Wednesday, November 12, 2014

A Luncheon with Castle Costume Designer, Luke Reichle



Kim Hammond has been lunching with the costume designer from the TV Show, Castle, and she's here to tell us all about it.

Are you a fan of Castle, CSI Miami or Without a Trace?  Do you like what the actors wear from episode to episode?  Well, you can thank Luke Reichle for that. He is a renowned designer and recognized expert in the fields of costume design, fashion and personal style, and he just happens to cloth some of today’s favorite stars. Each week, over 30 million viewers worldwide are treated to Luke’s costume designs.  I was lucky enough to attend a luncheon put on by Friends of the Twinsburg Library and listen to him speak.

He sold his first garment at the age of 16, and while still in school at Pacific Fashion. He worked for Perry Ellis and went on to design for fashion icons Calvin Klein and Alexander Julian. He has done work for every major film studio and television network, including Disney, Warner Brothers, Universal, Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox, MGM, United Artists, ABC, NBC, CBS, The BBC and HBO.

The first book in Luke’s Secrets of the Red Carpet® series is available on Amazon.com. It’s Not About the Clothes: How to Change Your Mind About How You Look is a step-by-step guide to changing the way you talk to yourself when you look in the mirror, so you can dress the body you have and love the body you’re dressing.

Luke was impeccably dressed and had just the right amount of sass and attitude when he came on stage.  He explained to the attentive audience that he tells a story with costumes, and he looks for clues on the pages of the script.  He has designed over 55,000 costumes, and that’s a lot of stories told.

Luke shared that an actor and designer are in a room to do their job. They know they’ve finished that job when a third person is in the room with them, and that person is the finished character.

Luke took audience questions, and there was a comment about how younger people are dressing these days. Luke chuckled and shared a story. He said that he lives in Hollywood, and there are a lot of clubs in his area and he is shocked by the abbreviated attire the kids are wearing. He used to be very good at dressing hookers for television shows and movies. But now that he sees what an average kid wears out he wonders, “now what am I supposed to dress the hookers in?”

Luke’s industry has had many changes over the years. The actors used to be able to buy their costumes for half price after they were done using them in a film or episode, but not anymore. Now the outfits go to ABC to rent out.  Luke’s $1,000,000.00 budget (no, that is not a mistake in the zeros) for a season of Castle allows him to splurge on a costume and not feel guilty. He referenced an elaborate Elvis costume he made for an episode.

When asked about the cast of Castle he said everyone is wonderful. Beckett can really run in obscenely high heels. She’s 5’10” without them and about 6’2” with them on. Luke said she likes to be able to stare the criminal in the eye. The must have a lot of tall criminals. 

When asked about Nathan Luke said he is fabulous. Although he did confess that Nathan prefers to wear jeans and a t-shirt. “If you ever see him in public and he looks nice, I’ve dressed him.”

I took away from the talk that everyone can dress nice, no matter if you’re buying designer labels or shopping at Kohls. You need to know what you look good in and maximize your good qualities. Confidence in yourself  will also take you a long way and the right clothes can help get you there.

One tip Luke repeated towards the end of his talk was “People who dress for where they want to be get there faster.” He added that a lot of times it’s about power.

Find Luke at www.secretsoftheredcarpet.com
Twitter: redcarpetluke

Pinterest: redcarpetluke

You can find Mystery Playground on Twitter @mysteryplaygnd and on Facebook.

1 comment:

  1. Nice article but you do know Beckett's real name is Stana Katic, right!?

    ReplyDelete