Tag: interview

Ryan Murphy on ‘Versace,’ Darren Criss’ Star Turn and the #MeToo Movement

Ryan Murphy is poised to give audiences another jolt of innovative storytelling starting Wednesday with the premiere of FX’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.”

The producer took time out from “Versace’s” Jan. 8 premiere party at the Hollywood Palladium to speak with Variety about the development of the series and the revelatory performance by series star Darren Criss as killer Andrew Cunanan.

How did you come up with the idea of having the story unfold in a backward-chronological fashion?

The idea of telling the story backwards was [FX CEO John] Landgraf’s. We had written the first two (episodes) and then you go in and talk to John and say, “OK, here’s the story.” We just started talking about the “onion peel” of shame — because really it’s all about shame — and we just started talking narratively about that. The more we talked about it in the room, the more we liked it. We knew that we were following ‘The People V. O.J. Simpson” which is a really difficult thing to do so we have to do everything we can to make it special.

What did that require of you on the production end?

It’s a very hard thing to construct because you have to be uber-prepared. The actors have to be very informed. I liked to work by giving (actors) concentrated information but not giving them much more than that. It was hardest on (writer) Tom Rob Smith and the actors. But it was the question of how do we keep being ambitious, how do we keep challenging ourselves? When you go backward in someone’s trajectory it’s more surprising for the audience and I think the experience is deeper. We tried to make it so that if you watched the show backwards it would be an interesting and oddly symbiotic thing. It’s a narrative device that takes a lot of extra planning, but when it works it’s great.

Darren Criss has drawn mostly rave reviews for his performance, which is very against type for the former “Glee” trouper. What was it that gave you confidence he could handle this role?

It was important to me that we were true to Cunanan’s ethnicity (Filipino and Italian). I had only directed him once (on “Glee”) but we stayed friends. I remember thinking he was a really good dramatic actor. He did something weird once in a “Glee” scene. I told him please don’t lose that excitement, and he never did. He always checked in and checked in with me. I called him when we were ready to greenlight (“Versace”). I wanted Cunanan like Darren to be a discovery for the audience. The interesting thing about Cunanan is you don’t know what he’s capable of and to have the actor in it be on the same powerful journey and I think it is.

Did he have any pause about taking on the role of a spree murderer?

(Darren) really went for it. He studied it, he pushed himself hard. His performance got quieter and more concentrated and studious and I like that. It was powerful to watch. I was not interested in just doing a serial killer story but to track the idea of how does someone become a monster?

How do you think the audience will react?

Darren is reminding me a lot of Sarah Paulson’s trajectory. It was powerful to watch somebody step into adulthood in a way. It’s very rewarding.

With “Versace” you are continuing your commitment to hiring women for at least half of the directing assignments on your show. Your Half Foundation has also been proactive in opening doors for female directors. These initiatives could not be more timely as the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements take root.

Everybody’s talking about it. it’s important. I changed the dynamic of my company. The most important thing is that the culture has changed to be more about ideas and the exchange of ideas than ego. It’s interesting when women direct. The work is better. They ask more people to participate. I’ve been doing this a year and a half. It’s been a really good change in my life. That foundation may be the most important thing I’ve ever done in my career. I’m delighted to just keep going.

Ryan Murphy on ‘Versace,’ Darren Criss’ Star Turn and the #MeToo Movement

You’ll Never Guess Where the Versace Costumes in the Crime Story About Gianni’s Death Are Really From

American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace is easily one of the most anticipated TV shows of 2018—and for good reason. After all, the first installment of the true crime-based anthology series, The People v. O.J. Simpson, swept the Emmys with a whopping nine wins last year. Now, the latest brainchild from creator Ryan Murphy is finally here. Season two of the FX series, which premieres Jan. 17 at 10 p.m., explores the 1997 murder of designer Gianni Versace that shook the fashion world. Edgar Ramirez brings the founder of the Italian fashion house to life onscreen, while Penélope Cruz nails the part of his sister and ultimate successor, Donatella Versace. The show also stars Ricky Martin as Gianni’s scene-stealing lover, Antonio D’Amico. But hands down, the most powerful performance is delivered by Darren Criss, whose downright bone-chilling portrayal of serial killer Andrew Cunanan will be hard for viewers to forget.

