Creating a “Friends” Style that Remains Relevant with Costume Designer Debra McGuire

When thinking about America’s most successful and worldwide-known sitcoms, “Friends” is probably one of the first ones that come up  to our minds. Because of each character's uniqueness and their iconic friendship, we’re probably going to remember this show forever. What you probably did not know is all of the hard work that dressing each one of them meant! Today’s guest, Debra McGuire, was the Costume Designer on the show for its ten-year run and is here to tell you all about it! Debra is also a fine artist and fashion designer who has even been nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Costume Design because of her work in the movie “Phil Spector”

Highlights:

• Because of Debra’s fine art background, when designing the look for the “Friends” characters, she thought of them as a tableau: their look together was way more important than what they looked like individually. 
• Debra explains how this special time of COVID-19 has helped her connect with her artistic side: she has delved into painting and sculpting.
• The importance of being careful when dressing the actors, because the clothes have to support the script, not the visual: you don’t want to ever detract from the joke or the point of each scene. 
• Debra’s freshness and uniqueness led her to design the most iconic looks on the show, which made her different from other designers.
• The difference between working as a costume designer for TV shows and for movies: they are two industries that move at different paces.
• Debra gives her own definition of beauty which consists of getting at the deep essence of self, and finding a way to project that externally. 
• There’s a difference between what a stylist and a costume designer does: one consists of dressing the external aspects of self, and the other is more about finding the essence of self
• Debra tells an inspirational story about the importance of allowing our essence to come out and how life changing this could be. 

To learn more about Debra, you can visit her webpage or follow her on Instagram

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