In this exclusive interview by Anastasija Pavic, Emmy-nominated costume designer Safowa Bright Bitzelberger shares her journey and experiences working on Netflix’s “Griselda.” Safowa, who initially joined the project as a costume department supervisor, was later entrusted with the role of costume designer. Her work on “Griselda” showed her talent as well as the collaborative efforts with director Andrés Baiz and lead actress Sofia Vergara, both of whom had significant roles in bringing the characters to life.
Safowa’s nomination for Outstanding Period Costumes is particularly important as she is the only black female costume designer nominated this year. She talks about the importance of representation and the impact it has on fostering creativity and inclusivity within the entertainment sector, as well as the need for resilience, flexibility, and a strong adherence to one’s creative and ethical values.
INTERVIEWS
Safowa goes into the process behind designing the costumes for “Griselda.” She discusses the strategic decisions made to portray the protagonist’s power and transformation, opting for structured dresses over the more conventional 80s power pantsuits. She also shares insights into her collaboration with the production team, the extensive research involved, and the challenges of ensuring authenticity and practicality for stunt scenes.
Congratulations on your nomination for Outstanding Period Costumes! Can you tell us about the journey that led you to work on Netflix’s “Griselda”?
Thank you so much! I’m still a bit stunned and taking it all in! I’m so excited and thrilled about this nomination, and I’m especially honored to be included with a group of nominees who are all exceptionally talented costume designers. I was excited to get the opportunity to costume design Griselda as I began my journey on the series, initially helming the costume dept as costume dept supervisor during prep, then I was asked to pivot into designing the series soon after we began our many months of shooting. I’m so pleased that I was able to contribute to telling this story and to have had the opportunity to witness Sofia Vergara’s Emmy-nominated performance as she transformed herself into Griselda. She completely inhabited the character inside and out, and everyone was moved by her performances. Sofia truly raised the bar for all involved. It was also an exceptional experience to work with our amazing & gifted director, Andrés Baiz, who is a true visionary. Andi is so creative, passionate, and wonderful with the cast & crew. His energy was infectious and inspired us all to do our very best.
As the only black female costume designer nominated this year, what does this recognition mean to you personally?
This Emmy nomination means everything to me for those exact reasons, both personally & professionally! To be included with such an exceptional group of designers and to be recognized within my craft is the best validation, professionally. Personally, it resonates even more for me because, as a black female in this industry, I can attest that it is rare to see someone like myself mirrored on a crew, especially in a department head position. It is definitely not as often as I would like to; therefore, I am grateful I had that opportunity with Griselda. I do feel encouraged since some positive strides have been made in the right direction in recent years. Despite this, as many of my black peers in the industry have expressed, we still need much more diversity within this industry and within our craft so that the crews reflect what the rest of the city and country look like. I feel that diversity and inclusion in entertainment are absolutely paramount for fostering creativity and representing varied voices and perspectives. This is so important, both now and for our upcoming generations because people are best able to envision themselves ascending into a specific position or role when they can directly see what can be accomplished by others who share their diversity and backgrounds.
How do you balance staying true to your creative vision while collaborating with directors, actors, and other members of the production team?
Working with Sofia and our director, Andrés, was an extremely collaborative process. Fortunately, we all had an exceptionally clear, unified vision and understanding of Griselda and what we felt made sense for the character. As an example, when it came time to jump forward into the 80s in the storyline-we discussed and decided that although the story takes place during such an iconographic time period fashion-wise, Sofia felt that, it wasn’t about high-fashion and glamour for Griselda, but instead about reflecting Griselda’s immense desire for power. We accomplished this by keeping her look high-end, era-appropriate, yet timelessly elegant so as not to detract from the scenes by feeling over the top stylistically. In order to accomplish this for Griselda’s looks, I avoided the impulse to lean into every 80s iconographic trend. Instead, we were able to reflect Griselda’s evolution into the era through luxurious fabrications, silhouettes, and color palette. To still clearly reflect the many specific trends from this time period, I was able to lean into a number of the iconographic looks of that decade with the other characters, like Marta, Rivi, Dario, and Carmen. This is in addition to the hundreds of head-to-toe period looks on the background at the Mutiny Club and Dario’s debaucherous birthday party. So much research went into the process: vintage books, period films, vintage media, publications, catalogs, era-specific photo research from Columbia, Miami, etc. It was a balance between developing a look from research on trends from that time period and what the story’s characters’ position, age group, and class level in Miami would have worn. It was like piecing a puzzle together based on everything going on during the eras. Endless concept boards for each era were created for all the characters so that they could be shared with our director. Our gifted DP/ Cinematographer, Armando Salas, was often included in this creative process, as Andi and Armando worked closely on the aesthetic of each location, set, and shot. On a celebratory note, Armando has also received an Emmy nomination this year for his exceptional cinematography on Griselda! Collaboration was key with all the production teams. My amazing design team, my Supervisor, ACDs, Head of Workroom & Tailors, Keys, BG Keys, Shoppers, and Costumers—everyone was instrumental to this project. I’m also pleased to say that my crew-costume supervisor, Serena Duffin, and my two ACDs, Jennifer Marlin and Joe Castenos, are also Emmy nominated this year!
