White Kamala Harris pants from Maya Rudolph on SNL

Kamala Harris walked on stage in Wilmington, DE, to address the nation as vice president-elect at around 8:30 p.m. ET. At that time, the Saturday Night Live the cast and crew had just started the show’s dress rehearsal, which begins at 11:30 p.m. ET. The mood? Intense, especially for the costume department, which includes producer and costume designer Tom Broecker and wardrobe supervisor Dale Richards, who was in charge of tailoring the outfit actor Maya Rudolph would wear in Harris. for cold opening. “A member of my team worked on each piece: the blouse, the jacket and the pants,” Richards told POPSUGAR.

Rudolph had already done perfectly with Kamala’s Converse sneakers on the show – would she do that white Carolina Herrera victory suit and coordinating ponytail silk blouse, so much justice? Of course – even with such a limited time. We spoke with Broecker and Richards about the quick process. They confirmed that whatever Rudolph wore to pay homage to Kamala’s own salvation to the women’s suffrage movement was in fact taken out of stock or made from scratch.

“My assistant started capturing screenshots of everything [Harris] wore so we could get all the details – the shoes, jewelry, hair, makeup, blouse and costume. By 9pm we had gathered all of the ‘research’ photos and started browsing our inventory to see if there was anything that might work. All the shops in town had been closed for hours. There was no way to shop this look anywhere except in our back rooms, ”said Broecker, setting the scene.

He continued, “A box of cream charmeuse fabric was found to make the blouse, and then a cream double-breasted suit was found that could be completely recut and modified to make the suit work. It would take incredible work to recut a double-breasted suit into a single-breasted suit, but I work with the most incredible tailors in the world. They put the jacket on Maya’s mannequin in the office and went to work, like in the movie Cinderella. Eighty minutes later, and four exhausted tailors, Maya had a fitting. It was perfect and she was ready to take the stage. As I left her dressing room, I realized that she did not have her pin on her lapel. Her dresser went for a run into the closet room to get her pin. I will say this: nowhere else in the world could this happen. “

Rudolph ended up performing the cold opening in nude Jimmy Choo pumps and the cream suit that had been, interestingly enough, originally purchased from a costume supplier a year earlier for Cecily Strong to play Melania Trump in a sketch, although it has never been used. All of these little details are extremely important to Broecker and her team, who confirmed that Kamala Harris’ little touches with her clothes, like her meaningful jewelry or her Converse, define her as a real person. “I believe fashion is always extremely important in helping an actor play a character. Whether that character is a real person or an ‘made up’ character, that actor has to rely on the costume to help them define their character. [it’s] an impossible task for any place other than Saturday Night Live. We have the best people in the world, ”Broecker continued.

Broecker and Richards have also confirmed that they have no contact with anyone on Harris’ team, so they will have no way of being notified in advance of what she might wear for a event in particular. “Even if we had a contact in the Kamala camp, by the time they told us who designed it, the stores would be closed and it would be far too late to get any,” Richards said. So if you thought there might be some sort of “cheating” involved in this crucial process, think again. Ahead, see how similar the two looks are, from the Delaware scene to the New York scene three hours later.