Dayna Pink Brings the 'Shine' to Duster
Have an action project set in the past? Dayna Pink's the costume designer you need.
One word comes to mind when considering Dayna Pink’s costumes: cool. Well, two words: fucking cool.
Think about Jake Gyllenhaal’s silk shirts in Road House, unbuttoned down to there and slithering around his sinewy muscles in a way that inspires a lot of feelings, amongst them a sudden compulsion to go to the gym. (Not to mention Conor McGregor’s velvet pants, when he finally dons something below the waist.) And now Pink is weaving her particular sartorial magic on another stylish action project, HBO Max’s unbearably groovy Duster, where the FBI agents wear sassy scarves and the gangsters’ drivers wear the kind of patterned, wide-lapel shirts that almost convince you that you, too, can pull off polyester.
“There's a throughline in my career,” Pink says. “There are action movies and there are period pieces and there are contemporary things, but I like it to be shiny. That being said, I don't want you to notice the clothes before the person. Basically, I want it to be a ‘Yes, and.’ I don't want it to be an instead of. It's important to let the actor do their job, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun. That doesn't mean we can't be shiny.”
If Instagram is any indication, the actors adore her clothes as much as audiences do. Duster star Rachel Hilson, who plays FBI agent Nina, posted the above photo of her in the beige romper with the caption, “@daynapinkthings dreamed up this reworked vintage two piece and knee high boots get up for Nina St. James, a departure from the signature pantsuits of Nina Hayes and just freaking dreamy.”
Duster has a large cast, including appearances by famous figures of the era, ranging from Howard Hughes to Adrienne Barbeau. (Here’s the kind of vibe Duster has curated: In the episode where the fictional Barbeau features in the plot, the real Barbeau guest stars as a fed’s corrupt, racist wife.) That episode also includes a party at Elvis Presley’s Palm Springs home, hosted by Col. Tom Parker (I told you, this show is a vibe). At the party, and totally uncommented upon, is Tiny Tim walking down the hallway.
“There were like four celebrities that we did; I wanna say Cher might have been there,” Pink says, laughing. That idea came from show creators J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan, and Pink and her department started riffing on what period-appropriate celebs would be fun Easter eggs. “It's a really narrow pathway, to make something real and then add the fun of it,” Pink says of dressing real-life characters. “I wanted to ground it in what they were, so we researched the people, what year we were in, and then we added Duster to it.”
Hughes is a prime example. Seen in his Las Vegas hotel suite in the penultimate episode, he’s in a ’40s tux and Kleenex box shoes. But Pink and her department took the real-life inspiration and tweaked it just enough to be heightened within a grounded environment. The same went for Hilson as Nina and Josh Holloway as conflicted mob employee turned informant Jim.
Pink’s research included pop culture and yearbooks from the era. But she has a clear ethos about period projects. “What I truly believe and how I like to work is that we can only see through today's eyes,” she says. “So it has to work today. I've done a few ‘80s movies, but I tried to filter out the stuff that isn't relevant anymore. Some of it's ridiculous in the best way, and some of it's ridiculous in not the best way. So I try and filter out what doesn't work and keep the things that look good to today’s eyes.”
Any action series will require a lot of builds, but Pink excitedly points out that she lucked out in finding bolts of fabric from the era to construct the idiosyncratic costumes.
“We printed so much fabric, because sometimes there would be a design that I really liked,” she says. “We had one example: I found this ‘70s shirt, and it was the best shirt I've ever seen. And the [license to use the] shirt wouldn't clear. But I was so dedicated to that shirt, and it was so perfect, that I was like, ‘OK, then we're just gonna make it better.’”
Pink and her team riffed on that design for the epic shootout in the season finale and printed it on vintage fabric in multiples. “ I've gotten phone calls from other actors that are like, ‘Oh, can you recreate this?’ And I was like, ‘Nope.’ That shirt was for this moment, created for this character.”
That’s a thrilling moment for anyone to see their work recognized in that covetous way, but for Pink, it’s also just the icing on the career cake. “ I think I have the best job in the world because we have the ability to make people feel a certain way when they're walking onto set,” she says. “We can really support what other people do, and so it really is a collaboration, part of the storytelling process.”
Dayna Pink is an Emmy Award and CDGA nominee for Lovecraft Country. Her other credits include Bad Boys for Life, Crazy Stupid Love, Baywatch, and Crank: High Voltage. Her go-to at craft services? “Green tea.”
I need more Duster and Dayna’s costumes are so so good. I love how you mentioned the Adrienne Barbeau tribute too — genius!