Making the band: Girls5eva
Matthew Hemesath discusses the latest season of Girls5eva, his two Emmy nominations, and why costume designers deserve equal pay.
If, like me, you have always wanted to be in a girl group, then Girls5eva provides the perfect fantasy in which to do so. The Meredith Scardino-created show’s third season landed on Netflix in March, starring Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Busy Philipps and Paula Pell (as we discovered in season one, Ashley Parks’ character died in 2004 by swimming off the edge of an infinity pool). The reunited gang strive to achieve the stardom of their 90s heyday, and this season is centred around their first comeback tour.

Costume designer Matthew Hemesath joined the comedy-musical show for its second season, taking over from season one’s costume designer Tina Nigro. He tells me on a call from New York, where he’s lived for the past 20 years, “It was a bit daunting — I have a lot of respect for Tina. It can be a little tough stepping into a machine that's already rolling.”
Nonetheless, he describes Girls5eva as his dream job. “I've gotten to work on a lot of serious projects or projects with serious clothing,” he says, referencing the TV series of Dr Death and The First Lady, as well as the first three John Wick movies, all of which make up his illustrious CV. “So to work on something like this, that is bright colours and sparkles and performance costumes, it’s a reality that's shinier and brighter than the world we actually live in. And that's the world I want to live in!”
Hemesath is a big comedy fan, having spent seven years working on Saturday Night Live. He loves the Girls5eva cast’s “larger than life characters” and the fact that the show’s producers “keep saying go further, more, more” when it comes to their wardrobes.
In particular, this applies to Renée Elise Goldsberry’s character of Wickie. The break-out star of the band who went on to cash in on solo albums and multiple brand deals, Hemesath says of her style: “I literally just throw the whole kitchen at her every chance I get. And that collaboration with her [Goldsberry] is so fun, because I will find some really strange, outlandish costume pieces, bring them into the fitting room and just say, ‘Let's see if we can make this work.’” Wickie’s outfits combine sequins, rhinestones, studs, feathers, fringing — everything you’d expect from the Beyoncé of the group.
For season three, Hemesath believes the outfits have gotten “even more bold”. This is partly down to the growth of the characters, but also his personal journey with the show, getting more comfortable with the subject and the cast. He mentions Busy Philipps’ character Summer and the style evolution we see from her this time around. “That was a fun challenge for me because she's had such a specific style for [the past] two seasons, with all of the baby pink and the very feminine, adolescent fashion sense.” Of the character’s new, elevated look, Hemesath explains he experimented a lot in the fitting room. “Some [looks] were either too conservative, and some were silly in different ways, but I was really happy with where we landed, bringing her style more into the adult realm of shapes and colours.”
Other challenges he has enjoyed this season are Paula Pell’s character Gloria shedding her “season one persona” and embracing her new-found sexuality, and Sara Bareilles’ character Dawn going “from tired mom back to a cool popstar” whilst also being pregnant with her second child. “It was fun to do her performance costumes and figure out each one, as a pregnant popstar on stage is not something you see very often.”
Hemesath confirms that the performance costumes were his highlight of season three, saying “they’re always the most fun”. He has two favourite scenes — the first being the “very opening scene of the season, when they're in Texas and they're performing in their version of what they think people in Texas wear”. Because it was the opening, he says: “It needed to be really fabulous and a little more aspirational than what the characters could actually afford. Maybe this would be the place where they would really splurge, so we got to custom make a few of those outfits”. He explains that, with it being the first episode, the custom work was made possible by more pre-production time. “That outfit on Paula [Pell, who plays Gloria] is just so funny to me, it's like her little Elvis moment, all the purple metallic. I just like that silly version of Texas and what they think is what a country western star wears — it's all just ridiculous”.
His other favourite, rather fittingly, is the show’s finale. Unlike the opening, Hemesath says the crew were “really crunched for time” and that “one of the cast members went out with COVID, so I couldn't have her do a fitting for the finale”. Despite this, his tailoring department custom made the girls’ capes the night before shooting the scene, while working with the show’s choreographer to pull together the group performance at “lighting speed”. Of the results, he says: “It's such a fierce start to that concert and it came together in a really collaborative, magical way in those last 24 hours before we filmed it.”