The all-star cast is alluring, but impossible to overlook are the costumes they wear. It’s rare for a crime series to be so deeply rooted in fashion. On top of that, the fashion house was decidedly uninvolved with the project, so costume designers Lou Eyrich and Allison Leach had to get creative, turning to resellers online to buy real Versace items from past collections.

For specific looks that played pivotal roles in the show, though—like the black leather bondage dress that Donatella wore on a red carpet in 1993, signaling a new era for the label and establishing herself as a creative force behind the scenes—they had to start from scratch. “We knew we were going to be recreating actual Versace garments, so we did research at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising here in L.A.,” said Leach. “They have one of the largest Versace collections in the country. In this case, it was researching not only photos and videos and magazines but actually looking at the real clothes and their construction and then recreating that.“

The wardrobe was so expansive that during filming, it was stored in multiple Miami warehouses filled with everything from law enforcement uniforms and college student ensembles specific to each city Cunanan’s killing spree hit. And then there are the looks we see inside the Versace mansion that capture the label’s key ‘90s trends. “Leather played a big part, and so did hardware—the stud-work, the collar tips, and the medusa details,” said Leach. “Gianni is also so famous for his prints. Even a person who doesn’t know much about fashion can still recognize an iconic rococo-pattern Versace shirt inspired by his life growing up in Calabria, Italy. There’s a sense of grandeur to his designs that is very aspirational.”

Scroll down for our full chat with the costume designers, and tune into the premiere of American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace on Wednesday, January 17 at 10 p.m. on FX.

Without access to Versace’s archives, how many actual pieces were you able to find and use for the show?
Lou Eyrich: I’d say half of Penélope’s closet was real.
Allison Leach: The Versace collections are skyrocketing right now on eBayand 1stdibs. The prices are out of control—everything online is in the thousands. And when you have so many clothes to do, you can’t be spending $3,000 on one piece. We were able to use more Versace menswear, like the actual printed shirts and a lot of original jeans and shoes.

Penélope Cruz as Donatella Versace is an epic match. What was it like to help transform her for the role?
LE: Penélope herself was very exact in what she wanted to portray with Donatella. The silhouettes are so important—it was all about the corsets and showing off a tiny waist. The clothes are very body-forming—there’s a lot of body-con.
AL: She also really wanted to project the gravitas of the situation, so she did wear a lot of black, which Donatella did. So then the silhouette becomes even more important, and the details, like the perfect Versace belt. Those details really sell it. Penélope likes to wear Versace in her own life and has tremendous respect for the brand, so whenever we’d find some gem, she would get so excited and say, “Can I keep this?!”

Was there one piece that was absolutely crucial to the series?
LE: I would say the pink robe that Gianni wears in the beginning. It wasn’t actually a Versace piece and we never saw him in anything like it, but it was Ryan Murphy’s vision of him flowing through the casa in Miami in this beautiful pink and gold robe—the opulence of it and the way that it popped throughout the stonewashed white walls of the casa. I think that was our number one mandate from Ryan Murphy was to create this pink robe.
AL: He wanted to capture the sizzle and flow of Miami and have those pops of color that really put us there in the ‘90s.

Which look was your biggest challenge to create?
LE: I would say the bondage dress that our tailor had to create.
AL: It’s such an intricate garment, and to get it to fit the way it does was probably the biggest construction challenge. We had to have three of them made, including one to cut [on-camera].

Any favorite pieces that didn’t make it into the series?
LE: There was a lace dress that our tailor recreated that was really gorgeous on Penélope, the pink safety pin dress [that Penélope wears on the cover of Entertainment Weekly], and a pair of studded pants from the Western collection, but nobody gets to see those.
AL: There are more than 1000 studs on those pants! We’re still weeping.

Of the Versace items that you bought online, what was the biggest score you landed from a past collection?
AL: I remember a day we were crying with joy because we found a black leather fringed shirt for Penélope. It was from the exact year of the Miss S&M bondage period [fall 1992].
LE: Oh, yeah! There were tears that day—and now we have different kind of tears, because that also hit the cutting room floor.

