Fashion designer Gunnar Deatherage creates costumes for Chappell Roan

On By Littum

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Native of southern Indiana and Louisville Gunnar’s death is the talent behind some of the pop stars Chappell Roan‘s most spectacular costumes.

The “Project Runway“alum and online content creator revealed how Roan’s burlesque-inspired extravaganza”Saturday Night Live“the ensemble that wowed audiences in November came together around his TikTok and Instagram accountsand how creating for Roan has been a once in a lifetime experience.

He said it has been a gift to create for “Pink Pony Club” singer and to have her work seen by such a wide audience. The green and teal embellished burlesque ensemble worn by Roan to promote her SNL appearance was the most complex ensemble Deatherage has worked on and took more than a month to collect.

“I tell people it took 500 hours, but that doesn’t take into account at least 15 days of scouring stores in Los Angeles for the perfect fabric and embellishment.” Death told the Courier Journal. “It was a lot.”

The look viewers saw on NBC was originally intended to be worn during Roan’s summer concert tour, but as the costume began to come together, the pop star’s stylist, Genesis Webb, suggested it would be more practical to wear in a more static situation.

“I spent a really long time making sure it was done beautifully inside and out, but no matter how well you make something, it’s a feat to get such a big look with so many moving pieces to work in harmony on stage, Deatherage said. “I think (the costume) got to the point where it would have hindered her movement on stage, so we decided to pivot and use it on SNL.”

A seamstress named Katie Maimi, who also has a connection to the Kentuckiana area, assisted Deatherage during the construction phase of the ensemble.

“I put out an ad to find someone to help sew and I ended up hiring Katie,” he said. “We didn’t know each other, but realized after talking that when I left Louisville to move to Los Angeles in 2016, Katie took over my job working on costumes for a film production company in Kentucky.”

While Deatherage and Maimi spent long hours sewing the clothes for Roan’s SNL costume, Deatherage’s girlfriend, Christopher Minafocreated the dramatic headdress.

“He’s incredible. He’s a multimedia artist, but he can do anything. He’s the smartest person I know,” Deatherage said during a phone interview. “If you hear a bang in the background, he’s ripping tiles out of the living room in our new house.”

Deatherage called seeing the Grammy Award-nominated performer dressed in his designs “unreal and breathtaking”. The November 2 episode featured Roan as the musical guest and comedian John Mulaney as host. The designer also created Roan’s White Swan look for her”Good luck, honey,” performance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”

“It was a look I’ve dreamed of doing my whole life, and then this perfect opportunity just came out of nowhere,” said the designer. “I had this idea of ​​making the dress look like Chappell was wrapped in big swan wings. I think the end result felt very high fashion.”

Creating for celebrities has been a lifelong dream, but where Deatherage makes its biggest impact is online. To date, he has more than six and a half million followers across all his platforms, and his work as a content creator has been seen around the world.

“During the COVID pandemic, I started making DYI sewing videos and it took off,” he said. “Before, I thought people only wanted to see a finished product, but it turns out they love the process. And that put me on the map.”

The popularity of revealing the process of creating beautiful clothes on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube suffered Death to launch an education-focused Patreonwhere people pay for his regularly updated library of videos, his hand-designed clothing patterns (sizes from double zero to 32), and access to a Discord community of fellow fashion enthusiasts.

“It’s life-changing, to be honest,” Deatherage told the Courier Journal. “I was on a Times Square billboard for a week, it was crazy.”

Having recently moved to New York with Minafo, where the two are renovating a home, Deatherage has now set his sights on designing for Broadway.

“Things that I’ve always wanted are literally happening right in front of my eyes.” Deatherage said, “I plan to keep doing what I’m doing, but now that I’m in New York, I’d say the next step is to design costumes for Broadway, and I’d like to win a Tony. It seems like the next big goals.”

Reach features reporter Kirby Adams at [email protected].