You opted for structured dresses instead of pantsuits to project Griselda’s power. What was the reasoning behind this choice?
Prior to landing on these iconic looks for Griselda while projecting her power, Sofia and Andi had a number of discussions about Griselda’s shift forward into this decade. We chose to resist the urge to put her in an ’80s power pantsuit for most scenes. We decided to put Griselda in era-appropriate dresses and a number of elegant and chic skirt suits-we felt that it was more impactful than having her emulate a man by wearing a pantsuit. We witness Griselda’s ascension and the seemingly impenetrable wall of men with misogynistic attitudes that she had to literally and figuratively push through in order to attain the staggering level of wealth and power that she achieved.
Can you discuss a few of the standout costumes in “Griselda” and how they contribute to the characters’ development?
One of my favorite scenes to design was all the looks for the opening scene at the Mutiny Club in Ep 5, titled Paradise Lost. At the top of the episode, we’ve jumped forward into the 80s, and we hear narration about how Griselda’s power and ruthless drug empire have reached the pinnacle of success. The challenge is that we had to immediately reflect visually on how time has shifted into a new decade & that Griselda has now reached a level of unprecedented power within the cartels. To reflect this quick jump forward, the episode opens with her running things at the Mutiny nightclub circa 1981. It’s an impactful steadicam shot following her stylish & ruthless lead henchman Rivi as he weaves through the packed club, and it quickly reveals that the 80s have arrived. This new decade is reflected in the music, the updated Mutiny club set and decor that reflects 80s Miami, and, of course, the dance floor, which is jam-packed with clubgoers dressed head to toe in trendy 80s club looks. We are also able to see aesthetically that everyone on her team is a notch up in terms of their social standing in Miami because of how successful Griselda’s drug empire is, which they all clearly benefitted from. With many of these characters, it was absolutely all about the flash and showing off their status symbols. We land on Griselda, who is now behind the velvet rope. She is calmly seated on the couch, now clearly inhabiting her role as La Jefa and her position of immense yet restrained power. At that moment, it was clear that putting her in a dress in lieu of pants was a great creative call, as it had such an impact. We witness Griselda instilling fear into everyone. The dress’s light color was balanced by its bold, shouldered 80s silhouette, and the layered, textured lace allowed for just a hint of sheerness while it was mainly offset by the opaque layers. Lastly, the dress’ light tone was grounded by the black stockings and gunmetal vintage Escada slingbacks that she wore. It immediately established that Griselda didn’t need to dress like a man in order to get respect. With her impactful performance, it’s unmistakably apparent that everyone knew that Griselda ruled with such power, decisiveness, and ruthlessness that she clearly didn’t need to wear pants to lead her powerful empire. I actually leaned into using a light color palette on Griselda for a number of those opening 80s scenes. It was a subtle way to reflect that Griselda was at the pinnacle of her power and that she now had a team of people to do the dirty work for her. Wearing white was a way to show that Griselda had mastered the art of keeping the “dirt” off her. Lastly, as the storyline moves forward, it is evident that there is now such darkness within Griselda and everything and everyone that she touches. Starting off this new period with this light color palette was a way for me to reflect the polarity of having Griselda in a light color while the reality is that she has had to make choice after choice to go down a dark, irreversible path in order to achieve her level of power. As we shift forward into this episode, specifically to Dario’s party, we see Sofia’s impactful performance where Griselda completely unravels into darkness, she is angry, paranoid, violent, reactive, and, in the end, alone. To represent this painful decline and deterioration, I shifted into a darker color palette for her party look. I elaborate on this next favorite look in my response below.
By choosing luxurious designer pieces for background actors in party scenes, you highlighted Griselda’s wealth. Why did you decide to contrast this with her simpler 80s outfits?
Specifically, I found that I was able to balance and reflect Griselda’s more streamlined aesthetic by still honoring the decade by the 80s era appropriate trends worn by all the cast and background around her. One of my other favorite scenes to design was the extravagant and opulent birthday party that Griselda threw for her husband, Dario. For Griselda’s look at the party, her ensemble was a more streamlined, elegant 80s design, contrasting with the other trendier, flashier party guests. Griselda’s custom dress was made from a rich teal, emerald & gold cross-weaved iridescent plissée lamé-the hue and texture absolutely gave a nod to the 80s by its silhouette with its bold shoulders, the dramatic voluminous dolman sleeves, the nipped-in draped waist. It still expressed her wealth, power, and the era, yet was more subtle than my approach to the other characters. The party lasted most of the episode and included many emotionally intense scenes for Griselda, so it was extremely important to me to avoid having her dress distract from her performance in any way. In addition, the many scenes for this very long party were back to back shot over 9+ days, so it was very important to have a number of backups on hand for comfort & continuity purposes. Lastly, Sofia also had to be able to move freely in the dress since there was a great deal of physicality/stunts in a number of scenes, so that was definitely taken into consideration with what fabric was selected and in how the dress was designed & constructed for both Sofia and her stunt.