In one episode, we see Donatella and Gianni each styling their own runway models in a sibling fashion face-off. What was it like to recreate that fashion show?
LE: Part of the storyline was Gianni and Donatella fighting, because it was back when all the really thin waif models were coming in. But Gianni wanted his models to have a life about them and have a healthy-looking figure. They were fighting between those looks, and we had 12 models, so we divided them up: 6 to look like Gianni’s models, 6 like Donatella’s.
AL: That fashion show very much represented the turning point in fashion from these happy supermodels with smiles on their faces and swagger in the hips to this more of a waif look. From a creative standpoint, we wanted to show that there was a difference between the Gianni models and the Donatella models. So there were instances of razor sharp black suits and dresses and then also the more colorful pieces and crystal mesh, which Gianni was famous for.

What was it like to work with Ricky Martin? Was he super involved in choosing his looks?
LE: We’re all in love with Ricky! He was pretty much like, “I’m the palette. Just use me.” He didn’t really have an opinion—he loved looking at the research and trying on clothes, but he was like, “You guys are the masters—do your work.”
AL: I’m just glad he got to wear a swimsuit, because he’s got an amazing physique and it looks good in everything. His clothes were a little more body-conscious.

Crime series aren’t usually so fashion-focused. How did the plot affect your process?
AL: It makes it challenging because when there’s murder involved, you need blood multiples [multiple versions of the same looks that will become blood stained]. There was also an undertone of how devastating this story was. That informed choices not just about how the clothes looked but how they felt. We tried to convey the tone.

You’ll Never Guess Where the Versace Costumes in the Crime Story About Gianni’s Death Are Really From

‘American Crime Story’ Designer on Quickly Duplicating Gianni Versace’s Nineties Style

Accurately re-creating the lavish and vibrant wardrobe of Gianni Versace was one of the most crucial elements of Ryan Murphy’s forthcoming “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” which premieres Jan. 17 on FX.

For the nine-part series, which shows the time leading up to Versace’s tragic 1997 shooting by serial killer Andrew Cunanan, Murphy enlisted the talent of costume designer Lou Eyrich, who admits that duplicating the late Italian’s craftsmanship and design within a limited time frame posed a laundry list of challenges.

“It’s very hard to find authentic Versace pieces [from the early to mid-Nineties],” explains Eyrich on the phone from Los Angeles. “We tried to produce clothing of that couture quality, but the most daunting part was that we only had a matter of days [to do it].”

Filming for the series took place over several months last year in both Los Angeles and on-location at the late designer’s Miami home (where the fatal shooting took place), but according to an official statement released by the Versace family last week, the series is being characterized as “a work of fiction.” Murphy based the series on a 1999 book by Maureen Orth titled “Vulgar Favors,” which the family asserts is “full of gossip and speculation.”

Veracity of the storyline notwithstanding, Eyrich along with a team that included tailor Joanne Mills and designer Michael Costello, worked tirelessly to capture the colorful world of Gianni Versace, played by Édgar Ramírez, without actually having cooperation or guidance from the Milan-based company.

“I totally had the ‘I’m not worthy’ feeling,” explains Eyrich when hired by Murphy, the director with whom she also collaborated with for “American Horror Story,” “Feud” and “Glee.” “It’s especially daunting to me because I don’t really know that world of high fashion and couture, but because it’s a story that is a historical moment, I [thought] I could do my research and create this story.”

The on-screen narrative will show Versace’s opulent lifestyle in tandem with that of the serial killer, played by Darren Criss, who committed at least four additional murders over three months leading up to Versace’s July 1997 attack. “There are two different worlds going on,” she adds. “It’s very interesting working on costumes for these two parallels that are opposites, actually.”

The Minnesota-born Eyrich scoured online retailers and vintage shops for original pieces from the design house and for the Donatella Versace character, played by Penélope Cruz, created a reimagined facsimile of one of the brand’s iconic safety-pin dresses, which made its debut on the runway in the fall of 1993.

“We searched and searched and searched and finally found a belt with 18 of the safety pins from that famous collection,” recalls Eyrich. “But they were silver and we wanted gold.”

In order to achieve the look, the designer and her team “mutilated” the belt and had each safety-pin gold-plated — all within a matter of hours. Where the real-life Versace would take months in his atelier to create a couture gown, Eyrich and Mills would have only a matter of days. In fact, the process was so quick that the wardrobe team never actually made costume sketches. “If you look closely, then you shutter,” reveals Eyrich. “But for TV, it works — although in the world of HD and huge screens, it’s a little more daunting.”

