17 Times The SNL Wardrobe Department Went Above And Beyond

After 40+ years of lightning-fast costume changes, the SNL wardrobe department has learned a thing or two.

SNL characters are defined by their costumes: Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake with gift-wrapped boxes around their waists; Tom Hanks wearing a pumpkin blazer; Kenan Thompson in a lobster outfit.

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Jack Nicholson once said, "Just let the wardrobe do the acting." And sure, the cast members of Saturday Night Live are some of the funniest folks around. But we give the actors plenty of attention already — what about the clothes they're wearing? SNL is legendary for countless catchphrases and opening monologues, but the costumes are doing a lot of work.

1. There are five whole rooms at 30 Rockefeller Plaza dedicated to wardrobes, not to mention the off-site warehouses.

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The main spot for costumes is called a "closet," but it's actually an entire room dedicated to every piece of clothing you can think of. There aren't many pictures of it out there, but Coveteur was able to get some behind-the-scenes access. A warehouse in Brooklyn stores the more elaborate pieces that don't fit with the rest (like a giant omelet costume).

2. The costumers have less than three days to prepare.

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The Saturday Night Live writing process is famously lightning-fast. It's not uncommon for sketches to be re-written up until the last minute. Wouldn't that just be a nightmare if you had to pick the outfits for those sketches? Costumers often get the sketch late Wednesday, having costumes ready just hours before the show starts on Saturday. If there's a change made just before the cameras roll, the wardrobe department has to make split-second choices to adapt.

3. Will Ferrell is allegedly the fastest at changing wardrobe.

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Costumer Tom Broecker claims that Will Ferrell is one of the best at quickly stepping in and out of costumes. Every actor gets a dresser to help them change, and Keith Shaw (dresser) has said that the most important thing an actor can do when going through a speedy wardrobe is stay calm. Broecker says that nothing fazes Ferrell, making him the easiest to dress.

4. The costumers have developed some clever tricks to create unique fabric quickly.

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A lot of SNL sketches involve street clothes or business-casual outfits. These can easily be produced since the wardrobe department keeps almost everything it uses. But there's plenty of curveballs thrown their way. When a Black Panther skit called for some fancy embroidery, the costumers discovered a shortcut. They scanned images of the original clothes and printed it onto real fabric. One step closer to printing out clothes at home.

5. Gal Gadot's Amazonian outfit was flown halfway across the world to make the show.

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Saturday Night Live has five rooms at 30 Rockefeller Plaza just for wardrobe, and what they can't recycle they make from scratch or buy online. But the SNL costumers also won't settle for anything less than the best. So when they were unable to create an Amazonian outfit for Gal Gadot, they flew one to New York...from Australia. It went from Perth, to Sydney, to Los Angeles, and finally to New York.

6. The host dresser once ran while carrying Jennifer Lopez on her back so she could get changed in time.

Photo by Dana Edelson / NBCU Photo Bank / NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images

Donna Richards is the host dresser for SNL, which means she has one of the most stressful jobs in all of wardrobe. The host is often in the first sketch after the opening monologue, so they have to be changed as soon as the lights go down. When Donna Richards saw that Jennifer Lopez was wearing high heels and wouldn't be able to run, she put J-Lo on her back and sprinted to the changing room.

7. When no packages could be delivered during a snowstorm, costumer Dale Richards stayed up all night to make Sarah Palin's bead shirt for Tina Fey.

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Why? Tom Broecker, Richards' colleague at SNL, has a great answer to why they care so much about wardrobe:

"I love being a costume designer because it combines everything into one job — you have to know fashion, psychology, anthropology, and sociology and art, and you have to know color theories and what’s going on with the script; how you can reinforce or interpret or help tell the story by way of a costume. Working with such amazing actors and talent is really what’s inspiring: working with an actor and the text and helping them to create [a character] through collaboration."  —Tom Broecker

According to Richards, Fey played Palin an entirely different way during rehearsal, when she didn't yet have the bead shirt. Once she had it, the outfit changed her character.

