Creating Universal Nostalgia: An Interview with Rosa Dias, Costume Designer for Netflix’s Sex Education
Exploring the alluring and never-ending dramatic period of adolescence has been the theme of many productions in the past decade. We can safely say that teenage storylines have been adapted to more than a hundred plots, no doubt. Interpreting and transforming the real-life experiences of teenagers to the silver screen is not an easy task, as it can veer in a plethora of directions. The coming-of-age process is in itself a diverse, complex, volatile phase that we’ve all gone through but can’t quite define when asked to relate our experiences. For all I can remember, I used to pretend I was a poet on Facebook.
As viewers besiege studios for more real storylines that discard old archetypes (i.e., the nerd, the jock, the mean girl, the bully), things often get lost in translation. For a reason we’re yet to discover, most modern series that focus on teenagers are burdened with unrequited dark themes that define sweet sixteen only by infinite sorrow.
Then Sex Education enters the picture. Created by Laurie Nunn and directed by Ben Taylor, the BAFTA-nominated, taboo-breaking series knows how adolescence’s painful instances cannot taint the whole colourful canvas of youth.
As its name evokes, sexual exploration is the driving force of the show’s bravado. But what makes Sex Education truly fresh is all the nuanced topics that it covers: Peer pressure. Kink. STIs. Abortion. Anxiety. Self-esteem. Shame. You cry, laugh, and brood while watching it all unfold and as a bonus, you really learn about sex and everyting that revolves it.
It is justified to be skeptical of educational content on a giant streaming platform. After all, audiences no longer fancy being spoon-fed poor and performative narratives (you can check Twitter if you don’t believe me)! Yet Netflix’s Sex Education delivers its goal without a condescending attitude by humbly embracing a diverse outlook of human sexuality spanning a spectrum of ages, bodies, ethnicities, backgrounds, personal issues, and sexual orientations or lack thereof. By leaving its’ setting ambiguous, the series is further capable of connecting to multiple generations and delivering enticing characters that break overdone archetypes.
The clothes featured in Sex Education are statements alone. They span decades of inspiration and are reminiscent of the 60s exploration of self, the 70s groove, the sparkles bonanza of the 80s, and more modern popping colours with a Y2K flare. Sex Education highlights a new sense of fashion that runs counter to the idea of aesthetics. While this may not translate reality, these fashion choices are often mirrored across all the characters of a show rocking the very foundation of reality that teen dramas are meant to stand upon.
In this spirit of prismatic fashion PILOT sat down with Sex Education’s Costume Designer Rosa Dias as she shined in a pink and black headband and a multicoloured, patterned shirt. We spoke about her approach to fashion, individuality, and the third season of the series. By the way, the costume design of the series has been nominated for a BAFTA, so we are in safe hands here.
P.S. - You can safely read this interview, no spoilers from previous seasons of Sex Education ahead.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Where did you source your inspiration for costuming the characters of Sex Education?
The inspiration started off with our director, Ben Taylor, saying what he wanted, which was to make a show that is timeless, from a non-specific time, place, or era. When people watched it, he wanted them to feel a sense of nostalgia but not know exactly why. When he was briefing the production designer and I, this was a really interesting way to think about the show because what is nostalgic to you might not be nostalgic to me. [Nostalgia] is a very personal thing. It relates to age, culture, and how you’ve been brought up. It was tricky to work out how we could create the concept of nostalgia and make it work all over the world.
Where do you find the clothes for the show? Do you design them? Do you buy them?
It’s a combination. Some of the clothes are made, others are not. In the first season I’d say 80% [of the clothing] was vintage. As the series went on, we also had contemporary pieces from small emerging fashion designers, but I wanted everything to have a timeless feel. Even though we have contemporary pieces, you might not know where to place a lot of the clothes on the show in regard to time and history. They could be from the 50s or the 80s. I love using vintage clothes because it’s more ecological and designing and dressing people is obviously a joy for me.
It must be liberating for you to create and unite pieces from different eras in one show and not have to worry so much about it.
Absolutely. It’s very freeing because you don’t have to comply with all the rules of a certain period. At the same time, it’s quite a big mission. When you work with something that is attached to a period you have a history behind it and that helps you to create the characters, but with Sex Education you have very little to start off with and you have to look at [the character’s] personalities.
What is your favourite character to dress up and why? Because each character has such a distinctive style, don’t they?
Lily (Tanya Reynolds) is possibly my favourite just because I love her quirkiness and because she’s got such fantastic body movements and facial expressions so anything you put on her is going to work; she’s so out there. I love Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) as well, I love that he is so expressive and confident, and he can wear whatever he wants and still pull it off.
But honestly, I wouldn’t be lying if I said I love dressing every single person on the show. Even the background characters...we dress every single one of them. Whatever I put together for them creates a person, a unique individual. I think this is such a lovely thing to be given -- to dress people so individually.
What is the significance of clothes for a show such as Sex Education, where adolescents are the main focus of the storyline?
We all say things with our clothes, don’t we? I think people of all ages discover their voices and who they are with their clothes. Clothes can make you feel confident or horrible. They can empower people to create and recall all sorts of emotions.
When you are a teenager, you are at a stage where you’re growing and you’re discovering your identity. I find the idea of wearing something because you want to be part of a group really sad because we should all be true to ourselves, work out what makes us happy, and express ourselves fully. With Sex Education, I hope, the story and the clothes show that you can be an individual and not have to follow anyone. When you keep thinking about what is trendy or not you lose yourself and you give in to a demographic. You’re not actually being in touch with yourself.
What can we expect from the fashion of this new season? As the characters have developed more, how has their style changed, if at all?
I don’t like when I watch a series and the more successful it becomes, the more you can notice it in the costumes, and you think “oh come on”. Some people presume that just because they’ve been given more budget that they are going to spend more on the pieces of famous designers. Well, I hate that. When it happens, the show becomes too sleek.
Not grounded in reality, right?
Exactly! The story of Sex Education is really grounded in reality. The characters are very real and experience things that teenagers actually experience on a daily basis. That touches everyone, so you’ve got to have a wardrobe based on reality but that is amazing as well. I didn’t want to move the characters too much, [to dramatically alter their style] there has to be something that happens that really changes them, and the third season doesn't happen that many years after the second.
This season the characters are coming back after their summer holidays. We went for the same style but better. Eric had that big transformation after coming out and starts to dress more flamboyantly, but he’s still that same person. There’s an interesting storyline in this new season where you’ll see Otis (Asa Butterfield) go through something that changes him and you’ll see that [in his clothing]. But most of the characters aren’t really changing in a way that completely alters their style. There’s a lot of new characters to get your teeth into as well.
You’re really aware that clothing can break the immersive experience of a show when it’s not genuine to the place, story, or the characters’ personality traits. It’s not a parody.
Absolutely. If the show is a fictional, fantastical world the situation is different, but Sex Education is real and that’s why people connect to it. If it starts to become a pastiche of what you’ve already done and watched it won’t work. And that was a worry I had when we started this new season, I didn’t want to be jaded with it, I wanted it to make it fresh yet rooted in the world and characters we know and love.
Images courtesy of Netflix