The Vampire Lestat’s Costume Designer Explains the Show’s Brilliant and Symbolic Fashion Choices

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the season finale of The Vampire Lestat, “The Failures.”]

Interview with the Vampire‘s transformation into The Vampire Lestat involved a makeover for its returning cast, introducing a new era for Louis (Jacob Anderson), Armand (Assad Zaman), Daniel (Eric Bogosian), and, most obviously, Lestat (Sam Reid).

Earlier in the season, costume designer Lex Wood gave several interviews exploring the creative process behind Lestat’s rock star rebrand, citing musicians like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, and designers like Jean Paul Gaultier and Dries Van Noten. Now that the finale has aired (and AMC has announced a fourth season), we caught up with Wood to discuss some costumes from later episodes, covering the symbolism of Lestat’s “Long Table” outfit, the ironic subtext behind Armand’s copper healing bracelet — and how certain costuming details lay the groundwork for Season 4, when Akasha (Sheila Atim) will play a central role.

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You’ve spoken a lot about Lestat’s wardrobe in other interviews, so I thought I’d start with some other characters. With Louis, I feel like he presents himself very differently to different people in different situations. For instance, I was wondering if he was trying to make himself look softer and more approachable with Regina. How would you describe his style?
Lex Wood: Yeah, you’ve got it in one. When we first see him, it’s that confrontation with Lestat, the lawyers’ argument. Obviously he’s still quite tailored. Louis has always had a very sartorial focus to everything, like how he carries himself. Really, it’s very precise. But then, so much of the storylines for so many of our vampires, everyone’s kind of fooling somebody. He definitely dresses down and tries to play it a bit more safe when he’s around Regina to start off with.

There is a very significant reference from later on in the Anne Rice canon, where Louis is kind of retired. He’s reading and having a great time. Jacob and I really wanted to bring in that softness, that kind of knits and cardigans. We sort of introduced that right at the end of Season 2.

Then when he’s attacking the coven house and confronting Bruce, it’s a different look altogether, but he’s still trying to fit in. He’s wearing Converse because it’s something that isn’t going to make him stand out. He just looked like a dude walking down the street. So a lot of it is about when he’s trying to draw attention to himself, when he’s trying to deflect that attention.

I was wondering about Episode 6 — the whole thing is all about the Lestat/Louis relationship. They almost look like they’re coordinated, they’re so in sync by that point.
Wood: Yeah, we wanted to show a togetherness, visually. We wanted to bring them more aligned to each other prior to that separation.

We’re very aware of where our characters have come from, how they’ve been looking throughout the seasons. So we wanted to have little nods towards their tailoring and the layering that they’ve employed throughout their existence as vampires. The check in Louis’ coat is fairly similar to some of the beautiful checked suiting that he wore in the ’10s and ’20s and ’30s and ’40s. But also employing softer fabrics so that it feels like everything’s just becoming a little bit softer.

To move on to Armand, it seems like he’s maybe returning to this earlier era, he’s blending into the shadows. He’s got this subdued color palette, but he’s growing more polished by the season finale. Could you take me through that trajectory for him?
Wood: Since we finished in Prague in Season 2, Assad [Zaman] and I have a very clear image of where we wanted Armand to land, further into his true self. He’s been so poised throughout the interview of Season 1 and Season 2, he’s been so put together. And, you know, that explosive moment in Dubai, we don’t really know where he’s been since then. So we wanted to have the idea that he’s been a bit of an everyman. He could have traveled everywhere. We wanted to suggest that he’s been around, but he’s downplaying what’s going on because he has to ingratiate himself into the addicts’ circle, so that he can gather his followers.

As he gets closer to Lestat and he gets more angry with Louis, he’s getting darker. His look is becoming a lot sharper, a lot more tailored, and very much will be a sign of things to come about where he’s going in the future. It’s about giving clues, maybe putting some breadcrumbs in for what’s coming next in Season 4.

I saw people analyzing a lot of jewelry this season because there were several characters who were wearing bracelets, like Armand. Was that meant to be just coincidence, or a connection?
Wood: I think I’d had a conversation with somebody about healing at some point. I just thought it was really funny that within everything, because we know that Armand is going to decapitate these two people, that he’s faking his calmness… I just thought it was really funny to give him a copper balance bracelet, as though it’s a signifier that he’s got some inner calm.

I think people have worked out now that Alex also wears one, once he’s been brought in by Armand. I sort of have in my head that they go and meet somewhere in the basement of some New York building, and they’re all sitting there with their balance bracelets on, trying to find calm but really pledging allegiance to Armand. Maybe that would be the signifier rather than an armband, they just have that little bit of copper.

But yes, there was a purposeful link between it having a similarity to the bracelet worn by Louis. Actually, Molloy ends up with something similar. I don’t think we see it so much because he’s often wearing his leather jacket as a kind of armor. We certainly don’t know at this point that he’s been fully taken on by Armand, but yeah, seeds of what’s to come.

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Speaking of which, I wanted to talk about Akasha, because obviously there’s a lot of attention for her in Season 4. She’s got this amazingly distinctive look that blends the hair, makeup, and costuming together to create that statue appearance. I’d love to hear more about that, and whether you modeled her dress on any particular historical period.
Wood: There is a beautiful shot when you can see both Akasha and Enkil next to each other on their stone slabs. We wanted the feel that the lair that Marius is keeping them in is one of many places that he’s moved them to over the years. So obviously the tone of the stones are very different between the set, and then the stone that they have been turned into.