The three-time Emmy Award winner says she would “stay awake at night trying to figure out how to create that Versace world” in a way that would be respectful to the brand’s integrity. “We just didn’t have the time frame to come up with all the details and that sometimes frustrates me.”

But it was paying respect to the brand’s eponymous founder that was of top importance to Eyrich and her colleagues on-set. “It was very eerie,” she explains. “Many of us were choked up being [at the murder location] with that feeling of needless loss. Everybody had moments of reflection.”

‘American Crime Story’ Designer on Quickly Duplicating Gianni Versace’s Nineties Style

How FX’s ‘Versace’ Tackles Homophobia and the Family’s Main Point of Contention

The Versace family has now issued two statements denouncing FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. But the producers and stars all maintain that the second season of FX’s Emmy-winning anthology is a respectful portrayal of the famed fashion designer, who was gunned down by wanted killer Andrew Cunanan on the steps of his Miami mansion in the summer of 1997.

“The primary thing is that we are celebrating Versace,” writer Tom Rob Smith tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We are exploring why he was a genius, why he was important, the impact that he made, and why it was such a loss when he was murdered — both on a personal level in terms of all the people that loved him, all the people that admired him, and on a cultural level as well. It’s a show that celebrates and admires him.”

The family’s main point of contention seems to be the portrayal of Gianni Versace as HIV-positive, which reporter Maureen Orth contended in her book Vulgar Favors. (The season is based on Orth’s book and reporting.) Orth, who covered the hunt for Cunanan for Vanity Fair at the time, was told on the record by a Miami Beach detective that blood tests done after Versace’s death confirmed his HIV-positive status. Orth, for her part, told THR that more than a decade later, she stands by her reporting.

“I was told on the record by the lead detective on Miami Beach that he had heard from the medical examiner who did the blood work that he was [HIV-positive],” Orth said. “And it also goes along with other people who told me that he was very weak at one time and he needed [partner] Antonio to help him walk, and they came over to his house when he was having breakfast and he had 27 bottles of pills in front of him. Now, does that mean they’re for HIV? But the blood thing from on record from the Miami Beach, that’s pretty [solid].”

The Versace family has blasted the FX drama as a “work of fiction” and Orth’s book, saying that the FX series relies on a book they say is “full of gossip and speculation.”

“Orth never received any information from the Versace family and she has no basis to make claims about the intimate personal life of Gianni Versace or other family members. Instead, in her effort to create a sensational story, she presents second-hand hearsay that is full of contradictions,” the family said in a statement. “Orth makes assertions about Gianni Versace’s medical condition based on a person who claims he reviewed a postmortem test result, but she admits it would have been illegal for the person to have reviewed the report in the first place (if it existed at all). In making her lurid claims, she ignores contrary information provided by members of Mr. Versace’s family, who…were in the best position to know the facts of his life…. Of all the possible portrayals of his life and legacy, it is sad and reprehensible that the producers have chosen to present the distorted and bogus version created by Maureen Orth.”

Showrunner Ryan Murphy responded to the family’s criticism, telling THR that Donatella Versace’s actions seemed to indicate she wasn’t entirely displeased with the series. “Donatella Versace sent Penelope Cruz [who portrays her in Versace] a very large arrangement of flowers when she was representing the show at the Golden Globes,” he said. “I don’t know if she is going to watch the show, but if she did, I think she would see that we treat her and her family with respect and kindness, and she really is sort of a feminist role model in my book because she had to step into an impossible situation, which she did with grace and understanding.”

But regardless of Versace’s status, the fact that he overcame a serious illness and was excited about his life provides a sharp contrast to the desperation of Cunanan’s outlook.

“To me if you look at just the facts of his illness, he did get very sick at that time, and he did recover at the time of the new [HIV/AIDS] drug therapy. So it does seem to fit that,” Smith said. “But even all that aside, what I found most amazing about it is this is a guy that came so close to death, and still clung on. He really fought for life. Life was very important to him. Contrast it with someone who gave up, and someone who was beaten by circumstance. And what’s interesting in some of the reactions was, ‘Oh, he’s the killer. He must have AIDS.’ Actually, Andrew didn’t have it.”

Cunanan (played by Glee alum Darren Criss) shot Versace as he returned from his morning walk to the newsstand, something the designer did regularly when he was staying in Florida — even when he was sick.

