MARY VOGT 24 in HOURS
The Emmy-nominated costume designer shares her day on and off the set of ‘Crazy Rich Asians’. By Amy Yasmine.
5AM I have a very simple, non-existent routine in the morning. I get up about a half an hour earlier to do some exercise and stretching, just to feel more energised. Then, I’ll have breakfast. I usually cook breakfast in the morning when I’m at home in Los Angeles, but since staying in Kuala Lumpur for the length of the production of Crazy Rich Asians, I’ve started to cook vegetables in the morning. I’m starting to really love mushrooms and spinach for breakfast, which I never thought I would before. I don’t eat wheat, so that cuts out a lot of breakfast food. I pretty much wear the same simple thing every day, too—a black T-shirt, black sneakers, and black pants, despite the really hot climate. When you’re in a fitting with an actor, you don’t want to be wearing something too distracting because it’s about them. You just want to fade into the background. 7AM I would had a driver when I was in both KL and Singapore, so he’d already be waiting for me to take me to the office. During shooting months, our call time would be at 7am so we would usually leave around 5am to reach there. The team and I would have a small discussion at the work room where we made all the alterations and changes to the arrangements. Then I’d talk to all my assistants to make sure they’d have something to do—they were so fast and efficient that they often ran out of things to do! I had two main assistants, who also knew all the local designers so we managed to have a lot of things for the shoot, and I developed a close relationship with Kevin Kwan. We wanted to use as many local talents as possible, so that it wouldn’t look like any other fashion movie. 9AM We’d all take off by 9, because the stores would open by 9.30am. Depending on what scenes were scheduled for the day, they would make a list and work through it. When the assistants go off, and the workroom was working on the clothes, I would talk to costume supervisors to make sure we had money to pay for all the clothes. 10AM The actors would come in and I’d do the fittings for them, and then follow them to set to see how they were doing. Luckily, our workspace was really close to the set. Usually actors’ fittings are never fun, but we actually all got along so well and enjoyed each other’s company. Sometimes we’d call Awkwafina in for a fitting, even though she wasn’t supposed to be there, just because everyone loved her so much. There was an average of about 200 clothes on the rack, from Dior to Dolce & Gabbana, on a 12-hour shoot every day! 12PM To be honest, I don’t even remember having lunch. We had a little kitchen that we would sit to have coffee at, but I don’t remember ever going to a restaurant to have lunch. Instead, we did fittings constantly throughout the shooting of the movie. We had quite an amount of Bvlgari and Chopard on set.
Michelle Yeoh would always wear real jewellery— never costume—and we would have big jewellers come and bring big displays of jewellery for her. Being a jewellery collector herself, we were lucky to be able to have local contacts come in with their own pieces of jewellery, although other times she would bring her personal pieces. Because of the value of these gems, there were always guards on set to make sure the jewels were being properly taken care of. 3.30PM I’m always at different places, depending on who was scheduled to be in fittings. Occasionally, I would talk to Natalie [Wong, the film’s fashion buyer] in Hong Kong, or check with the team on the costumes being made. I did a film in India during the shooting of Crazy Rich Asians as well, and had to juggle their needs on top of everything else. It was pretty hectic. If I’m back home however, I get involved in working with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Over this weekend, I was invited to be a part of a panel for 800 students from high school and college, to talk about the film industry. 5PM On my days off or free time, I draw. I like to learn, and there’s always something new. Sometimes I attend illustration classes on Photoshop or Painter. Right now, I’m reading a book by the Harvard Negotiation Project, Getting To Yes. It’s about negotiating with people, and getting your way of things across without alienating them. 7.30PM Evenings on the set of Crazy Rich Asians were always very fun. Being so tightly knit, we’d go out and have dinners together. The cast and crew who lived in Singapore would have dinners for all the out-of-town people, so we spent a lot of time together. At some point, my husband came to visit me in Singapore for three weeks, so we’d go out and have dinners together. Otherwise, I’d be on set; there was just too much work for us—we were even dressing the extras. 9PM We’d completely call it a day at about 9pm. I get a few hundred e-mails every other day, but I keep it a point to have no unread e-mails by the time I go to bed. I’m actually quite minimalist when it comes to make-up, but if there’s one thing I splurge on, it is skincare. I really love Sisley Paris, and I especially love the All Day All Year sunscreen because I live in California. They also have an eye cream that is part of my night regime. They’re not much of a money saver, but to me, I’m saving a lot on a face lift.