Designing the Costumes for The Supremes At Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat

Costume designer Whitney Anne Adams is known for various television and film credits, horror in particular. It is a thank you to Adams for taking the time in her busy schedule to speak briefly in an interview over Zoom about ensembling the wardrobe for Searchlight Pictures and writer-director Tina Mabry's 2024 film, ‘The Supremes At Earl’s All You Can Eat’.

The film was adapted from Edward Kelsey Moore’s New York Times bestselling novel of the same name, which follows a group of friends throughout four decades: the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s. Adams reflects on the experience to dive right into history to create authentic characters and costumes for ‘The Supremes At Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat’.

Behind creating accurate pieces from history that fit each character, while the novel influenced the textures, patterns, colors, and wardrobe details for Odette (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), Barbara Jean (Sanaa Lathan), and Clarice (Uzo Aduba); and share anecdotes of working with the director, cast, and crew.

The importance of historical accuracy, especially at a specific time and place, according to Adams, in referring to utilizing resources like yearbooks, family photos, Flickr, in particular to source authentic looks from each four core decades.

“The movie takes place in the Midwest,” Adam said, in referring to the film reflects the trends slow to reach the Midwest.

“So the trends take a minute to trickle from the coasts into the Midwest, like the 68 section is set in 1968.”

Her reputation as a costume designer started with Blumhouse’s 'FREAKY', Universal Pictures’ 'Happy Death Day 2U, Netflix’s 'We Have A Ghost', and much more. This time, Adams takes a whole other level of logistics, according to Adams, about the challenges and processes involved in designing costumes for the film. She enjoys the vibrant styles of the 1960s, incorporating bright colors and textures reflective of the era, and designed costumes to tell a color story that aligns with the characters' journeys.

Working closely with Mabry, Adams highlights the value of communication and collaboration within the production team to navigate the logistics of assembling over 162 principal costumes in a short time frame. In creating a spreadsheet, she explains pulling every visual reference within the pages of the book and script to helm the design process, while adapting those references to fit the actors' appearances.

“I used all of the text as a guide and as a foundation, but it was a great jumping off point to figure out what these real actors were going to wear like Odette has an earth tone palette, very fiery and bright, but she's also the foundational group member,” Adams said in referring to conveying the use of color palettes in storytelling.

“Telling a color story that way, but filming our younger kids first, I pulled those color palettes back to the 60s, so I took what colors were popular in the 60s, also worked with the color palette of their elder versions when they mature into these like beautiful jewel tones as older women.”

Her experience in various film genres helped her tackle the logistical challenges of costume design, emphasizing that successful costume design is a team effort that requires problem-solving and resourcefulness.

Most of this job is just logistics and not design, according to Adams, in ultimately underscores that the accomplishments of the costume design are not solely her own but are made possible by her dedicated team for ‘The Supremes At Earl’s All You Can Eat’ and previous films that she received credit for the costume design.

“Costume design is not just the costume designer!” Adams said, “It's the entire team, and every single person on that team is so important to the finished film.”