An Interview With ‘The Changeling’ Costume Designer Ane Crabtree

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Girl meets boy in a library. They fall in love and have a child together. Then everything goes wrong. Based on a book by Victor LaValle, The Changeling is a new, adult fairy tale series on Apple TV+  starring LaKeith Stanfield and Clark Backo. Ane Crabtree — whose work spans everything from period dramas (Masters of Sex) to sci-fi shows (Invasion) — designed the costumes for the series and I got to send her some questions about what it was like putting the layered outfits together:

Rachel Bellwoar: You’ve worked on so many incredible TV shows, from Pan Am to The Handmaid’s Tale. What itch did The Changeling scratch that was different or made you most excited to work on this project?

Ane Crabtree: Synchronicity pulled me in. The strong storytelling, the multiple timelines, the ability to translate the different cultural histories that the characters were coming from and being inspired by… Norway, Uganda, the U.S., the South…. I knew I could create a strong visual poetry with the costume design.

Bellwoar: Were you familiar with Victor LaValle’s book before you signed on and were there any descriptions in it that helped inspire the costumes (or were you more inspired by the scripts than the source text)?

Crabtree: Both Victor and Kelly Marcel inspired me. The writing from both created a constant source to feed the costume look. Of course, I often fall in love with the original novel, and then remove myself from it so that I can focus on the actual storytelling that we will focus on in the series. For this one, Victor remained a part of our process, and Kelly was there at every turn, lending her thoughts. It was a lovely process. In general, I start there, and go off on my own path to find inspiration – from the street, from history, from emotional and psychological impetuses but also, fashion can often be in the peripheral.

Bellwoar: The first episode, especially, moves around in time a lot. How was it coming up with costumes for different decades in that short a time span, and did you want to draw parallels between the different couples in each period?

Crabtree: I find we all are influenced by our ancestors, sometimes without knowing. I am a child of mixed heritage and cultures and both Apollo and Emma’s story resonated with me and continued to be a bit tied together throughout my process. I find the connection between the different couples but also through their forefathers an integral part of design. They are tied together thru the visual cobwebs that unite and often, tear apart their families.

All of it exciting for me, in the end. I have to be motivated by inspiration and emotion to be thrown in headlong with the characters. I have to be tied empathetically, or why bother wanting to take of, envelop them – the characters and the actors with costumes/clothing that supports them in their journey?

Bellwoar: How much thought goes into what the constants will be in each character’s wardrobe or does it happen sort of naturally? For instance, Apollo wears the same necklace a lot and is often in beanies or Jeff caps.

Crabtree: Read the above answer – haha! So much thought. I never stop thinking about the characters. Mostly, the why of not what they are wearing, but the costume becomes the answer to the why I think about where they are from, what sort of household did they grow up in. Are they bold and bombastic in the environs of their world, or do they prefer to recede? Apollo wears that Norwegian art brute necklace as a kind of protection amulet, a signifier. This was indeed for Apollo and for Lakeith. Lakeith never took it off 😀.

As for the beanies – they are such a real part of ny street dressing. I wear them myself near daily. It is also a beautiful way to frame Lakeith’s incredible eyes/gaze.

Bellwoar: The characters wear a lot of layers in this series. Was that a practical choice, due to where the series was shooting, or a personal preference?

Crabtree: I lived in New York for years – and also in many cities. The thing about cities that is interesting is the layers in clothing. Of course I am talking literally but also metaphorically. I find the most intriguing people are those that mix a lot of layers and pattern about pattern and within that, it becomes a character study. But it is also just real life living. In my ideal society (and also, in 1800s historical clothing) folks didn’t change their clothes every day – often they were layering to “protect their good clothes” – in the sense of farmers, or wearing layers was a means of being correct, not showing off your body was just having manners, etc.  For our story – the layers reveal another kind of highly charged psychological moment – sometimes even revealing that the character we knew was not even the one we thought we knew…. and in a practical world, the layers, most importantly the outer layer, the coat for Sam Herring and the coat/cloak for Emma/Clark Backo, these are walking carapaces that protect the wearer…. They can be used to sleep on, as a tent or home, and maybe, for hiding children and other secrets.

Bellwoar: How early into the process did you know who was cast in each role and did that affect the costumes you designed?

Crabtree: I only knew about Apollo and then soon after, Emma. But TV is a fast paced/sprinter world that is also a marathon.

You build up your mind to accept the long term challenge, knowing that you will have zero time for changes and casting. So I come up will the look and most all of the designs ahead of time…. the genesis or umbrella look – because how else to keep a thorough thread throughout?

However, if you look at ALL of the cast, I was deeply moved by their own human beingness, their vulnerability, and then, they each became muses for me within the costumes. all of them are beautiful, of course on the outside…. but the inside shines even brighter.

Bellwoar: For this series, did you design a lot of the costumes from scratch or was it a mix of new designs and vintage finds?

Crabtree: It was all of that and more. I jumped on the horse, flying over hurdles and galloped as fast as I could. I always want to make every piece, because I like to approach with perfection and create something that the audience hasn’t seen before and/or to remain steadfast to the frame. Everything good happens with this trajectory. Most times, I have to fight to prove that point, ESP in TV…. but that is another story for another time, haha. If you look at my TV costume history, the moments when I designed from scratch are the most compelling/memorable/written about.

The cool thing is that I have an 86 yr old mother, Grace Kimiko Crabtree, who kept everything from the ’60s to present day… a lot of her made to measure clothing. I convinced her to clean out her closet from decades, and we utilized this clothing in our film. She would never throw anything away as she is a child from WWII but when I mentioned that I would like to use it for the piece, she said, “As long as someone NEEDS this clothing, I will give it to you.” 😀

Bellwoar: Is there an outfit or piece of clothing your especially proud of from this series?

Crabtree: If you could repeat this question over two hundred times I am sure I could find a different answer each time.

Bellwoar: As the characters’ states of mind change that’s definitely reflected in the costumes. Are you given all of the scripts in advance, so you can plot out the characters’ arcs, or is it more last minute?

Crabtree: It’s both, pending many things that are going on at the time.

Bellwoar: What was it like getting to incorporate the fantasy elements of the series, particularly in the look of the older woman Emmy meets in Brazil?

Crabtree: Well – funnily enough, I made all of the costumes before they traveled to Brazil. We were shooting in remote areas and wanted to make sure that we were[n’t] struggling to find fabric last minute. In the end, Kelly asked me to change the older woman/witch at the falls, and we did and shot it early that next morning. It looked beautiful – and I have been told by a Brazilian journalist, quite real and indicative of the place…so there you go. True story.

Bellwoar: Thank you for sharing all of these stories, Ane!

The first four episodes of The Changeling are currently streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes stream on Fridays.