American Horror Story: Freak Show is only two episodes in, but it's already being hailed for being the most chilling season yet (not to mention those so-chic '50s looks). But I'm still shivering over last season's Coven—and its fashion-focused outfits. Lucky for me, last weekend, in honor of American Horror Story: Coven being released on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD, a group of fans and journalists (good thing I consider myself both!) were invited to New Orleans to tour Buckner Mansion—the filming location used for Miss Robichaux's Academy—view a screening of upcoming Freak Show episodes, and meet with some of the cast and crew. Below are some of the fascinating things I learned from costume designer Lou Eyrich about the influences for Freak Show, the stories behind the most memorable fashion moments, and how to score your own Coven-inspired witch costume this Halloween.
On her inspiration for Freak Show's costumes...
"Faded glamour. Elsa Mars had this great freak show carnival, and now it's a dying art. We were going to do a kind of dust bowl [look] with sad, muted tones—everything beige and rosy. Then we started doing the fittings, and I found out we were shooting it [in New Orleans]. With the green grass and all the colorful buildings and character down here, we decided to shift it into a very colorful Technicolor look—like the old movies, the '50s, Todd-AO. It was so much more interesting to watch with those splashes of polka dots, stripes, and shiny garments. I'm really glad we changed it because it's much more interesting on-screen, in my opinion."
On the story behind Twisty the Clown's look...
"The premise is that this is a costume he's been wearing since the '30s. Something happens and he flees. We don't know why, but now he's been wearing his costume for a long time. We tried to age it to look like it smells. It had three red pom-poms on it—but Ryan Murphy is really hands-on with the wardrobe. He took a look at it and said, "It's too clean. It needs to be dirtier." Then he said, "Let's remove that middle pom-pom like it's been lost, and he just found something and sewed it on there." So that's why there's a yellow pom-pom in the middle."
