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It was Aretha Franklins perfectly drawn cat eye that first caught a 13-year-oldJennifer Bryans attention back in the 60s.
Just the glamour of it.
I had never really seen that before.
Creatively, I had to live up to the standard that Aretha set, Bryan says.
I had to try and nail her genius as closely as I humanly could.
I dont like to say copy because its not really about copying, she says.
Its really about being inspired by the piece and coming as close as it’s possible for you to.
(Who knewAretha liked golf?
Bryan says with a laugh.)
What she saw was a woman who stayed glamorous her whole life.
Whenever I could get a purse on her in a scene, I did, Bryan says proudly.)
She was like, This is me.
If you love your body, show it off, she says.
That was Aretha, she showed it off.
Hopefully, she says, fans will see how committed I was to getting her legacy right.
The photos of that performance were all in black-and-white, so Bryan found herself playing detective.
Literally, I took a magnifying glass to a photo to see how these sequins were applied.
We both agreed, the dress had to be silver, she says.
There was something about the tone in the black-and-white that we were pretty confident it had to be silver.
Franklins original gown is snugger than how it would fit now, she says.
Now it would probably not be so formed to the bodice.
The straps would not be as wide and the neckline would probably plunge more.
In some images, the green looked more lemony, she says.
In others, it looked neon.
With one crisis averted, another emerged.
But the stars of the garment are the ostrich feathers around the neckline and waist.
To create that hybrid shade of mint and lime green, Bryan had to dye the feathers in-house.
The real fun part, though, was actually applying the feathers.
We were sneezing, she says.
There were ostrich feathers everywhere.
To get it right, her team of tailors and seamstresses literally dissected the dress, she says.
We really got very surgical about it.
We had to hand-sew on all the icing, she says, which was time-consuming.
Literally that dress would be in my seamstresss lap for days, she says.
Each day, after chipping away at it, she would have her put it on a mannequin.
I would go, No, you gotta put more beads here.
Put some crystals here, she says.
It was hours, but I think it was worth it.
Bryan loves that the shirt is so powerful it comes off on-camera.
On the first night, Franklin wears a pearl-white caftan covered in jewels.
To re-create that detail, Bryans team applied each Swarovski crystal by hand.
As tedious, but more stressful, was making sure Erivo didnt get swallowed up by the voluminous garment.
(Unhappy with the footage, she had longfought to keep itfrom ever seeing the light of day.)
The same way as Arethas original caftan did.
I was thinking, Oh, this shouldnt be too hard.
Surely there is something out in the fabric market that looks like this, Bryan says.
I turned over every stone and there just wasnt any.
That one to me is very Aretha because we know how she liked the boas, Bryan says.
However, Franklin never actually wore it.
I actually designed that before Id gotten the call that I definitely had the project, she says.
That dress is pure Aretha inspiration.
