The Widow’s Bay Coastal Style Nods to Jaws, The Goonies, and ’90s Liam Gallagher
Costume designer Alex Bovaird also explains how, exactly, the cast of characters are supposed to shop for clothes on a Wi-Fi–free island.
Widow’s Bay deftly delivers both spine-chilling jump scares and hearty snort-laughs (BarcaLounger, anyone?) — and its time-agnostic costumes are in on the joke and the mystery. Emmy-nominated costume designer Alex Bovaird peppered the horror-comedy’s wardrobes with ’80s and ’90s pop-culture Easter eggs, which she’ll tell us all about below.
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Warning: mild spoilers for Widow’s Bay below.
When I first started Widow’s Bay — and promptly devoured the entire series of screeners — I legit thought it was set in the ’80s. Rosemary (Dale Dickey) chainsmoking at her Town Hall desk, boxy cars like the ones my parents used to drive, all those muted sweaters and plaid shirts from my childhood, and a raging sense of déjà vu supported my initial assumption.
“[Writer-creator Katie Dippold and director Hiro Murai] hired anybody who was into Jaws and Twin Peaks,” says costume designer Alex Bovaird, whose original mood board also featured The Shining and Stephen King fare. “I remember Hiro [describing the show’s tone] like ‘American nostalgia trapped in amber.’”
It’s not until New York Times travel writer Arthur Lloyd (Bashir Salahuddin) whips out his iPhone in search of a signal that Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys, flexing his comedic chops) explains the island is Wi-Fi–free — making the remote locale feel even more isolated and eerie. (The historical society displaying seemingly blood-stained colonial dresses, a mannequin in a straightjacket, and old newspaper headlines like “Cannibalism in God’s House” — in all caps — deepens the unsettling vibe.)
“The lore, the myth, and the spookiness seem more realistic if you’re also setting it in a nebulous time,” says Bovaird, who also visited similar — though presumably less haunted — historical societies in New England towns like Gloucester, Rockport, and Salem for research and sourcing. “It helps with the whole fairy tale of it.”
To outfit the quirky island denizens, Bovaird shopped as she imagined they would on the island — thrifting classic, secondhand pieces and custom-building vintage-referential items if multiples were needed. You know, for sweaty or waterlogged action sequences or a sudden spray of sea hag remnants.
Because, for me, the overarching mystery from the series wasn’t, for instance, the function of the terrifying restraint chair in the sub-sub-basement. My big question: If there’s no Wi-Fi for online shopping (or reliable ferry service for deliveries) — and native-born islanders meet an untimely end if they leave — how do people buy their clothes?!
Bovaird, who previously costume designed high-end vacation wardrobes for rich people behaving badly in three seasons of The White Lotus, explains that Widow’s Bay is a circular economy of secondhand stores — devoid of H&Ms, Zaras, and the like. “Or people brought stuff from the mainland and left it there,” she says. “That’s why their clothes felt a bit dated, too.”
Bovaird and her team also developed a special “dye bath” technique to give the Widow’s Bay wardrobes a consistent time-worn, lived-in, and foreboding feel. “We called it ‘Jaws Tech,’” says Bovaird. “Everything got bathed in a brown patina.”
The influence of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 seaside thriller creeps into much of the movie — especially with Tom. For The Set Set, production designer Steven Arnold told me that the curtains and fixtures in the Loftis kitchen are recreations of Amity Island police chief Brody’s (Roy Scheider) home. Tom’s dad knits, rugged plaids, and that snug dark t-shirt also nod toward Brody — as opposed to his movie counterpart, the peacocking Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton).
(Aside and note to stylist Frank L. Fleming: Please put Matthew Rhys in an anchor-covered pastel jacket for his Emmys rounds.)
“Because Tom’s the outsider,” says Bovaird. “We just wanted him to feel like a quintessential dad. He’s just slightly more put together than the rest of the islanders. He’s a little more modern, but also a classic American guy.”
Horror movies also underscore earnest, loyal, and low-key badass town administrator Patricia’s (Kate O’Flynn) arc. She’s been Carrie-ed by the high school mean girls ever since narrowly escaping a Halloween-style demise as a teen. Decades later, she finally vanquishes the menacing Boogeyman (Airon Armstrong) with resourcefulness and split-second instincts — spraying him with gasoline in a horror-villain flambé.
In an Elle interview with friend of WNVM Emma Fraser, O’Flynn said she infused “a dash” of Shelley Duvall’s performance as Wendy Torrance — the brave, pushed-to-the-edge wife in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining — into her audition tape. Wendy also inspired pieces in Patricia’s timelessly offbeat wardrobe, like a pair of checked culottes and a pinafore dress.
“She’s a misfit,” says Bovaird, pointing to a very ’80s horror archetype, too. “She has a lot of different notes, like she’s got unexpected new age tendencies. She’s also stern, with high morals. She’s kind of a fuddy duddy and she loves sensible shoes.”
A similar slightly off-kilter energy also shows up in the teen storyline. A sincere, try-hard Tom really wants to connect with his son Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick), who’s understandably feeling restless on a low-tech island where he can’t even scroll TikTok or scour the Internet for questionable content. He and his bros entertain themselves through familiar pastimes of ’80s yore — smoking joints and daring each other to venture into the creepy house on the corner.
“Evan and his friends were fun to dress because they were a bit like The Goonies or The Outsiders, or those ’80s movies where there’s a group of them,” says Bovaird, who put Evan in Coogi-like intarsia knits, blocked fleeces, and faded, baggy jeans of the era — which, of course, also follow Gen Z fashion habits. “At first, when we were dressing Kingston, they didn’t want him to be too cool. But kids these days, they’re all about expressing their individuality and finding pieces that are, the more random the better.”
Whatever Nevermind celebrates Gen X-ers doing cool things, explores stories and trends that define our generation, and dives into pop culture, fashion, and beauty from our perspective. Read more stories like this here.
Speaking of random, the Boogeyman’s functional, coastal rain-ready parka doesn’t obviously evoke iconic horror villain signatures, like Freddy Krueger’s distressed green-and-red sweater and fedora or Jason Voorhees’ hockey mask and blue utilitarian coveralls.
“Everything’s a little uncanny,” says Bovaird, of Widow’s Bay distinctive balance of smart humor and bone-chilling terror. “We wanted a working man’s item that hadn’t been done on a boogeyman.”
It just so happened that production aligned with last year’s Oasis reunion tour, so the Gallagher brothers were top of mind.
“The Boogeyman actually has a Liam Gallagher parka on,” says Bovaird, referring to the famously combative frontman’s trademark outerwear since the 1990s. “Sometimes it’s just personal — because we were listening to Oasis.”
Fun article- I’ve been devouring this show, and when it’s over, I’ll watch it again. There are too many details and references to catch in a single viewing.
Just one quibble: Jason Vorhees wears the hockey mask. Michael Myers wears an inside-out William Shatner mask.
Oh, my gosh, I want to see this just for the costume design! I love the idea of this place out of time and a bit out of sync with the real world.
Great work, Fawnia, thank you!🤘💕