episode 308 - August 6, 2007

I love the writing on The Closer and so much of my inspiration fro what I put Brenda in depends on the written word. In this particular episode I just knew that what with Brenda and Fritz getting engaged and wearing a real over 1 carat classic Tiffany solitaire diamond engagement ring (provided very graciously by Tiffany), that Miss Brenda Leigh Johnson had to honor miss Holly Golightly and wear classic black and oh-so-chic white. Often D.P.'s ( Directors of Photography) don't like actors wearing white as it reflects too much light and usually we in the costume department have to have pure white sent out to our over night dyers and teched to a light beige. But I knew that for this episode I wanted Brenda to be in those two classic colors, or absence of color and also with the essence of white it also plays up Brenda's vulnerability for how the episode ends. The incredible white leather 3/4 length dress up coat is from H&M, the Madonna Collection. I had bought the coat several weeks before I'd even read the script. Only a few days into shooting, my Wardrobe Supervisor, Eric Van Wagoner asked where the double was for the stunt. Double? I only had purchase ONE, a month ago. Ooops! And with the popularity of the Madonna line there was not another white leather coat to be had, except at H&M headquarters in New York City. A call was made to H&M P.R. and overnight a sample coat was shipped to L.A. arriving at the Beverly Center store at 3 p.m. on a Friday afternoon and we were shooting the warehouse scene in San Pedro, CA about 30 miles away. My Costume P.A., Melissa Kidd, picked up the coat from an intermediary in the parking lot of the mall and thanks to cell phones I was able to track Melissa as she wound her way through rush hour traffic driving on 3 different L.A. freeways and screeching up to the curbside of the abandoned warehouse just in time for Miss Sedgwick's stunt girl to don the coat and never even go before the camera! Miss Sedgwick did all of her own stunts in this incredible scene. But, my set costumers Emilio Anorve and Ruben Calderon were kept busy with Baby Wipes and rags full of leather cleaner to keep all of the smudges and dirt off of the hero coat. Ahhh, the tricks of the trade. Brenda's black and white polka dot pinwheel sweater was found at Nordstom, by Anne Klein. I finished off the look with white patent leather open toed kitten heeled pumps...hey, it's okay, it's not Labor Day yet!

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