Tiffany Hasbourne brings her background in celebrity styling and costume design to Apple TV thriller Imperfect Women, where clothing helps define character, class, memory, and secrecy. A Queens, New York native, Hasbourne studied at the Art Institute of Atlanta before building a career that includes screen credits on Atlanta, In Treatment, P-Valley, Ballers, and Shooter.
INTERVIEWS
Imperfect Women adapts Araminta Hall’s novel into an eight-episode story about Eleanor, Mary, and Nancy, three longtime friends whose lives fracture after a murder. Kerry Washington, Elisabeth Moss, and Kate Mara lead the series, with Joel Kinnaman, Corey Stoll, Leslie Odom Jr., and others in the cast. The drama follows friendship, suspicion, marriage, grief, and the private histories that shape each woman’s choices.
The show’s shifting perspectives gave Hasbourne space to build wardrobes that change with memory, suspicion, and self-image. Eleanor, Mary, and Nancy each dress from a different emotional place, shaped by money, grief, control, and daily pressure. A necklace, a jacket, a heel, or a familiar bag can reveal what each character wants to project, protect, or keep hidden.
For an exclusive DSCENE Magazine interview, Hasbourne speaks with our editor Ana Markovic about joining Imperfect Women, working with Washington, Moss, and Mara, building the wardrobes for Eleanor, Mary, and Nancy, and shaping the costume language of a series where every detail matters.
How did you first become involved with Imperfect Women, and what made this project the right fit for you?
I was given the first episode by my agents and started to put together a deck for my meeting with all the producers. It felt like the right fit to me because there was an opportunity to show our 3 main characters day to day. Eleanor, Nancy and Mary had been friends since college but lived different lives now in their adulthood.
When you first read the scripts, what visual language came to mind for the show? Was there a specific mood, designer reference, or emotional tone that guided your early research?
When I first read the scripts the story was told from each woman’s perspective for 6 of the 8 episodes so I chose to use color, patterns and economic status to help tell that story.
The characters are all so different, can you tell us more about how you approached each of them? They all had complicated backstories, especially Nancy. How did you integrate their past with their current life?
Eleanor came from money but didn’t want that to be her focal point so I mixed high end with independent designers at times.When she was working, doing interviews or going around the police or lawyers she leaned more into her prestige. Nancy was trying to be the perfect philanthropist that was running from her past and wore a lot of soft and pastel colors to show more of her ballet background and always in heels. Mary who was a mother of 3 with an unemployed husband was completely overwhelmed, depressed from her loss but still had life and laundry keeping her busy on a day to day. Mary wore patterns and oversized jackets to be comfortable and functional.
The show uses non-linear storytelling, did that change how you chose the looks?
I used that concept to show how each woman saw themselves through their own eyes and through each other’s eyes. When Eleanor is telling her story she is always in a jacket and covered up around Robert out of respect. When Nancy is telling her story she is perfectly put together to not show what’s truly going on with her. Mary was always presenting herself as a grounded individual but when you jump from present day to flashbacks you were supposed to feel the shock and confusion that these ladies feel by missing what could have been signs of what was actually always going on if they had time to pay more attention to one another.
In a drama thriller, clothes can carry clues before the audience knows what they are looking at. Did you plant any costume details that viewers might only understand on a rewatch?
When I read the scripts I didn’t know who the killer was until we had already started shooting the first 2-3 episodes so I used the suspense I felt in the beginning to continue that until the end. I did not want to ruin the surprise and excitement I felt so I stayed in alignment to keep the suspense from the current days to the flashbacks. These are three very smart women and the men were just as important in the story telling. In theory there is no world where Nancy should have been attracted to her best friend’s husband so I had to make Howard a bit more put together in Nancy’s episodes to not only show how manipulative he became to her but also what he was capable of doing the same to Mary over years.
You sourced major pieces from fashion houses and archives, including Prada, Tommy Hilfiger, Schiaparelli, Hermès, Chanel, and Dior. How did your background in fashion help open those doors for the show?
Before I became a costume designer I was a celebrity stylist and so I approached Nancy’s character as if she had a personal shopper and Eleanor’s character from a perspective of how fashion starts to influence you when you travel the world for work.
Fine jewelry plays a major role in how we read status, intimacy, and power on screen. How did you approach jewelry for the characters, especially with Kerry Washington’s character and the personal necklace references that inspired parts of her look?
Kerry and I have worked together before and she noticed that my personal stack of chains is something that I always wear and at the camera test she said “Your Eleanor” so I took that thought process and applied it to her. The “C” is for her fathers name Charles Bouchet and could also very much be Constance, her black star was symbolic to something that her father gave her to always remember who she was but using black diamonds because it was more unique to who she was of never wanting to be the focus. Her buddha was symbolic to her travels across the world and her need to help. Which was perfect for her owning a non-profit.