We were trying to reference where they have come from originally, which was tricky in terms of costume. We did discuss many different iterations of how the fabric crystallized when they were formed into stone. In terms of what Akasha needed to wear, we needed to make it practical for Sheila Atim, so that she could physically move within the confines of being statuesque. But we wanted to reference what we know she will kind of end in. Without giving too much away, there will be very clear clues to something that we will see from her earlier times in our future season.

I had so much fun researching… around the equator, different styles of fabric, of costume, of dress, how statues are represented within sculpture and art. Actually the costume that we dressed the Enkil statue with is a very clear reference to something that is in the Met Museum in New York. But yeah, you’re not getting the entire story of her past, but you’re getting a little hint to her future.

To pivot to Lestat, I’d love to know about his costume in the Long Table sequence. It incorporates the pinstriped trousers, the purple shirt, and then there’s the Dracula cape which has that kind of red patterned lining.
Wood: It was very much stated within the script, Rolin [Jones] and Hannah [Moscovitch] wanted it to feel like he has been transported from being on the bench, having this moment with Louis, and is transported within this dreamlike state. So it’s like a version of what he’s been wearing, but details have been changed.

The cape is basically the same cape that he’s been wearing as part of his Halloween outfit, but the lining was an amazing fabric that I had found on a fabric trip to New York. It felt so dreamlike. The pattern is like liquid that’s kind of melting. We loved how that acidic pink and the acidic purple really contrasted with the nature of the avenue of trees that he’s walking down at the beginning.

You know, the purple, it’s a very clear color signifier within the novel The Vampire Lestat. It has been quite a key accent tone throughout the season. We wanted him to feel very different to the other people that are coming in and out of these dream sequences, so that the focus is still always coming back to Lestat. It’s a version of the shirt that he’s been wearing under that cape the whole time, and purposefully in a softer fabric. It’s got a tie, like a tie waist at the hem on one side. It’s not complicated symbolism, but we can literally see it falling apart, the sort of physical undoing of his mental state as things go.

I have to say the incredible lighting from David Tattersall, our director of photography, that purple, it could not have sung more. It was a fabric that was also dyed by our textile department. I think people don’t realize that purple is quite a tricky color to find within fabric. The team dyed meters and meters and meters of this fabric, to give it that perfectly acidic tone.

You’ve talked a lot about the real-world rock star roots of Lestat, but I’m also interested in how you depicted him when he’s not putting on a show. In the studio we see him in a black hoodie and a sort of robe, so I’d love to hear about that contrast.
Wood: In the recording studio of Episode 5, that costume, we hadn’t really intended for it to go there. We’d intended it to be for a different moment when he was maybe lounging about on the top floor of the bus. But some scenes, maybe the feeling changes as the scripts develop or as the shoot develops. Sam [Reid] and I both felt that it had this lovely cocooning effect within that space of the recording studio. I think originally me and the production designer, Andres [Cubillan], were quite nervous that we had repeated that color red from both what he was wearing, and in a lot of the set design. But actually it had this amazing feeling of it feeling so safe for him.

We wanted to convey this idea that Lestat isn’t moving from the recording studio. Days are passing and he’s really focusing on his music. He’s not allowing himself to move from there until he does go and confront Regina, and he changes into that hoodie as his version of a normal dude. He’s wearing leather pants because he’s still Lestat, and he’s still a peacock. It’s his version of hiding, of trying to be not recognized. Then that’s the turning point for him musically, for him emotionally. It was quite a good moment that that red gets left behind, and he goes more into that somber black — and then, of course, back into purple by the final episode.

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I thought I’d drop in a question about Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle) before we ended. I’d like to know the thought process behind her style, because she has this kind of ambiguous gender identity in the book.
Wood: Yeah, very much so. We wanted to incorporate elements of 18th century tailoring. The style of 18th century bodice/dress we favored (after she has been turned) is called a “redingote,” derived from the term “riding coat,” and adapted from the men’s style of riding coat. It started to note the more masculine cut of women’s clothing.

As she is turned into a vampire, it’s like she starts taking things from her kills. She becomes slightly grander. She’s more ambitious. And we really loved that style of bodice on her, so we kept on using that kind of shape, but giving her more of a shoulder to subtly hint towards a bit of masculinity and a bit of androgyny.

But we were also representing the version of Gabriella that Lestat is representing. Much like there were other moments that we’ve flipped on their head slightly for the observant viewer, some things have changed from some of our flashbacks – we were also trying to give ourselves space to allow for Gabriella to grow when we hear Gabriella from her own perspective. A bit like with Akasha, a bit like with Armand, we’re trying to give clues about where she’s come from, but also allow ourselves the space to let the character grow within future seasons.

So much of the interaction between Lestat and Gabriella is so tense this season, and is about that sexual relationship, and the validity and the inappropriateness of that, and how it’s also viewed by external forces like Louis, Molloy, the band members. So I think we did probably amp up a bit of the Mugler sex appeal, to help encourage that bit of the scandal. But yeah, still giving little hints to who she really is on her own terms, rather than on Lestat’s terms.

The Vampire Lestat is now streaming on AMC+.