What inspires the outfits for a fictional girl group straddling both the past and the present? While Hemesath says “everything” around him contributes to the designs, he has certain tactics to keep himself on track. “When I'm on a job I sort of tailor my Instagram feed to the subject matter of my show. So right now, I have a lot of popstars like Dua Lipa and Miley Cyrus, who are my favourite current divas. If I have a moment where I'm waiting for an elevator and I'm scrolling, there might be something that pops up and I think: ‘Oh, that's what we need’. Like an accessory to make it feel a little bit more modern, or that colour scheme right now seems to be really hot.”
Alongside watching “a lot of concerts” on YouTube and creating moodboards with “images that I find online”, Hemesath also manages to keep his research authentic to the plot. “When we do the flashbacks [scenes], I have purchased a lot of Sassy, Young Modern, Teen Vogue and Teen Beat magazines from the 90s, so I look back to those a lot”.
Hemesath and his team had four weeks of preparation for season three, before shooting commenced. “Then we filmed six episodes, and each episode took five days to shoot. So it was only a 30 day shoot, and we were lucky to have all of the scripts written before we started.” He explains: “With season two and other jobs I've been on, you are often shooting one episode and you don't have the next episode until halfway through shooting that first episode. So you're learning what's happening in script two while you're shooting script one, and it really puts your brain in two different places.”
He believes the key to success is in the preparation. “My goal is always to have a very full closet of clothing for them [the cast]. They come in at the beginning and I torture them with a three hour, four hour fitting,” he laughs, going on to explain that: “It’s usually two three hour fittings a few days apart, with a good break in the middle of that three hours, but we try on like 30 to 40 outfits, and variations of things that tend to be more of their everyday clothing. We’ll also start fitting some mock-ups and things we’re custom making for them, or maybe a garment that I like but that we plan to copy in a different fabric. A lot of it happens in those four weeks of prep, because once we start shooting, it's really just like sliding down an icy hill.”
Hemesath has received two Emmy nominations for his costume design skills — the first for Sesame Street, which he co-designed with his brother from 2016 to 2018. And the second for the aforementioned 2022 Showtime series The First Lady, where Viola Davis plays Michelle Obama. “Both times it was rather humbling for me because I truly just love what I do. I feel very fortunate to have a career creating things, getting to do different things and going to different places every day, meeting interesting people and creating art, and then to also be paid for it and have fun doing it — it already seems like that's the reward.” He describes the experiences as being “overwhelming to talk about”, getting tongue-tied on our call.
Something he finds easier to talk about is the pay disparity between roles in the TV and film industry. “Costume design is such a big part of telling any story on camera. Every element is equally important, so to follow that logic, it's important that everyone gets paid the same.” A member of the United Scenic Artists (USA) 829, a labour union of artists and professionals organised to protect working conditions in the entertainment industry, Hemesath explains: “We can see in our union graphs what the minimum pay is for each position, so we are aware of what people are getting paid. I certainly don't think anyone should get paid less, but I think that we [costume designers] should be brought up to the same level so it doesn't feel like I'm a second class citizen on set.”
However, he’s positive about the future and believes costume design is becoming more visible as a profession. “You see it a lot more on social media and in articles online. I see people giving costume designers more credit, and they're now being credited in Vogue articles about productions they've designed, rather than [the publication] just talking about the actor who's wearing them, or the director. It's kind of a collective awakening.” He reflects: “Good costumes often disappear, and that can be to the detriment of the designer. But with this Naked Without Us campaign actors, producers and everyone has realised, ‘Oh, we've been taking this craft for granted’. But I really see that changing”.
Speaking of the future, what’s next on his agenda? In what he describes as a “departure” from his usual gigs, Hemesath is working on a new talk show with Busy Philipps, called Busy This Week, with the first episode airing May 8 at 10pm on the QVC+ app. “I usually do more scripted, episodic, story based clothing, whereas this is her being herself with guests on the show. But it's been fun because I'm dressing her from the QVC website only”. He continues: “There is a stereotype out there that clothing at QVC is just home and leisure wear and I have to admit, I had the same thought. But once I dug in, I realised it's a great resource and it has a lot more styles than I would have ever guessed”.
Of Busy, he says: “She's a beautiful person — so fun and just so talented on camera. She's so good at interviewing people, and especially just grabbing tourists on the street, she's just really quick and so witty.” He jokes that “Summer is taking the summer off” but he hopes “we will be back for season four [of Girls5eva] soon”. If they’re going to be famous 5eva, we need more laughs, more tours, and undoubtedly, more outfits.