You incorporated looks from iconic designers like Escada, Yves Saint Laurent, and Versace for “Griselda.” What was your process for selecting these pieces?
I love both eras, but I’ll be honest: I grew up in the 1980s, so I have a soft spot for the fashions, TV, film, music. from that period. In addition, my mother was exceptionally chic in both eras, so I found myself being drawn to many of the looks that she wore or that some of her chic and eclectic friends wore during that time. I also referenced endless magazines, editorial pictures, films, TV, and media from that era. While I chose to go with a more streamlined, elegant, timeless aesthetic for Griselda, I was still able to utilize the high-end designer items on the characters close to her. I put a number of Versace & iconographic designer silhouettes on Marta Ochoa, Griselda’s ever-wealthy and extremely chic but tragically fated drug cartel bestie. I also reflected the era and wealth in Carmen’s closet. Despite her initial hesitation to get involved in Griselda’s empire, Carmen clearly chose to spend her newly acquired wealth on elevating her look with pieces from Escada and YSL, lavish accessories, and other material possessions, like her gorgeous house overlooking the water, Porsche, while still doing her best to be a voice of ethics in Griselda’s ear.
Episode 5 features a wardrobe transformation from the 1970s to the 1980s. How did you tackle this challenge, and what were the key fashion trends you highlighted?
Oh wow-the Mutiny scenes! We shot both the 70s and 80s eras of the mutiny scenes over a number of days–it was amazing to see each period’s aesthetic in the costumes, hair & makeup, and sets shift from the 70s era to the 80s club era for these scenes. Especially exciting was seeing how each character has just jumped forward into a new decade trend wise. It was important to me to nail the look of this next era, making sure to avoid caricatures & stereotypes while interpreting & honoring each character’s sense of style from the previous era. To reflect aesthetically how each character shifts forward into the next period, to see how they have chosen to spend their money as they are now all benefitting from Griselda’s drug empire. In addition to all the principal cast in the scenes, we had many background/extras (I believe over 600+ looks total/ for each era’s 300+ looks). In order to accomplish the authentic club looks for both eras, my amazingly talented background key customers and fitter teams did endless days of prefits for both periods. On top of that, on the shoot days, my team worked tirelessly to fit & dress seemingly endless lines of 100s more background actors for multiple looks in both ’70s and ’80s head-to-toe ensembles.
How did you ensure the authenticity and practicality of the clothing for stunts and damage in “Griselda”?
It was such a challenge, but I do love challenges! Vintage items are usually one of a kind, so they very rarely come in duplicates/multiples, so we had custom-made so many pieces. With so many action scenes requiring multiples for Sofia, our other cast members, and many stunt actors, the recurring challenge was to seamlessly merge these custom-made pieces and custom multiples alongside single/one-of-a-kind vintage purchases and precious vintage rentals. This was a great task, and I am so grateful to have an amazingly gifted team in our tailor workroom to create so many gorgeous era-appropriate custom pieces & vintage reproductions. My tailor workroom was helmed by the very gifted Joanne Mills Trotta, who is also part of my costume team that is Emmy nominated this year for “head of the workroom”-truly so well deserved! In addition to custom-making endless garments and staying in sync with the “world” that we were building, we also had many era-appropriate prints reproduced and printed onto textiles so that we would be able to build multiple duplicates of original vintage apparel pieces (many times sliding them in alongside the original vintage pieces). Our gifted ager-dyers would overdye these reproduced textiles both before and after fabrication of the vintage duplicates in order to reduce the color saturation & gently add the subtle patina that many vintage pieces have. In some instances, we also utilized a number of “vintage-inspired” contemporary pieces that we’d sprinkled in with vintage pieces. In step with our method with the custom items, in order to have these modern repros blend in with the vintage, our ager-dyers would wash, overdye, and texturally “age down” these purchased items so that they would blend in seamlessly with the true vintage items. We also had many “vintage inspired” accessories, belts, jewelry, and shoes built in order to accommodate our need for stunt multiples & many action scenes or to have the exact size, fit, and color that was desired. We were all committed to making sure that we dressed the cast and hundreds of background era-appropriately so that everything on the screen felt real, gritty, and believable. It was certainly a big undertaking, but it was wonderful to see the cast truly inhabit the characters, and it was extremely gratifying to me when a cast member mentioned that the costumes contributed to them getting into character.
What advice would you give to aspiring costume designers looking to break into the industry?
This industry as a whole requires a great deal of resilience and flexibility since it is literally evolving around us. I feel that one of the most important things is the ability to adapt to change. So, if you remain flexible and still stick to your ethics and passions, you will be able to adapt and navigate your path as this industry and your career evolve.
