\u201cWhen I watch a movie I can just tell sometimes\u2014like in Drive, <\/em>Ryan Gosling\u2019s bomber jacket with the dragon on the back, you just knew. You saw that and you were like, ‘That’s going to be an iconic costume.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If her recent work is any indication, Covarrubias is well poised to be behind the next Halloween sensation. Fresh off a turn as head designer on Master of None<\/em>, Aziz Ansari\u2019s critically-acclaimed new Netflix show, she has taken up the reins on Inside Amy Schumer<\/em> for the show\u2019s fourth season on Comedy Central and been tapped for an HBO pilot produced and directed by Girls<\/em>\u2019 Judd Apatow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At a moment when the worlds of television and comedy are thriving, Covarrubias is right at the center of it all, making sure your favorite funny people are wearing exactly what they need to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes this calls for some slightly unusual requests. Amid Ansari\u2019s spiffy Band Of Outsiders and Steven Alan-heavy wardrobe on Master of None<\/em> is a scene that calls for a Hazmat suit\u2014a mass-produced garment with sizing that tends to err on the side of XXL, a challenge when you\u2019re shopping for a slim, five-foot-six star. To work around that, Covarrubias sourced a more fit-conscious flight suit, which she brought to her go-to \u201cknockoff lady\u201d along with some shiny white vinyl material to create a suit that looked capable of sealing off biological agents without drowning the actor\u2019s frame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another group of flashback scenes took place in 1950s India and Taiwan, requiring reams of standing-collar shirts, lightweight pants, and colorful saris\u2014along with four dedicated ager\/dyers, who made H&M finds look decades old using chemicals, sandpaper, and other garment-distressing techniques. While there were tentative plans to shoot overseas, they ended up creating a faux-India in Brooklyn, which meant finding more than 200 pairs of old-world-style sandals to protect the extras\u2019 feet. \u201cIn reality, most people would be barefoot, but we couldn’t have actors walking around barefoot in Bushwick,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mashup of different eras and styles made the show one of Covarrubias\u2019 favorite projects to date. \u201cIt’s kind of the ideal, because it had custom-made cool futuristic things, period clothing, and current fashion,\u201d she says. \u201cIt’s fun to have that balance of doing the styling side of it and fulfilling that desire to make the actors look awesome by putting them in a cool designer, and to also be super creative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Creativity is of the essence for the Texas native, who studied theater before landing her first television internship, in the costume department of the IFC sketch comedy show The Whitest Kids U\u2019 Know<\/em>. After years spent re-working vintage costumes for the stage, the idea that she could be told, \u201cThis is the character’s name, this is their job, this is what they do, this is the kind of person they are\u2014let’s go shop\u201d was a revelation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was like, \u2018This is a job? This is a thing that people do?\u2019,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI didn’t really know that that existed, and I just immediately fell in love with it. It made so much sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As with any job, time and money are two of the biggest considerations that go into planning costumes for a show. Custom-made or difficult-to-find pieces have to be prioritized early on, while last-minute shopping trips will inevitably come up during filming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Inside Amy Schumer<\/em>, for instance, Covarrubias had to get to work finding a custom-made, human-sized cockroach costume as soon as the script came in for the season\u2019s already-written sketches, but says there will also be days when casting comes in at 8 a.m.\u2014along with the actor\u2019s measurements\u2014and filming starts that afternoon. It happens more often than you might think, and means she\u2019ll be running to Macy\u2019s or Bloomingdale\u2019s with 30 minutes and a corporate credit card in hand, and then right back to set to have the outfits fit, tailored, and ready to shoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While she has built an impressive resume with her small screen work (she also counts Louie<\/em> and the pilot of the now \u00fcber-popular Broad City<\/em> among her successes), Covarrubias has a few avenues she would like to explore more in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would love to do more movies\u2014I think, like any industry, you get into one vein and then you get hired on the next thing, the next thing, the next thing. Doing movies is really different\u2014for one thing, it’s faster,\u201d she says. Where television shows can film for three to six months of the year (or longer), movies often call for only a month of work. \u201cAs a creative person, I enjoy the shortness of movies, because it’s like this little world that you create for a month, and the next month you get to create a whole new world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Dana](\"\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/01\/Dana-Covarrubias-800x571.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"Dana](\"\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/01\/Dana-Covarrubias-2-800x571.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHow to be a costume designer<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n