Without even realizing it, Heidi Bivens probably had an impact on your wardrobe.

Bivens made a name for herself as a go-to costume designer for Hollywood’s top filmmakers. Throughout, she was instrumental in creating the visual narrative for the most groundbreaking projects in TV and film, including David Lynch’s Inland Empire, Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, Jonah Hill’s Mid90s, and, most recently, Euphoria. Her work in the hit HBO series garnered critical acclaim – Bivens received Emmy nominations in two consecutive years– as well as a massive response online.

In close collaboration with director Sam Levinson – and the help of cast members like Zendaya and Alexa Demie – Bivens built a distinct fashion sensibility for each character on the show that played a key  role in the show’s success. Social media blew up with ‘Euphoria High’ videos featuring Gen Z fans recreating the show’s fashion looks replete with glittery makeup. .

The second season is equally impactful. After the first episode, searches for “black cutout dresses” increased 890 percent when Alexa Demie wore an Akna Store cutout dress, according to WWD.

Bivens is a testament to the power of film and television on our wardrobe – and vice versa. We spoke to the creative about her start, what to expect this season, and her plans beyond fashion.

How did you get started? Was [TV and film] always an industry that you knew you wanted to work in? 

My first desire was to work in film. TV didn’t really come up until this project. The way things are going, there are just more opportunities to tell stories with streaming and television. In terms of movie theaters, cinema is a challenging industry right now. But the opportunity to watch content at home has just given way to many more projects and more opportunities for costume designers, which is great. .

How did you transition into entertainment and film?  

I went to Hunter College for journalism and started working at a magazine to write and I was having a good time. I started at WWD and then PAPER as a Market Editor. I realized I could work in fashion and be able to tell stories through editorials, and that’s a way to cut my teeth. The costume department was a way I could get on movie sets, so I  segued into working on costumes for film.

An early mentor told me that I was trying to do too many things; that I needed to do one thing – costumes or journalism or fashion, so that people understood what I did and wouldn’t get confused. Which didn’t appeal to me. I always had many different interests. Now that’s not only accepted, but I think it’s highly beneficial to be able to diversify.

You still work in editorial, including the recent Interview cover with Billie Eilish. What’s the biggest difference between those two worlds?

It depends on the shoot and the job, right? You could have the most fun on a print shoot with the right team, your first choice for the clothes, and everything can come together magically. But  I’ve also worked on all these types of projects and you’ll never even see the shoot or the film because it doesn’t come out. As much as I enjoy both, especially if I get to tell some type of story with clothes, I’m really interested in the bigger picture now. And in my pivot sense, after COVID hit and the world started changing, I am ready to direct. I directed episodes of a motion capture animation show for BRON Studios that’s meant to come out this year. I have a couple other projects I want to develop.  I still love to work on costumes and fashion. I’m really excited and interested in all aspects of fashion, film, and TV. It just really depends on the project and the team.

Euphoria was like a family. Everybody was so kind, generous, and appreciative of the work. It was hard work, but to know that you were appreciated makes it all okay and is that much more rewarding.

How has the experience of Euphoria been different from other projects?

It’s like its own living, breathing organism [laughs]  coming from Sam [Levinson’s] brain. He’s a genius who’s constantly thinking about the story. He’s not the kind of director to write a script, it’s on the page, and that’s it. He’s always thinking about how to make it better, how to weave the different character’s narratives together. It has made the show really original.

I’ve worked with Harmony Korine several times and he’s the same. I gravitate towards these directors, and I want to be that type of director.. someone who hires their team and just trusts them without micromanaging, overthinking, and second-guessing.

The actors have said the same thing. How has the process of building those characters with them worked?

Most of the cast is collaborative, and I’ve had fun collaborating with them. In the first season, they left it up to me to define who the characters were in terms of aesthetics, colors, and style. For the second season, we realized even more that these are lasting images and we thought more about the look and the storytelling and how we could create more nuance in our choices.

That said, there were a lot of requests to wear brands that perhaps they might want to wear in their own life, but I didn’t feel were necessarily right for the character. That’s where I had to step in and say, “Well, if three different people are asking to wear the same designer on the show and the same style, we have to draw the line somewhere.” I like to call this my ‘filter’ each character that everything has to sift through. It’s like asking, when you’re picking out clothes for yourself, ”Would I wear that? Why would I wear that? Where would I wear that? What if I wear that? What is it going to say about myself? How’s it going to look on my body? Can I afford it?” I’m responsible to do that for each of the characters.

I was really interested in the first season and how the wardrobes and the pieces played into the story, specifically Rue’s red sweatshirt. How did the idea for that develop?

We always knew she needed to have an item of clothing she’d wear all the time and that it would be something from her dad. But we didn’t know how this would be revealed. We didn’t have that script and it was something Sam weaved in later on.  I was very excited when fans figured it out. We knew it needed to be something comfortable and gender fluid, so it made sense that her father would’ve owned it. Red was the color I had chosen for Rue. Someone asked me recently why Rue isn’t seen wearing the hoodie as much in the second season. It’s there. It’s not there every time, and it’s something so precious to her that she doesn’t want to lose it. So you will see her wearing it.

The visual contrast between the two seasons is quite stark. How was building the second season different from the first? 

I was in New York and it was the first fashion week after the first season. I went to some of the shows and just remember getting really excited and thinking, I could really push it this season. I felt like I had played it safe to some extent. I know this sounds crazy but for the most part, I had really tried to keep it grounded, even though we were creating our own world.

And then I just got inspired by the shows and thought, “I’m probably not going to stay on for a third season,” as much as I love the showBecause I have these other aspirations and want to give myself a real chance in directing, for example, I had a feeling that this would probably be my last episode or last season. I just really wanted to solidify my mark on the show and do something even more fantastical in a way, because Sam had given me permission to do that. Where I felt like I had played it safe for season, I thought that for the second season, let me just go for it. Let me just have as much fun as I can, and give people a visual treat.

Was there any character that was especially challenging to build or, and vice versa? I imagine Hunter [Schafer’s] would be very cool to work on because she just goes for it. 

Oh, Hunter’s my muse [laughs]. Any difficulty was more in the very beginning, working on the pilot and on the first episode and establishing who these characters were going to be…wrapping my head around these characters when there wasn’t much backstory. A  narrative technique Sam uses is that each character will get an episode as their origin story, and then you get to find out how they became who they are. It’s like nature and nurture. By the second season, it  solidified to some extent, and we needed to just figure out what the arc for the season is.  For me, it’s really intuitive, and one of the reasons why I gravitate towards what I do.

It sounds like directing and writing your own projects is the next step. Where are you with that, if you can even say?

I’m developing a feature script that I started writing over 10 years ago and picked back up again. It’s a psychological thriller set in Paris in the late 1990s. I have some producers who really support me and believe in me. I want to give myself a chance, because it’s very easy to busy yourself and take on costume job after costume job and styling gig after styling gig, and just get busier each year. And then it’s 20 years later, and I will be like, “oh, wait what?” I really want to try to focus on that and create some personal goals that I can move towards.

There are still directors that I would like to always work with, like Harmony [Korine] and Jonah Hill. I also welcome working with more female directors as well. I’m extremely excited about the BRON Studios motion capture animated project Gossamer, which will come out this year. It’s based on the Lois Lowry novel. She wrote The Giver. Most millennials have read it in school.

That’s so exciting. I’m so happy to get to speak with you. 

Thank you!

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.