We spoke to Bill Terezakis (special effects makeup designer), Cynthia Summers (costume designer), Rita Ciccozzi (makeup designer/makeup department head), Julie McHaffie (hair designer), and Caitlin Groves (key makeup effects artist), who told us all about the looks on the show.
1. The size of Esmé Squalor's shoulder pads correlates with how confident she is in taking on her villainous persona.
2. In fact, even her nails change throughout the show as her evilness develops.
3. In Season 1 Presley Smith (who plays Sunny Baudelaire) wore a “baby toupee”.
4. All costumes are shaded with paint so that they don't look flat on camera.
5. In order to make Count Olaf's troupe's clothes look dirty and ragged, they're worn down with airbrushing, bleaching, and burning, among other things.
6. There's an Easter egg in The Vile Village: Part One, as Esmé's outfit at the start involves a sheriff's badge, foreshadowing the disguise she puts on later.
7. Even small parts of the costumes, such as shoes, undergarments, and hats, are specifically built for the show.
8. The makeup is sometimes done in a really over-the-top and visually shocking way, to balance out the muted, desaturated look of the show on screen.
9. For this season, the hairstyles of every character other than Count Olaf and Carmelita have their hair designed from scratch rather than based on the books.
10. Sara Rue (Olivia) was one of the only women who didn't wear a wig.
11. As Neil Patrick Harris wasn't keen on having fake facial hair on his upper lip, his Coach Genghis moustache was drawn on to look like hair.
12. And Neil spent anything between 75 and 90 minutes in the special effects makeup chair in order to transform into Count Olaf.
13. Lemony Snicket's hair was based on old Hollywood stars like Clark Gable, Cary Grant, and Humphrey Bogart.
14. The lack of blood in The Hostile Hospital was a deliberate decision as they didn't want the episodes to be gory, which is why Count Olaf's clothes have only some little traces of dried blood.
15. One of the hardest looks to pin down was the Detective Dupin disguise, and at one point his look was going to be extremely Las-Vegas inspired.
16. For each costume, six or seven copies of it have to be made, to factor in a backup, photo doubles, and then stunt double costumes.
17. Count Olaf's disguises in Season 2 move further away from the illustrations because they weren't quite different enough to make them viable.
18. Every single person in The Ersatz Elevator episodes wears pinstripes because they're "in" during the episode, whether it’s a full-on suit or a smaller detail like pinstripe shoes.
