Everything is better at The White Lotus — even the clothes. Just ask Alex Bovaird, the show’s costume designer since season one. This isn’t a resort where people roll around in their pyjamas. As Boivard explained to her actors this season, The White Lotus is a heightened place where you wear Valentino to the pool and Cartier to breakfast.
For its third season, creator Mike White has transported the black comedy series to Thailand, providing more opportunities than ever for designer bikinis, dreamy caftans, and over-the-top jewellery to grace our screens. With a cast including Carrie Coon, Parker Posey, Lalisa Manoban, Aimee Lou Wood, Patrick Schwarzenegger, returning star Natasha Rothwell, and more, the show will also undoubtedly deliver a tour de force of acting.
So much so, in fact, that season three is set to be the show’s most shoppable yet. Boivard teamed up with H&M on a collection of resortwear inspired by the third season of The White Lotus, while Banana Republic, sustainable coastal lifestyle brand Fair Harbor, and home fragrance brand Nest have their own collaborations with the show on the horizon. How fabulous would it be to costume your very own upcoming vacation with The White Lotus-inspired pieces?
While many of the new season’s plot details are still mum, we caught up with Bovaird for a peek into what’s to come. We got into the Valentino, Jacquemus and Cartier of it all — and Bovaird clued us into a real fashion mystery that took place on set.
It’s pretty awesome. If it’s a brilliant show, and there’s a lot of interest in the costumes, and you’re asked to do it again, it’s hard to say no. It’s hard to give up because it’s so fun, and Mike White is an easy collaborator and the show has so much freedom. It’s not very often you get to design contemporary pieces where all the characters kind of dress up. The White Lotus allows a richer palette than other projects.
Parker Posey behind-the-scenes of The White Lotus.
Yes. The White Lotus has this format of being set in a hotel, so part of creating continuity is through the staff. There is always this Upstairs, Downstairs element even if they’re just swipes in the background. We created thirty-four staff uniforms for season three. Then there are certain things we do each season: arrivals, breakfast, lunch and dinner, so we always hit the same beats but with different plots. There’s a formula with the pacing, and a certain rhythm we have. As far as the costumes go, even though we sort of ground what we do in reality, we’ve created a world where everybody does dress up for dinner and they do change three times a day much like the good old days when people dressed up for travel.
We got a little bit of everything from everywhere. Because of the strike, I actually started gathering things way before we started prepping. We used our favourite vintage dealers in Europe, we shopped high and low, we made things. There are things in the show that probably cost a dollar, and there are things that cost twenty grand and there’s over a million dollars’ worth of jewellery that we borrowed.
We had some big supporters. Valentino shared some wonderful swimsuits, including the pink one that Kate (Leslie Bibb) wears with a black and white panther sarong. In some later episodes, Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) wears a Valentino ensemble — this leopard print bathing suit and robe that goes with it. She wears a Valentino shirt down to the pool, and she arrives with a Valentino bag. Jacquemus also created some looks for us for the character Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) — this polka dot bodysuit with a striped sequinned skirt with ties, and also this pink outfit with a hat. Working with brands can be challenging to do because you don’t always get a lot of time from when you know who the actor is to them being on camera, but they were so amazing and created things just for us.
No. There is this other brand I found from Corsica called Tara Matthews. When I was doing some credits I realised how much Tara Matthews I used. It was such a discovery for me! We were always trying on her bikinis — they’re just so elegant and sexy and even for an older body the string bikinis were so wearable.
There’s this beautiful caftan that Kate wears in Episode 2 that is a shimmering metallic, slightly sheer caftan. It’s in this scene where it kind of billows. And Jaclyn is wearing a Valentino sequin mini dress and Laurie (Coons) is wearing an electric blue slip dress. Those three together look pretty cool. Kate’s billowing caftan is actually by Marie France Van Damme out of Hong Kong. I found her at the Peninsula Hotel’s shopping arcade.
They’re a good place to go! I discovered that during season one. We were sequestered at the Four Seasons Resort Maui and the gift shop would open on Sundays just for the crew. I brought a lot of stuff with me to Hawaii but I would always visit the gift shop, because they did such a good job of buying! Gift shops are a great idea because that’s what people do on holiday and every hotel merchandises for that particular clientele.
It’s method costume design!
We also went to Amanpuri in Phuket. We had to sneak our way in there because they don’t let you on the property unless you’re a guest. And they were like, “What are you doing here?” And I said, “I have some business in the gift shop,” and they let me in that way!
Well, this season we have a character who is the hotel owner from Thailand. Most of her clothes came from Thailand and we shopped Thai designers and custom made a few of her capes. For one, we commissioned our own print with the artisan and designer Gary Graham. There’s also this store out there that I love called Jim Thompson, who was this American guy who went to Thailand and fell in love with Thai silks and started manufacturing garments and dying silks. The company has a real classic vibe and gorgeous linen and silk pieces.
She’s definitely a legend. She has a really definitive sense of style. She came with a lot of ideas and was very collaborative and she was one of the first people to be cast. Her character is from the South, and so is she, so she had very specific ideas around what that meant. She loved this huge square silk scarf I got, and laid down on it like a blanket at one point — she’s really fun to fit and she came with a lot of ideas and was game. She also brought over a couple of things from her mom that she wore, including a ring and a watch.
She’s also done a lot of independent movies and stuff that’s very real. She’s amazing but I feel like she wasn’t fully on-board in the beginning with our slightly over-the-top The White Lotus flavour, because she’s so grounded in her choices and wanted to be very realistic. She didn’t feel like she should maybe wear jewellery to breakfast. She asked why she would be wearing a Cartier watch on vacation, and I was like, “Because it’s The White Lotus, and at The White Lotus, you wear your Cartier watch to breakfast!”
People don’t realise how challenging it was to get things to Thailand. We did all the fittings in a villa on a jungle-y island in the Gulf of Thailand. And because of the distance, we had to ask lots of our vendors and partners to loan us stuff for eight months. We had to pick very carefully what we were going to bring. And when you’re on an island in Thailand, the shopping is very limited. Bangkok has great shopping so we did some there. But once we were on Koh Samui there was very little shopping.
I’m really happy about how things went — H&M is a great partner! It’s a 25-piece collection of very wearable dress-up or dress-down pieces and some accessories inspired by season three. It’s all about versatility, fun, and a sense of adventure. So if people really want to buy into the costume design of The White Lotus they should definitely check it out.
Yes! Someone fell in love with one of our designer hats. And actually another actress did steal a hat then tried to play it off like it was her own, but I’ll never say who it was! Hats were a hot commodity!
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
