Samantha Hawkins On Costuming the Technicolor World of Rydell High for ‘Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies’

Costuming the origin of the Pink Ladies is probably a dream come true and a nerve-shredding task. Everyone has their idea of the fashions of Rydell High, but this is an even bigger animal. With ten brand new hours of television, costume designer Samantha Hawkins had her work cut out for her, and she didn’t waste any time for Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies. Her work is vibrant, colorful, sexy, and freeing.

Costume designer Angelina Kekich designed episodes one through three, but Hawkins was in charge of the back seven. Since each character has such a unique viewpoint, I dove into talking about specific characters to get inside Hawkins’ head about her designs. Everything is also incredibly period-appropriate but everyone approaches Rise with a contemporary flair for color and flamboyance. The costumes of Rise are so exciting.

Marisa Davila’s Jane is trying to break out from everyone’s perception of her. Hawkins dresses in some traditional silhouettes but she breaks out by using bold, deep colors. Olivia (played by Cheyenne Isabel Wells) wears clothes that elongate her body, but she doesn’t dress sexy for anyone else but herself. Nancy can wear, well, anything, and you can feel Hawkins’ excitement with Nancy’s wardrobe. When students perform in a production of Romeo & Juliet, the costumes , courtesy of Nancy, have a minimalistic, modern feel. Talk about aspirational!

You can feel how Hawkins connects the clothes to the characters so well that they never feel like the clothes are wearing them.

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies is streaming now on Paramount+.