The Season 2 Looks of ‘White Lotus’ Costume Designer

When she discovered that Season 2 was on, she was shocked. “The White Lotus” would be set in Sicily, costume designer Alex Bovaird knew she’d have to up the ante.

“When people, especially Americans, go to Italy, they dress up a bit more. They bring their A-game,” she says, nodding towards the more beachy and casual wardrobe seen in Season 1, when the series’ rich and morally bankrupt characters cared little about impressing the Hawaiian people surrounding them.

Season 2 also traverses further outside of the White Lotus hotel than Season 1 did — again, because wealthy Americans are more likely to take a holistic interest in a Western European country than in the Pacific Islands, where the resort was treated like it was the entire world. The costumes were more varied the more locations you had.

“But it’s the same general flavor that [series creator] Mike White likes, which is, you know, ‘Go big. Go bold,’” Bovaird says. “It’s supposed to be really pleasurable to watch. Mike is interested in entertaining and pleasing as well as having things to say, so he wants the frame to be … juicy. And interesting.”

Speak with VarietyBovaird compiled highlights from Season 2’s glitzy looks by character.

Lucia and Mia

Lucia (Simona Tabasco) and Mia (Beatrice Grannò) have the widest ranging wardrobes in the series, since they’re working class girls who get to play rich for the day. Lucia is a sex worker and brings her best friend Mia along on her White Lotus adventure. They start off in cheap skirts and t-shirts, upgrade to still cheap but more showy ensembles when they go to the hotel for the first time, then finally upgrade to designer fashion when Lucia’s client, Dominic (Michael Imperioli), allows them to charge whatever they want to his room.

“There’s an echo of the movie ‘Pretty Woman.’ The dresses get sparklier and sparklier as they go through the series,” Bovaird says. Their haul from the hotel gift shop includes swimswuits by Dior and La Perla, sunglasses by Prada and Dolce & Gabbana and a wrap dress by Moschino. “They’re dressing up as their version of rich Italians.

In Episode 3, with the money Dominic has paid them, Mia convinces Lucia to buy a dress she’s been dreaming of from a high-end shop window. Clio Perpetiatt is the London designer of this dress.

“They’re fantasy dresses. They glitter. And they end up in the pool that night, so it’s just fun to see the girls stomping around and sparkly, glittery dresses getting drunk and passed out with their makeup running around their eyes.” So to add to the comedy as well and then in the street where they’re they’re a little basic, just something that bit more normal little mini skirts and shorts and T shirts, but with the cheeky little Italian style.”

Tanya

Fans love Jennifer Coolidge as Tanya, and Greg (Jon Gries), are the only characters that have remained from Season 1. Getting married has only upped Tanya’s misery, however. After some bickering and bad sexual sex, Greg asks Tanya what her dream Italian day looks like. Tanya imagines herself as Monica Vitti and is swept away on a moped by a handsome man. He makes her dream come true.

“We went in a few different directions. It had to be practical, because she goes on the moped, but we wanted to lean into the fact that her primary vision for this day was romantic and nostalgic,” Bovaird describes. “So we found that pink dress. It’s by Alice Temperley, and it has Japanese pagodas and castles on it, and it doesn’t really signify anything. It just has a Fellini-esque strangeness to it. We added a scarf by Alberta Ferretti and tied it around to be extravagant, and and that seemed to do the job. And she wears Jimmy Choo high-heeled shoes with rhinestones on them. A little impractical, but that’s how Italians go around on their mopeds sometimes, ready for the night!”

Later, we learn that Greg only did all of this for Tanya because he’s about to break the news that he’s leaving their vacation early. It makes her sob even more funny because she is wearing a movie star costume.

Harper

Tanya is living a Monica Vitti dream. Harper (Aubrey Plaza), is living a Monica Vitti nightmare.

