"They're going to live on": Kathleen Felix-Hager on dressing Hacks
The Emmy-winning costume designer discusses some of the now-concluded series' most iconic looks.
Photo: Kenny Laubbacher/HBO Max
HBO Max’s Hacks is over, but like Deborah Vance herself, it rides into the sunset with many claims to fame: introducing Hannah Einbinder to the masses, picking up award after award for its crackerjack writing and powerhouse performances, and building one of 21st-century TV’s most dazzling and thought-out array of costumes. The Emmy-winning work of costume designer Kathleen Felix-Hager informed so much about the backstage and onstage worlds occupied by Einbinder, Jean Smart, and their castmates. The vivid distinctions between Deborah’s sequined stand-up ensembles and her elegant at-home looks, Ava Daniels’ evolution from broke LA hipster writer to comedic dynamo (with a paycheck!)—each new episode presented a symphony of texture, color, and shape from Felix-Hager. Speaking with The A.V. Club ahead of the finale, Felix-Hager discussed some of her most iconic designs for the series, discussing the use of color and prints to enhance the story of Hacks, lending her late grandmother’s jewelry to Deborah and her entourage, and invoking classic Hollywood in the final shot of the series.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Deborah and D.J.’s corresponding series premiere looks
KFH: The production designer for season one was a man named John Carlos. We were creating this world together, I saw how he was designing Deborah’s house, and we talked about her stage look being different from her home look. She might have a specific aesthetic, but it’s very tasteful, so it was a conscious choice to put her in the same colors as the living room in that sort of watercolor silk blouse, which I still have.
Photo: Anne Marie Fox/HBO Max
I tried on a bunch of things on Kaitlin [Olson] for that scene, and we just landed on the jumpsuit, and I realized when I was putting the line together, oh, it’s a very similar color tone, but Deborah’s was silk, and DJ’s jumpsuit was camo denim. I looked at it for the longest time, and thought, I’m just gonna lean into it. Sometimes you try to make sure everyone has a distinct color palette, but I loved connecting them in that way, and in that space. I just felt like it set the tone for who they were. I actually watched that scene recently, and I was like, I forgot about that. But thanks for noticing.
Deborah’s earrings
AVC: Deborah lets her walls down for the first time in season one’s “New Eyes”: She’s dressed simply, with a blue cashmere wrap, no animal prints, simple gold earrings with a little chain linked underneath them. Two episodes later, in “1.69 Million,” she’s appearing in public with no earrings.
KFH: That’s funny. I don’t remember the no earrings in that scene. That’s funny. I do remember “New Eyes” when we see Deborah at her coziest or maybe most vulnerable, when she just wraps herself in cashmere, as one does. Generally, Deborah’s casual is this very cozy, cashmere lounge-y suit, which we have in several colors.
I have to go back and look at that earring situation.
Photo: Anne Marie Fox/HBO Max
AVC: The reason it’s memorable is because the whole episode is a turning point: She abandons the set of new material, and she winds up paying off the misogynist comedian.
KFH: I’m sure it was a conscious choice. I can’t speak to that, because I have no memory. [Laughs.] Some things really stand out, and some things [are] in the blur of the moment, because it happens so fast.
AVC: It turns out some of her earrings belonged to your late grandmother?
KFH: Yeah, I have a collection of my grandmother’s jewelry, and every once in a while I will pop some out and put it on Deborah, which makes me happy, and I think it makes my grandmother happy in heaven. There’s a very brief scene in the finale, where we see Damien in a beautiful bronze suit at the opening of The Diva. The brooch is my grandmother’s.
Photo: Courtesy of HBO Max
Ava’s jewelry
AVC: What was behind the shift from gold jewelry to silver for Ava?
KFH: We had lots of conversations with Hannah. There’s a very specific aesthetic that we were trying to capture when we made that shift: Ava is a queer character living in LA. Hannah, embracing that part of her character, felt like she would [have] outgrown the dainty gold jewelry. She wanted some pieces that had some meaning.
Screenshot: HBO Max
Deborah and Ava’s “Montecito” outfits
AVC: There was something quite moving about the way Deborah and Ava’s costumes mirrored each other at the end of the episode.
KFH: I think fans have been wanting them to get together for so long. There was a certain contingent that really is in on Deborah and Ava as a couple, so whether they like it or not, they’re connected, and they love each other. I wanted to visually say, even though they’re not a romantic couple, they love each other, and by this time, they’ve gotten into each other’s DNA.
Photo: HBO Max
Kayla’s Crocs
KFH: I don’t know if you noticed, she exclusively wore Crocs this season. [Meg Statler was] like, “You know what, my feet hurt, I just want to wear Crocs.” So we just made it a part of her character, and our showrunners were fine with that. One of the things I have to say about Meg is she’s a confident person so she owns everything about herself. She’s not afraid of anything, she’s not self-conscious, so we just are able to have a lot of fun with Kayla’s wardrobe.
