美国国家公共电台 NPR Meet Donna Zakowska: The Designer Who Makes 'Mrs. Maisel' Loo

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The costumes are among the stars of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," the hit Amazon TV series about a young comedienne in the late 1950s, early '60s. Everybody wears these colorful period-perfect outfits¹. They're so amazing, even I notice. Designer Donna Zakowska has won two Emmy awards for her work on the show. And tonight, she is up for an award from the Costume Designers Guild². Reporter Jeff Lunden visited her studio in Brooklyn.

JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE³: If you're a fan of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," the last thing you'd expect when you meet Donna Zakowska is that she's dressed entirely⁴ in black - black shirt, black pants, black boots. But don't worry. Her studio is drenched⁵ in color...

DONNA ZAKOWSKA: I'll pull this out for a second. It's pretty wild.

LUNDEN: ...Like when she shows me fabric⁶ swatches, thousands of them...

ZAKOWSKA: You know, we'll look at, like, practically 200 pieces of pink wool and then say, well, yeah, I think that's the color. And then sometimes we have to say, but I think we need to dye a little bit of lavender in it and then we'll hit it.

LUNDEN: ...Or racks of Midge Maisel's coats.

ZAKOWSKA: As you can see behind you, there's, like, a rainbow world of the coats.

LUNDEN: The world of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" is a romanticized fantasy of color. And color comes naturally to Donna Zakowska, who initially⁷ trained as a painter and a dancer.

ZAKOWSKA: I think all of this sort of evolved into costume design, you know, the idea of color moving in space.

RACHEL BROSNAHAN: She understands how color and shape and texture⁸ can tell a story just as efficiently⁹ as the way the camera moves or the dialogue.

LUNDEN: Rachel Brosnahan plays Midge Maisel. She says Donna Zakowska's costumes - and there are a lot of them - helped define the way she plays her character.

BROSNAHAN: These costumes change the way I move and breathe and walk and talk, the way I hold my head. I don't feel complete until I look in the mirror and I have the full costume on and hair and makeup¹⁰ exactly right. Then I feel like I can just step in and do the acting¹¹ part.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL")

BROSNAHAN: (As Midge Maisel) What happened to my clothes?

TONY SHALHOUB: (As Abe Weissman) Have you worn all these dresses?

BROSNAHAN: (As Midge Maisel) Have I...

SHALHOUB: (As Abe Weissman) Because I don't think you've been on Earth long enough.

LUNDEN: The costume studio is filled with research material, magazines from the period and boards with pictures of locations from the past season. While the show's in production, the studio is also filled with assistants and drapers and dressers. Costumes for the extras are rented - sometimes as many as a thousand an episode. But Zakowska designs everything the lead actors wear, often at the last minute.

ZAKOWSKA: You have to be ready to go. Sometimes the actual script I do not get in my hands until three days before the episode shoots. And so I will occasionally, like, just build some clothes for her thinking this probably will work.

LUNDEN: And Zakowska's period costumes will not work without period undergarments, says Rachel Brosnahan. Her bras and corsets are created by a lingerie maker¹² in Paris.

BROSNAHAN: I'm certainly not wearing corsets that are as tight or uncomfortable as I'm sure someone like Midge would have been wearing. But there are many layers of foundation garments. I have pantyhose on and sometimes two petticoats layered together.

LUNDEN: Donna Zakowska's costumes have become so iconic that two of them have made it into the Smithsonian - the baby blue nightgown and pink coat Midge wears when she first improvises¹³ her stand-up and the little black dress with ribbons on the straps¹⁴ she wears when she becomes a professional, just like a real pioneering female comic.

ZAKOWSKA: There was the allusion¹⁵ to Joan Rivers in the black dress with the pearls. The whole first season, I never used black on anyone unless it was a beatnik and built to that final black dress.

LUNDEN: After all, black is just an absorption of all the colors in the spectrum¹⁶. For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.

1 outfits   

n.全套装备( outfit的名词复数 )；一套服装；集体；组织v.装备，配置设备，供给服装( outfit的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He jobbed out the contract to a number of small outfits. 他把承包工程分包给许多小单位。 来自辞典例句
• Some cyclists carry repair outfits because they may have a puncture. 有些骑自行车的人带修理工具，因为他们车胎可能小孔。 来自辞典例句

2 guild   

n.行会，同业公会，协会

参考例句：

• He used to be a member of the Writers' Guild of America.他曾是美国作家协会的一员。
• You had better incorporate the firm into your guild.你最好把这个公司并入你的行业协会。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

5 drenched   

adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体）

参考例句：

• We were caught in the storm and got drenched to the skin. 我们遇上了暴雨，淋得浑身透湿。
• The rain drenched us. 雨把我们淋得湿透。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

7 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

8 texture   

n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理

参考例句：

• We could feel the smooth texture of silk.我们能感觉出丝绸的光滑质地。
• Her skin has a fine texture.她的皮肤细腻。

9 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。

10 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

11 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

12 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

13 improvises   

临时制作，临时凑成( improvise的名词复数 )； 即兴创作（音乐、台词、演讲词等）

参考例句：

• If an actor forgets his words, he sometimes improvises. 如果一个演员忘了台词，他有时临时编造。
• Chloe improvises, and calls Gabriel pretending she has had car troubles. 克洛即兴创作，并且叫假装她已经有小汽车麻烦的加布里埃尔。

14 straps   

n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带

参考例句：

• the shoulder straps of her dress 她连衣裙上的肩带
• The straps can be adjusted to suit the wearer. 这些背带可进行调整以适合使用者。

15 allusion   

n.暗示，间接提示

参考例句：

• He made an allusion to a secret plan in his speech.在讲话中他暗示有一项秘密计划。
• She made no allusion to the incident.她没有提及那个事件。

16 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。