Harper is at the White Lotus on vacation with her newly rich but seemingly down-to-earth husband Ethan (Will Sharpe) as well as Ethan’s finance bro-y college friend Cameron (Theo James) and his wife Daphne (Meghann Fahy). For the first two days, she’s unsubtle about how annoying and superficial she finds Cameron and Daphne, but in Episode 3, she decides to make an effort. That’s reflected in her switch from a darker and more casual look to a pastel green day dress. The silk scarf she uses as a headband makes her look more feminine and open. She ends up going to Noto with Daphe and she moves the scarf to her neck when she starts to feel more secure.

“It’s a moment where she feels she’s gonna dress up, but it’s still in scene for her,” Bovaird explains. “She likes vintage. A big inspiration for us was Audrey Hepburn. It’s an opportunity for her to go out and about and show her sweet side to Daphne, who she doesn’t think she has anything in common with. And there’s a replica of a scene from a [1960] film called ‘L’avventura,’ and Monica Vitti is in it and walks past all these Italian men who all follow her. We did a very similar thing with the locals eyeballing Harper. And the dress seemed very ’60s and good for the scene.”

(White further breaks down the reference to Michelangelo Antonioni’s film with Variety here.)

Cameron

Cameron presented unique conditions in terms of costuming; the character’s luggage gets lost on the way to Italy, so he has to shop for all-new clothing once he arrives. After yelling at an airline employee loud enough to make everyone uncomfortable, Cameron and Daphne go shopping. They find some unusual pieces, including a two piece Etro set with a leopard print underneath a floral blouse.

“It’s super fun to be able to put a character in clothes out of circumstance, but also very challenging because Cameron is so cocky that he doesn’t give a shit what he looks like,” Bovaird says. “He buys a bunch of random stuff, and it’s sort of great, but also super random and Italian and not his vibe. A lot of American men would be too shy to walk around in something like that because it’s not American style at all, for guy like Cameron anyway. Most of the designers he wears are Italian. It was it was a bit of a method costume designing [like method acting]. I was actually able to buy a lot of the clothes there, because they really suited that moment. It was close to Taormina.”

Portia

Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) is Tanya’s personal assistant, dragged along to Italy thinking she’d get to enjoy the vacation before realizing Tanya expects her to stay in her room all day. Along with Lucia and Mia, she’s one of the only characters with a tight budget, and her clothes reflect that.

“I do try and keep in mind the demographic of the character, so she doesn’t have expensive clothes. Even her Versace-esque platform heels are definitely not Versace. She’s young, she doesn’t really know who she is, and she’s trying on different ideas. Sometimes she dresses more dainty, and sometimes she dresses like a boy. She did bring a couple of nice dresses because she knew she was going to dinner, but the price point is $100-$200, or cheaper. Lots of vintage and thrift store finds.”

Portia speaks out to Albie (Adam DiMarco), her awkward admirer about how much she hates being so attached to her phone, and social media.

“There’s a brand called House of Sunny, and she wears two or three pieces from there,”She said. “The sweater vest that she arrives in and a dress at the end of Episode 4 and a two-piece in Episode 5. It’s from the U.K., and it’s one of those brands that they advertise to you on Instagram, and you’re like, ‘Okay, okay! I’m gonna buy you now!’”

Fortune Teller

Tanya is depressed after Greg has left on vacation. She asks Valentina Impacciatore (Sabrina Impacciatore), the hotel manager, for a fortune teller to come to her room. Soon enough, there’s a tarot reader (Katia Gargano) at her door, and Tanya is pleased by the look of her — curly hair, lots of rings (from Toko Jewels in Rome) and dark pencil eyeliner that allow Tanya to stereotype the woman as someone who will take her money to tell her exactly what she wants to hear. Tanya then sends the reader to leave when she sees that there are deep issues in her marriage.

“She looks like a quintessential fortune teller. Mike wanted her to wear all black so that she had a witchy vibe, because she brings this ominous [energy] to Tanya, but with the lighting, it wasn’t really doing it for us. So I added the shawl, and it gave us a flavor that reminds me of the ladies in New York who sit in those psychic boxes. They all dress slightly into the trope, because that’s what people want. People don’t really want to pay someone sitting in the jeans and sweatshirt to give them a fortune.”