“Gianni did the walk to the magazine store in Miami often. Once he did it when he was so sick he could barely make it that couple of blocks. He was carrying the magazines back, and he couldn’t even hold them. That morning [of his death] when he walks, he’s so alive again. It’s really powerful to think that he must’ve been like, ‘This life is great,’ and he can do that walk and carry the magazines. And then Andrew comes up,” Smith said. “It’s really terrible when you look at those two. I thought that was a really powerful part of his story, so that was why we did it.”

Edgar Ramirez, who plays the late designer, did not contact the Versace family for both legal and personal reasons when he was preparing to take on the part in theMurphy-produced drama.

“What this family went through was a horrible tragedy, and I would understand [not wanting to discuss it], had it been my case to be contacted to talk about something that caused so much pain and also was infused with so much misrepresentation, prejudice, and so much stigma and confusion,” Ramirez told THR. “I was lucky enough to have people who were very very close to Gianni to talk to me and to open to me. They were the ones that were very generous to me.”

Ricky Martin, who plays Versace’s longtime partner, Antonio D’Amico, did speak to the man he portrays, and said he now counts the designer among his friends. But before they spoke, he simply wanted to get a small amount of justice for Versace’s murder, a crime he says shouldn’t have even happened in the first place.

“There’s so much injustice,” he told THR. “Why did we allow it to happen when this killer was on a killing spree for weeks, killing gay men? He was on the list of the FBI’s most wanted. He was not hiding. Why did it happen? Just the fact that we are still dealing with this level of ignorance frustrates me.”

As a gay man, he wanted to bring the story not only of the homophobia that contributed to Versace’s death, but the struggle he faced in his life.

“The fact that someone as successful and as powerful as Gianni Versace was struggling to come out of the closet, it was like, give me a break,” Martin said. “That was in 1997, but I know now in 2018, there are men and women that are still struggling with this kind of fear, of their career going to collapse if they come out. Everybody’s going to hate them at home if they come out. It is sad. But it was important for me to be vocal about how unjust life is for some of us. I’m so lucky, but it’s not right. Something needs to be done.”

How FX’s ‘Versace’ Tackles Homophobia and the Family’s Main Point of Contention

The ‘Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ Features Authentic Vintage Versace

“I had the utmost respect and dedication to making sure we showed anything Versace in the best light,” says costume designer Lou Eyrich.

Much like how Ryan Murphy’s “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” was a exploration of racism, sexism and the 24-hour news cycle, the followup “Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” series is another timely social commentary deep dive set in the ‘90s. The second (or technically third) anthology installment explores how homophobia and society’s attitudes toward the LGBTQ+ community ultimately led to the legendary fashion designer’s tragic murder on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion on July 15, 1997.

With Gianni Versace (played by Edgar Ramirez) and his sister and current Vice President of the fashion house, Donatella (Penelope Cruz) being the anchor of the show, fashion — bold, iconic, famously flashy fashion — plays an integral part in the series. But, in anticipation of the January 17 premiere on FX, the Versace family condemned the series as an unauthorized “work of fiction” and attacked the book it’s based on, “Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History” by Maureen Orth, as a “distorted and bogus version” of the designer’s story.

The Executive Producer tried to assuage the family at a Variety panel, per Business of Fashion, saying that the series will “treat [Donatella] and her family with respect and kindness.” Costume designer and longtime Murphy collaborator Lou Eyrich also took special care to honor the family and the brand through the wardrobe.

“We didn’t get to work with the House of Versace at all,” she says, over the phone from Los Angeles, before the family issued statements. “I happen to be a lover of Versace, so I had the utmost respect and dedication to making sure we showed anything Versace in the best light.”

Eyrich personally remembers the media coverage surrounding Gianni’s tragic murder and ensuing manhunt for serial killer Andrew Cunanan at the time. To precisely research, she found a wealth of footage on YouTube, like “Dateline” and “48 Hours” segments, as well as old copies of magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair, which featured stories about the murder. “Of course, I studied his last couple of runway collections from ’96 and ’97,” she adds.

Eyrich was also able to include authentic vintage ’90s Versace pieces, especially for Cruz as Donatella, which were intensively sourced online from high-end resellers and shopped in-store at The Way We Wore in Los Angeles and the famed C Madeleine’s boutique in North Miami Beach. “They had a lot of the original Versace stuff; we were able to get the super high-waisted equestrian leggings, the boots with the Medusa heads on them, a lot of good jewelry and purses and leather coats,” the three-time Emmy winner for her work on “American Horror Story” says. “We got a lot there.”

