Costume Designer Stephani Lewis Found The “Bathtub” To Be Unique

By Cara Daniels 2-21-2013

WEBN Staff Photo

It is called the “Bathtub” but it is really a pretend community in a southern Louisiana bayou.  This setting for the Oscar nominated “Beasts of the Southern Wild” made for an unconventional environment.  Costume Designer Stephani Lewis described the “Bathtub” as a very unique place that required equally unique design.

She began with the traditional route of viciously searching the internet, she soon found the film required a more organic costume. Lewis told WEBN that she had to get creative with wardrobe choices,  “Most…. of it was out of Goodwills, Thrift Shops…I was just going to people’s houses, shopping at garage sales, finding things that are from the place and from the time. I mean people in the art department were digging through dumpsters to find things that were authentic to this place.”

Lewis built each character through costume. She believes that costume design is not just deciding what a character is wearing but why a character is drawn to that specific style and how it reflects them as a person.