WNY native turns designer Danabassis’ visions into screen reality

By Mia Ciechalski
(Images above: Dakota Johnson in “Materialists”)

“Materialists” is a new New York City rom-com movie directed by Celine Song, but what some people have found most striking about the film is its costuming.

The movie has been inspiring social media posts praising the clothing, analyzing the symbolism behind the clothing and trying to figure out how to recreate the looks.  Magazines such as Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and even Town & Country have written about the fashions, while the website Refinery 29 suggests that the film’s plot unfold’s via main actress Dakota Johnson’s fashion.

There’s a Western New York connection amid the trendsetting clothing. The costume design was done by Katina Danabassis, with Buffalo native Jessica Wegrzyn serving as costume supervisor.

Wegrzyn said, “(Danabassis) is a really creative person who is easy to be inspired by and get behind her designs.”  

While Wegrzyn was the costume supervisor throughout the production for this movie, her job was to support the design team with multiple different tasks.  

“My side of the things is understanding and how to take their design and make it work for the screen,” said Wegrzyn.  

So, she would coordinate with the producers on how many people they need to dress all of the actors and how many days a person needs to complete their work.  

Wegrzyn said, “I’m like a manager for my department. I support the designers in what they need, and work with production, the director and assistant director to get it to camera.”  

One of the main reasons why this film has been trending so much on the internet is because of costume choices that were used by the actors, but mainly for Johnson, who played Lucy in the movie.  

Online, people have been trying to figure out where many of her wardrobe pieces are from because they love the style that she had for this movie.  

“I think what’s interesting about that is it sometimes comes down to who’s wearing it. You know, Dakota and Chris Evans are such huge stars. Pedro Pascal is so beloved,” said Wegrzyn.  

You can find some of Johnson’s pieces from brands such as Aritzia, Banana Republic, Bottega Veneta and Versace.

Her iconic blue dress is from Proenza Schouler.  

Working on ‘Materialists’ was Wegrzyn’s second time working with Danabassis, and they are currently working on their third movie together.  

“’Materialists’ was such a special movie because I have always loved New York so much. And it is such a love letter to New York, the romanticism, the fickleness, the way you walk down the street and see riches and people who you compare yourself to,” said Wegrzyn.  

In addition to working on movies in New York City, Wegrzyn has been involved in many productions in her hometown.   

She originally went to school for performing arts, but when she ended up taking a class in costume design, it ended up becoming one of her favorite things.  

Wegrzyn’s specialty with costuming is distressing clothing.  

Her first job costuming was with Torn Space Theater, which is an experimental theater company in Buffalo. Here is an interview with her from The Public in 2015.

After getting a chance to work with Torn Space Theater, she became their costume designer for 10 years. She still tries to do at least one show with them whenever she comes home to visit, so be on the lookout if you want to see some of her work face to face.  

Wegzryn then started to dip her toes into costuming for films.  

She said, “Some films came to Buffalo and pretty much found every person around town who did anything with costumes because they just needed so many crew members.”  

“I was reached out to by a friend and the rest is history,” she added. 

Some of Wegrzyn’s favorite projects to work on for theatre, she said, are plays with substance that she can really sink her teeth into, which means many of them were very experimental.  

However, with film, she found that there was a lot more exploration.  

“When I started to work on film and I saw how detail-oriented things were, (it) just really spoke to me in a new way that got me so excited about designing costumes,” said Wegrzyn. 

Wegrzyn has gotten this far in her career by figuring it out on her own. Most of her work was usually just her or occasionally with one assistant.  

She was able to teach herself how to sew, how to distress clothing and many other techniques.  

Wegrzyn said, “I’m so grateful for teaching myself how to make clothing from scratch, teach myself how fabric works, how to source period clothes, uniforms and so much more.”  

One of her favorite projects was the Guillermo del Toro film, “Nightmare Alley,” which was filmed largely in Buffalo and Toronto.

“That was and still is one of the coolest highlights of my career,” said Wegrzyn.  

While there are no plans to come back to Buffalo just yet, Wegrzyn would love to get the opportunity to do that one day.  

“I know I will one day, and it’ll be really special when it lines up,” said Wegrzyn.