8. Bette Davis was the inspiration for Aidy Bryant's glamorous chicken character (not the chicken part).

NBC, John Kobal Foundation / Getty Images

Imagine you get a script in which Ryan Gosling's character falls in love with a chicken. Is the joke that it's a regular chicken and Gosling is insane? Or is it that there's just something stunning about that gosh darn chicken. When the costumers at SNL got that script, they went with the second choice, using Bette Davis's bangs, head scarf, and sunglasses as a model.

9. Dirt cheap? Outrageously expensive? Doesn't matter, as long as it fits the sketch.

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Until the internet moved most shopping online, the shops and boutiques around New York were the main source for many SNL outfits. Now, they come from all over the world, and SNL even has a relationship with some Etsy store owners. But whether it's from a thrift store or a high-end shop, SNL will get that perfect item no matter the cost.

10. Head costumer Tom Broecker is able to mentally walk through stores in an instant to think up wardrobe ideas.

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Sherlock Holmes has a mind palace, but Tom Broecker has a mind boutique:

"My favorite thing for myself to do is memorize every store, so that in the back of my head, I can close my eyes and walk a store and go, 'Okay, if I'm in Saks, I'm on the fourth floor, I'm walking out the elevator and the first thing I see is Michael Kors. And in the Michael Kors area, it's this, this and this. Okay, go right. [First Lady Melania Trump] wore this white Michael Kors thing, so let's get that.' That's the thing about SNL: It forces you to think really quickly."  —Tom Broecker

11. Even the SNL wardrobe department struggles with how un-stylish politicians are.

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There's a common theme among the costumers at SNL, which is that it's more fun to dress women. While modern clothing trends are much more fluid (just look at Kid Cudi's SNL outfit), sometimes the costumers are bound by the person they're parodying. For example, politicians often wear ties that are so old that the wardrobe department has to buy special fabric just to recreate the outdated patterns.

12. When SNL is poking fun at a real-life person, they usually downplay the wardrobe.

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In the words of Tom Broecker from a Fahionista interview:

"You don't want to lead with the costume, because then the performance gets hidden. The whole idea is that you don't satire a satire, so you let the comedy come through. We tend to want the verbal to come before the costume."

13. The host always has the fastest and most frequent changes.

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Being the host of Saturday Night Live usually means you're in most of the sketches. That means you don't always have time to change while some other sketch is going on. So if you ever see a host out of breath or wearing a wig that's not quite fitting, they probably stepped in front of the camera just a few seconds before rolling. 

14. The costume department once used a New York Times analysis on the outfits of Sarah Huckabee Sanders to influence her portrayal on the show.

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If there was ever an article written for one particular person, it is "Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the Optics of Relatable Style." It was tailor-made for Tom Broecker (head costumer), who just so happened to be dressing Aidy Bryant as Sarah Huckabee Sanders. 

15. The fastest host change was Justin Timberlake at 10 seconds.

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Donna Richards — the legend that carried J-Lo on her back because she was in heels — never misses her mark. When Justin Timberlake was in a skit immediately following his opening monologue, he had to get from a suit and tie to a giant foam soup cup in about 15 seconds. With the help of tearaway clothing and Donna Richards almost knocking over a cameraman, Timberlake was ready to go in just 10 seconds.

16. They tried multiple shirts for Will Ferrell in the cowbell skit before deciding on one that rode up just the right amount.

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Believe it or not, there was almost a version of the iconic cowbell skit in which Will Ferrell wears a shirt that actually fits. What a sad world that would be. But costumers know when to make it stylish and when to make it funny, so they gave Ferrell a crop-top for the ages.

17. The Royal Wedding skit was reportedly one of the most complicated skits ever for the SNL wardrobe department.

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A whole lot of time and effort goes into designing, creating, fitting, and eventually flaunting the types of outfits seen at a Royal Wedding. The SNL costumers had to recreate those same fancy looks. Remember that three-day time frame I said they usually have? For the Royal Wedding skit, they weren't able to start until Saturday morning. No wonder SNL's wardrobe team has been nominated for 11 Emmy Awards.

What's your favorite Saturday Night Live fit? Let me know in the comments!

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