Photo: HBO Max
Deborah’s playing card gown
AVC: The playing card gown looked like it involved some construction. How did you get Jean Smart into it?
KFH: In the script, it just says “Deborah shows up in a dress made of playing cards,” so I was like, what does this mean? I had some time to wrap my head around it and do some sketches, and we landed on a shape. We did the dress in three pieces. It was a red strapless gown, we built a built-in corset in it, so it was a very constructed bodice. The skirt was actually made of playing cards, so we were able to take it off and put it on her, so she could sit down between takes and be more comfortable. There’s no way you could sit in that dress. The jacket was a bolero with a big fan collar, and that was all jeweled. There was like a cascading royal flush down the back, so it’s pretty spectacular.
Photo: HBO Max
Greens in “The Garden”
AVC: “The Garden” is the first time you’ve used green for Deborah; the emerald-tone drop earrings were a great touch. It’s mirrored in Jimmy’s green sweater, and that’s not a color I’d ever seen on Jimmy before. and it made the scene even more emotional.
KFH: It’s very subtle, but yes, I just wanted it to be a nod. You think garden, you think green, so I was just trying to be a little bit in my head about the whole thing.
I really appreciate your questions, because, sometimes you do this stuff and you’re like, no one’s gonna pay attention. You see the flash or whatever, but the little details that you really think about and put in there, I appreciate that you appreciate it. So that’s so nice.
AVC: Thank you!
KFH: No, really, sometimes I do things literally in my head, like I make up a story about a costume, and it’s just for me. But those touches are important, and whether you pick up on them or not, I love that they live on in the storytelling.
Photo: HBO Max
Dressing the finale
AVC: There’s a lot of maroon and oxblood in the finale, and for most of the episode, we think Deborah is going to die, so it’s as though she’s saying, for the first time I am at peace wearing my insides—my blood, organs, veins—on the outside, that I am at peace with my body reaching its end and I can set my need for armor aside.
KFH: The whole episode is surprising. Deborah has made this decision, and she’s going to do it whether Ava goes with her or not. When Ava decides to go with her, they have this adventure in Paris, to celebrate being alive. I used a lot of color; there’s this beautiful cobalt blue coat that she walks around in, she wears white. I’m really proud of that episode, and I think it’s kind of perfection.
And can we talk about the scene in the dance club? I love that scene so much. There’s that throwaway line where Ava says, “I get to dress you.” You don’t see that outfit in its totality, but that jersey Deborah wears is a jersey Ava wore in “Montecito,” and she’s wearing a pair of cargo pants and electric blue cowboy boots. When she’s just looking at Deborah and realizing, Deborah’s so alive and free and happy, dancing, and Ava’s like, “I might be losing her.” In the scene after, where they’re sitting in the window watching the sunrise, we see Ava in a fur coat of Deborah’s, and Deborah is wearing a leather jacket of Ava’s. They’re really connected, they love each other, they get each other. It’s so hard for Ava to let go, she doesn’t want to let her go, so she literally wraps [Deborah] around her. That was a very intentional choice on my part, and I was really happy that the showrunners were on board, and the actresses were very happy too, to have that nonverbal moment on top of that scene.
AVC: If it was a daunting task to think about how Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder would look in Paris, was it equally daunting or even more frightening to think about the final shot of the show, back on the Strip again?
KFH: It was daunting, because I got in my head about it. I just thought, oh, this is the last shot ever. This is going to be what people are going to remember forever, and I made it way more complicated than I needed it to be in my head. Then I woke up one morning, and [thought], I just have to go back to basics, I have to keep it simple. I knew I wanted Deborah to be light, I wanted her to have a lot of movement, so I chose that color. She’s in cream and a very flowy, sequined chiffon duster, and Ava’s very Ava, in jeans and a jacket, and I might cry when I say this, but she’s also wearing a pair of red sneakers, which is a nod to The Wizard of Oz, and “There’s no place like home.” That was also part of it for me, like they’ve come home. I thought a lot about that. I was very happy with how it ended. Because I knew that people love the show and it’s going to live on. So I also wanted it to be something that wouldn’t date the show, like it wouldn’t be something that you’d [look at and think], “Oh, that was so 2025.” I wanted it to look like it could live in its own time. These [characters] were very much themselves. It was very Deborah, and it was very Ava.
AVC: How do you cope when a project ends, especially something as rich as Hacks?
KFH: I’m just really thankful to have been a part of it. I feel like I have made such great friends creatively. It’s been a dream job. I was able to really stretch my creative muscles, and I’m really proud of the characters that we created on the show. I feel like they’re going to live on.
Will I miss them? Will I miss dressing them? Yes, but I’m just really thankful to have been a part of it. I’ve been a part of shows that have ended, so that experience is not new, and it’s always a little bittersweet, right? When the time of the year comes around when you [would start production], that’s sometimes when it hits me, so there’s always a little bit of melancholy, but I feel really thankful for the most part, and have absolutely loved every second of it.
Keep scrolling for more great stories.