That meaningful jewelry selection carries throughout the entire family, Donovan and Constance all have very detailed meaningful pieces.
How collaborative was the fitting process with Kerry Washington, Elisabeth Moss, and Kate Mara? Did any of their instincts change the direction of a look or help you understand a character differently?
The collaboration between Kerry, Lizzie and Kate was such a special bond. Kerry understanding fashion helped push the edge of Eleanor. Lizzie owning the rights to this book and living with her character the longest helped me understand Mary so much more and what made her fall in love with the book. Originally I thought the character would be more boho and free but Lizzie really helped me ground Mary more in the midst of confusion and chaos that was happening at the core of the character.
The book has a different outcome with a different killer but her knowing that helped me collaborate more with a woman who was a mother going through things at home while feeling guilt like she missed something with her friend and a need to get answers. Kate brought a softness to the character that allowed me to make Nancy this perfect wife that we always thought would have been free but was very much in her own mental prison. Kate never let her character fall out of character – if she had to run she ran in her heels. I remember in the beginning I didn’t want Nancy to have her tragic night in pants and Kate leaned into that and kept that throughout the show. You only see her in pants while there is a stranger in her house hanging a painting and when she’s holding Cora as a baby trying to pull herself together for Robert’s family. So not wearing pants became symbolic.
You custom-made certain pieces, including the ballet gown with Kerry Washington that your team embroidered with crystals. Can you talk about that process and how much storytelling went into a single garment?
We searched for weeks for the perfect embroidery pieces to go on the shoulder and at her waist. After weeks of my ACD checking multiple stores I found the pieces on a random trip to MOOD while we were shooting downtown LA. That lead my shopper on a hunt for the perfect shoes and bag to tie in all the tones and then we had to get the perfect pair of gloves that led us to a glove designer in Europe.
One detail that feels very real is the way characters repeat certain shoes, bags, or wardrobe habits. How important was it for you to avoid the ‘new outfit every scene’ fantasy and ground these women in lived-in style?
Lizzie was very adamant that Mary repeats and so I made sure she had that element in different episodes and different scenes but while we doubled and tripled checked to make sure it never looked like a continuity mistake. Mary doesn’t have the same financial status as Eleanor and Nancy so that was important to show everyone doesn’t get to live their lives with something new everyday. We used it with Eleanor as well with her staple chains she always wore and her repeating her Alaia jean jacket.
You also shaped the wardrobes beyond the three leads. How did you approach the wider costume language of the show so every character had a clear visual identity?
Robert, Kit and RL needed to look like a family who ran a family business but Cora, much like Eleanor, chose her own style as many teenagers do. Marcus not having the same economic access that Cora did is seen wearing local LA band t-shirts and brands.
Howard being a teacher there is a jacket that we see him in a flashback in that looks brand new in the flashback but is clearly more worn and lived in when we see him in the current day.
Between archive pulls, fine jewelry, exclusive bags, and custom pieces, what did the logistics of getting these items onto set look like? Was there ever a moment where something arrived just in time?
Because there were so many designer loans, expensive jewelry and exclusive pieces we had one person just dedicated to that. We always put in requests to have items available in time for specific episodes so there were a couple of times that I would be following up with my team to make sure we had it in time to shoot. Nancy’s exclusive gold Dior was a big surprise I was not expecting so when that came I absolutely made sure to find several scenes for it to be in.
After filming wrapped, were there any pieces the actresses loved so much that they wanted to keep them?
There were so many good pieces and designers were so generous to the ladies by allowing them to keep things. A few items were their favorites that brands or production allowed them to have as keepsakes. Just to name a few items Alaia dress, Coach gifted a Kiss Lock Bag and loaned us an exclusive white graffiti one for shooting and every color that had been made for us to film with when they were sold out Nation Wide. Chanel gave a scarf, a Doen dress and a Montsand dress.
The series has already created conversation around a possible second season. If Season 2 happens, where do you imagine these wardrobes going after everything these women have survived, concealed, and revealed?
I haven’t heard about a second season but that would be a dream. However although we went into this knowing it was a limited series, I approached the finale with Eleanor taking on new looks getting on the other side of tragedy. Eleanor is sailing off into the sunset looking more relaxed with not only a new man but her brother by her side. Mary has moved on from her grief in an emerald dress and with more confidence to lead her family. Secretly, my department enjoyed the show so much that as we got closer to the finale we started playing with the idea of creating a cohesive fashion story for three new characters with a totally different story and original looks for them. Either way, just know it can only grow from where we ended.
Follow Tiffany Hasbourne on instagram.
Imperfect Women is available to stream on Apple TV.
