Dressing up a cheap label

Press, 24 April 1987, Page 15

Dressing up a cheap label

If ever there was a job tailor-made for those for whom heaven is a limitless credit card and 24hour shopping, it has to be wardrobe supervisor on one of those glossy American shows in which the clothes are often more important than the stars who wear them, according to Britain’s “Television Today.”

At the top of the heap is Colbys’ clothes-picker Rachael Manderino, who apparently haunts the flashy Beverly Hills store, Neiman-Marcus, in search of clothes to turn the series’ resident glamour girls into showstoppers. With a wardrobe budget for just one episode of 18,000 dollars she must be spoilt for choice.

But it’s not quite as easy as it looks, especially when dealing with the kind of stars who, despite professing to be bosom buddies, are likely to scratch the eyes out of anyone who seems to be getting better outfits, as well as the person they feel might be responsible for the dreadful oversight. “All the women want to look fabulous, they all have to look different and at least three of them want to wear white,” Manderino complained in one American magazine. And the wardrobe chiefs are not above a little deception to ensure their stars stay happy. They have been known to sew an expensive label into a cheaper garment

if the actress in question is known to be impressed by expensive names. Some, like “Dynasty’s” Sammy Jo, actress Heather Locklear, apparently become so

enamoured by the way their character dresses that it overflows into their private life.

Her costumier admitted that the Sammy Jo style of outfits, which she calls the near-miss syndrome, are deliberately designed to be expensively tacky. Unfortunately this subtlety appears to have been lost on Ms Locklear, who in real life is married to a heavy metal musician not known for his sartorial elegance. The costumier recently came up with what she described as “a really trashy looking pair of boots” only to find that Locklear had actually just bought an identical pair for off-screen use a few days earlier.