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This week’s “The Good Eye” profiles Austin-based costume designer Kari Perkins, who just finished the costumes for the film My All American. Perkins walked me through a warehouse full of thousands of costumes, many of them elaborate historical reproductions of the 1968-69 football season. This zipper polo was worn by Aaron Eckhart playing Coach Darrell Royal.Back to column. -
Perkins and her team keep rooms full of costume research pinned up on bulletin boards. (Here’s the same polo as worn by Coach Royal himself.)Back to column. -
In addition to football uniforms, Perkins also studied historically accurate cheerleading and band uniforms for all the university and high school teams playing in the film’s featured games.Back to column. -
Hitchcock High School band uniforms.Back to column. -
Since the scenes feature realistic football plays, the vintagestyle helmets had to be reproduced with all new padding for safety reasons. (Yeah, even the Aggies.)Back to column. -
Letter jackets whose sleeves have been artificially yellowed.Back to column. -
Perkins and her team have an arsenal of techniques for aging and perfecting the look of the newly made costumes.Back to column. -
Zipaway hoods look undeniably period, but Perkins had them made anew and aged the white letters with dirt sticks and crayons.Back to column. -
A giant binder holds snapshots of every single costume used in every single scene. Facing pages hold detailed information about every last detail of every scene, including historical temperature and weather conditions for that day.Back to column. -
Costumes are tagged and organized for each character and scene, imperative since there were four semi trailers’ worth – including one just for the sports uniforms.Back to column.
The Good Eye: Kari Perkins
