Science Fiction show that was to a certain degree not Fantasy," notes Prudhomme during a chat in June 2009 on the Defying Gravity set. "Of course, Science Fiction is always Fantasy, but in this instance we wanted to keep things as close to reality as possible. That was a challenge; to make things look interesting and something that was different but not too different from what we see at NASA today.

"The thing, though, with Science Fiction is that we're not there yet," says the costume designer with a smile, "so it is almost like a projection into the future. However, when it came to keeping this all believable, we took into consideration, for example, the EVA [Extra-Vehicular Activity] suit that NASA uses now. They were designed 30 years ago but continue to be used today because they still work. Of course, NASA is also developing new suits for astronauts to wear that will have enhanced movement and increased maneuverability as missions become more and more complex and involve planets that we know very little about.

"I was fascinated by all that and thought it would be a wonderful challenge as well as a wonderful [creative] stretch, so here I am."

Spacesuit sketch #1 (by Monique Prudhomme) 

Spacesuit sketch #2 (by Monique Prudhomme)

 
All suited up, members of the Defying Gravity cast head to set; (front, left to right), Ty Olsson (Rollie Crane), Florentine Lahme (Nadia Schilling), Dylan Taylor (Steve Wassenfelder), and (back, left to right), Christina Cox (Jen Crane) and Paula Garces (Paula Morales) 

Having booked Defying Gravity, Prudhomme began doing her homework insofar as how she and her team would approach their design work. "The actual research has been interesting as well because there's a lot of 'what ifs,'" she says. "For instance, there's a suit being developed at a university in the States by a woman engineer; it's almost a biological suit that includes the regeneration of tissue. It involves working with Kevlar [a para-aramind synthetic fiber] and this and that to create the necessary pressure to keep the human body intact.

"They only have a piece of this suit that measures something like six foot square, but that's where they're going with that. When they'll perfect, who knows? Based on that, though, we created a suit that is quite close to the body and allows a wide range of movement and freedom. From there, we had to invent things. After all, we're making a costume as opposed to something that needs to work in the real world, or shooting a documentary on how to make an EVA suit. Our suit needed to be slim and functional as well as easy to wear, and at the same time appear to have a mechanical feature to it. And most of all, it needed to be believable.

Ron Livingston (as Maddux Donner) prepares for a space walk 

Laura Harris (as Zoe Barnes) is all smiles on-set 

Prudhomme chuckles when asked about working on Defying Gravity's pilot episode. "It took a lot of fabric and a lot of searching to make everything work, because we created our own fabric," recalls the costume designer. "The suits are made from a combination of five fabrics, including one that allows the body to breathe, so when the actors are wearing their outfits they're not sweating like crazy. There's also tubing and other elements that represent mechanical components of the suit. For the final fabric layer we chose the color white because there is no light in space, so we needed to have our astronauts in white in order for them to be seen.

"Each suit was made-to-measure for our actors. All the fabric was quilted and then cut to size for the women and men's patterns. So it was quite a process once we finally found the right fabrics together with the correct colors and dyes."

Although our heroes on Defying Gravity do venture outside the confines of the Antares, most of their days are spent inside the spaceship. During that time, they wear a standard "uniform" as well as underclothes specifically designed to keep them firmly grounded. "We had to create a uniform for the ship that was easy to wear," explains Prudhomme. "Because it's comfortable, no one has to think about what they're going to wear when they get up in the morning.

"Under their uniform, everyone wears what looks like an old-fashioned, long-sleeved bathing suit. We call them gravity suits and they're supposedly made from a special nano-fiber with magnetic qualities that allow our characters to walk throughout the ship and keep their feet on the floor. If you're not wearing a gravity suit, then you'll float.

"In the pilot, Rollie [Ty Olsson] and Jen [Christina Cox] share an intimate scene where they take off their suits and start floating. There are areas of the Antares where there is rotation, and rotation creates gravity, so places like the crew quarters, the galley and medical bay are where gravity is created mechanically for the ship. Everywhere else, if they push the anti-gravity button, everyone floats. So the gravity suits were a necessity and one that was difficult to make look interesting and not like a pair of long-johns or horrible underwear," she jokes.

Actor Ron Livingston (Maddux Donner) dressed in standard Antares' uniform

Gravity suit sketches (by Monique Prudhomme) 

Florentine Lahme models her character Nadia's gravity suit 

Besides outer space gear, Prudhomme also had to clothe the men and women of the International Space Organization (ISO) monitoring the Antares' journey at Mission Control back on Earth. She had to provide the outfits for flashback scenes as well.

"We had to create a look that was not only pleasant and that the viewer could identify with, but also one that in five or ten years would not be dated," says the costume designer. "So we made some choices in terms of color and style. It was very simple; I kept Mission Control in blacks and grays and the lines are close to the body, so there is a certain timelessness to that. I didn't get into big shoulders, asymmetrical looks or anything that would be odd-looking.

"It was the same for the flashbacks in that we kept a sense of unity. Also, these guys are scientists/astronauts, and they're geeks, too, so they dress in a way that is very practical. Twenty years ago, people were wearing jeans and Tee-shirts, and 20 years from now they'll still be wearing the same things, only in nifty new fabrics that are different from anything that's around today. Most of the clothing we've worn over the last 50 years has been consistent, and I think it's more a question of style as well as colors and coatings to create a futuristic kind of different clothing line. And it was our decision to do that, to keep an elegance and a classic look that was, again, timeless."

Ron Livingston sports his character's ISO instructor's suit

Behind-the-scenes at an ISO training class 

Episode-wise, each Defying Gravity story had its own wardrobe challenges. "There's an episode where the characters are training in the water, so we got to dress them in some Olympic-type swimsuits," says Prudhomme. "In another episode, we have a Halloween party, and I'm just finishing up work now on some hazmat suits with big helmets and breathing apparatus. They're made of this kind of gold/green heavy-duty fabric and they look really neat. So with every new script there have been new challenges, but they're fun ones as well."

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, The Fog and 5ive Days to Midnight are among Prudhomme's feature film credits. She has also worked on a number of TV movies including Futuresport and Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.E.I.L.D. in addition to the TV series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven as well as Sleepwalkers. On most workdays, the costume designer usually has to juggle a variety of balls, and while this might be a daunting prospect to some people, she enjoys it.

"My job includes not only technical, creative and research elements, but also diplomacy and psychology, all of which makes the work extremely interesting," she says. "Of course, the discovery of each new world that you help create is always very exciting and something I always look forward to."

Steve Eramo

Except where noted, all above photos by Paul Lavigne, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Comments

[Sue]

Another great interview--very interesting! Just wish the darned show had been renewed for season 2!

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