When Cruz first appears on the show, she wears a vintage Versace-esque, but not Versace-label leather jacket and trousers set, but her belt, boots and bag are authentic pieces from the fashion house (above). The non-linear timeline of the series also jumps back to the early ’90s, allowing for moments of exposition that include notable milestones for the House of Versace — and requiring even more authentic vintage finds.

“We had a scene set in the early 1990s that was supposed to show the audacity and sex appeal of the Versace brand. We studied the imagery of the famous [Fall ’92] Miss S&M collection and were drooling over all the leather, fringe and Western detailing,” co-designer Allyson Leach tells Fashionista over email. “At the last minute, we found the ultimate black leather western shirt for Penelope, complete with fringe, gold collar tips andthe original Versace label at New/Found vintage in LA. We paired it with a pair of custom gold studded jeans that we had recreated based on the same collection. Penelope, Lou and I were all dying over that look.” (Below.)

However, some “Versace” looks needed to be meticulously custom-built, like Cruz’s hot pink and signature gold safety-pin detailed gown (above) and he white lace-up bustier dress (below)— but not too exactly copied for legal reasons. “If it was real Versace, obviously [the piece] could say ‘Versace’ and have the Medusa,” Eyrich says. “But if we were making anything, we were careful not to replicate their logo.”

Fashion nerds will likely lose their minds over a near-exact reproduction of Gianni’s last Versace haute couture show for Fall 1997, which in real life was held at the Ritz Paris, but, on the series, Miami. The louche metallic mini-dress and menswear-inspired aesthetic, the styling (the wide black headbands!) and the model casting — a fake Naomi Campbell as the bride and a faux Erin O’Connor — are spot-on, but the re-created runway looks intentionally are not.

“We did our best to replicate it without exactly copying, of course, but we just wanted to make sure it was represented in a couture way to honor Versace,” says Eyrich, about the hand-sewn and custom built pieces for the show. The scene hits especially hard following Donatella’s heartfelt tribute to her late brother in September with the Versace Spring 2018 runway show, complete with the ’97-referential slinky gold gowns — worn by the real Campbell and the original supermodels.

While the Versaces and Gianni’s longtime boyfriend Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin) are represented through high fashion, Cunanan (played by “Glee”’s Darren Criss like you’ve never seen before) and his backstory are deftly communicated through wardrobe — but in a much different way. Not much documentation of Cunanan existed prior to his violent killing spree, so Eyrich worked with the knowledge that the he was skilled at changing his appearance depending on his con or situation.

In the first episode alone, Cunanan exhibits a chameleon-like range of personas, changing from a preppy corduroy jacket and cravat with khakis to a leather bomber jacket and loud printed shirt when he reportedly, per Orth’s book, first encounters Gianni at a San Francisco nightclub to denim cut-offs and a ratty muscle shirt when he’s openly on the run in Miami.

“He was all about status, but he personally didn’t have any status, so he was always dressing and acting the part,” explains Eyrich. “But as his life started falling apart, we started showing that through his clothes.” As he continues his killing spree across the country, the costumes reflect Cunanan’s desperation and decline. “He was either [wearing] what was in his backpack or what he could steal or get at some thrift store. And things weren’t fitting him very well. His appearance really went downhill.”

The sun, palm tree and saturated color-drenched backdrop of ’90s Miami is also evocative of the era and the intensity of the story. Eyrich wanted to “show that vibrant beat of Miami” through bright “Miami Vice”-reminiscent hues and beachwear. Cunanan essentially roamed the South Beach boardwalks and sweaty nightclubs for two months — despite being on the FBI’s Most Wanted list — which required outfitting supporting players, like a near-unrecognizable (even to his kids) Max Greenfield as addict Ronnie in thoughtfully selected acid washed denim cut-offs, plus lots of extras in skimpy swimwear on the beach.

“That’s all Ryan,” says Eyrich. “The older men in their hot pink Speedos, that was his personal request.” For the party scenes, she especially relied on a crew member who came to set with first-hand knowledge. “Luckily one of our fabulous costumers, who grew up there, had a ton of actual photos from when he worked for MTV — these stunning photos of nightclubs — and we were able to lift that research,” she adds.

The ‘Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ Features Authentic Vintage Versace