Real event this week in “Here everything begins”, the prom marked us for its party outfits, each one more beautiful than the other. Costume designer Stéphanie Boissard gives us the secrets of the characters’ looks.
It was the event of spring in Here everything begins: the first prom of the Auguste Armand institute, imagined by Jasmine (Zoï Sévérin) to get closer to Axel (Thomas Da Costa).
And if the evening ended up turning into a nightmare during the episodes of Wednesday and Thursday, the ball still offered nice moments to viewers before the disaster. Scenes of preparations then joy on the dance floor which allowed fans to admire the magnificent outfits worn by their favorite characters who had, of course, put on their 31 for the occasion.
After an exclusive interview with director Jérôme Navarro, who told us how these disaster episodes were filmed, AlloCiné offers you today to find out more about how the looks and outfits of the heroes of Here were imagined. it all starts with the costume designer of the TF1 soap opera, Stéphanie Boissard.
Charlène’s dress, Eliott’s jacket adorned with jewels, or even Jasmine’s golden top… The students’ costumes will hold no secrets for you!
AlloCiné: Were the outfits worn by Salomé, Jasmine, Eliott, and the others during the prom specially made for these episodes by your team?
Stephanie Boissard (costume manager): In reality, it’s mainly grassroots purchasing. Even if things were also made especially.
But in any case, what is certain is that everything has been entirely thought out for these episodes. They are not clothes recycled from the usual wardrobe of the characters. There has been research for each role. There was some manufacturing for some, a lot of retouching for others, things that were altered. All the outfits took a lot of work.
Can you tell us which outfits are creations?
Jasmine’s top was completely made. We searched for a long time what we could wear with this tutu. After searching a lot without really finding what we wanted, we made a selection of fabrics and we made this top.
There’s also Eliott’s (Nicolas Anselmo) jacket, which was originally a jacket proposal for Mehdi (Marvin Pellegrino). During the fittings, I was looking for a slightly oversized jacket for Eliott and I took Mehdi’s jacket, which was a very simple black suit jacket, which we completely reworked. We customized it, we changed the collar, the lapels, we took over the shoulders. This is the part that required the most work.
And all the badges that we see on the jacket are actually earrings. With all the jewelry I had planned for prom, there was plenty to do, so I grabbed some to transform the jacket. And it’s a bit the same thing for Jasmine: the headdress she has in her hair was originally a necklace, which we ended up transforming into a hair decoration.
Screenshot/TF1
How many people work in your team on a daily basis? And has this number increased for the purposes of these event episodes?
We are between 10 and 15 people working on the daily shoot, between the shoots on the two sets, the extras, the preparation, the maintenance of the costumes, the management of the fittings, the shopping. And there were even more of us for the ball, yes. About 18 people I would say. It’s a really big team.
How long did the preparation for these prom episodes take?
It was very intense. I started the first shopping trips in mid-January and filming started on March 8. So about two months, in parallel with the usual costumes of the series of course. Because it was in addition to the rest, the daily life did not stop during that time.
Was the main challenge to reflect the personality of each character through their outfit?
Absolutely. That was the whole point. It was especially necessary not to lose the personality of each other. And at the same time it had to be homogeneous at the level of the whole. We wanted us to feel both the personality of the character and the stakes each had at the level of the ball. Like Jasmine, for example, who wants to be prom queen. It had to show in her outfit.
Should we also stick to the visual atmosphere and the very “blue” color of the episodes?
In terms of colors, we dressed all the figuration so that it gives this background color to the image. I find it very important to treat the figuration with care. And, for example, I wanted Charlene (Pola Petrenko) to be the only one dressed in red, she had to stand out from the others. And knowing that the decoration was blue, we had to work on the background which in the end is blue and gold. And keep that in mind at all times.
When you have 26 roles and 70 extras, succeeding in doing very different things from one person to another, with set and color constraints, was a bit like gymnastics. We had to make sure that everyone was different from the others and stood out.
Screenshot/TF1
What were your inspirations? With such a prom, we necessarily think of American series like Gossip Girl…
The idea, compared to the American prom, was that we have our touch a little French. We didn’t want to fall into the cliché of long, glamorous dresses. We wanted something quite fun.
In terms of inspirations, I really like the work on the costumes in Sex Education. I really liked the ball that was in one of the episodes. When I watch this series, I find that you never see any discrepancy between the extras and the rest of the actors. I love that. In Sex Education, there was a young woman who arrived in a tuxedo, it was very advanced. We did it on a role of figuration. But the series is also very advanced in terms of colors.
Was it a rather fun challenge to break out the characters’ traditional kitchen outfits and everyday clothes for this ball?
Yes, it was super interesting. On a daily series like that, we rarely have the opportunity to go that far. There, for the ball, we could really enjoy ourselves. I think it’s a real chance. I was left quite free to make a lot of proposals and I didn’t have any particular barriers.
The ball turns into a disaster, everyone’s outfits are covered in dust, they are dirty and damaged. So we had to design two versions of each outfit, right?
Yes, all roles had the clean version and the pre-soiled version of their outfit. So that, on the set, we are as efficient as possible and that we don’t end up messing up everything on the spot. Even if we added dust once on the set. But everything had been pre-weathered.
Once you’ve taken the time to try to do everything the way you like, you destroy everything (laughs). That’s what was great. There was the creative side of research on the characters, and the patina work which is very interesting on the costumes.
Screenshot/TF1
Do you have a favorite outfit?
I really liked all the outfits at prom. It’s a tough question (laughs). It’s a set that works very well. All the actors were very involved, they were happy. I have seen them all at least 4 or 5 times to fine tune from one fitting to another. But if I really had to choose, I would say that I really like the Eliott-Jasmine duo, which opens the ball. But I was very happy overall.
With all these dresses and all these ball costumes, was there any jealousy among the actors and actresses?
It was a bit what I feared at first. The choice of dresses is always a bit tricky. We are afraid that such a person will say “She, she is more beautiful than me. I wanted that, why didn’t I?”. But I think they were all very happy with their respective outfits. They all thought it suited their characters well. There was no jealousy.
On the contrary, we worked in benevolence, they found each other beautiful. And they really thought about their characters.