In the sherbet-colored world of Apple TV+’s Palm Royale, set in 1969 Palm Beach, appearances are everything. The campy, high-spirited series, loosely based on the 2018 novel Mr. Mrs. American Pie by Juliet McDaniel, follows Maxine Dellacourt (Kristen Wiig)—a Chattanooga-born orphan turned beauty-pageant queen—as she begs, borrows, and steals her way into Palm Beach high society. Sure, she’s married the nephew of one of the town’s grand dames, Norma Dellacourt (the iconic Carol Burnett), but the inheritance she’d need to really rise through the ranks is controlled by Norma…who doesn’t plan on giving Maxine and her husband a nickel of the plastics-and-mouthwash family fortune. The fact that Norma’s fallen into a coma, and can’t be charmed (or conned) by Maxine any further, doesn’t help either.
As the show’s costume designer, Alix Friedberg, explains, fashioning Maxine and her fellow housewives was central to Palm Royale’s storytelling. “There’s a gala or a ball in almost every episode,” she says. “We go from gowns to lunch to tennis to fittings at the boutique on Worth Avenue—there’s so much fashion and so many different levels to it.”
Palm Royale’s 10 episodes unfurl with caftans that swirl in marbly prints, candy-colored beaded dresses that look dipped in sprinkles, and plenty of statement sunglasses. And as the story hurtles toward 1970 (there’s a highly amusing space-race subplot), the powdery, gauzy town of Palm Beach becomes louder, zanier, and more outlandish—with preppy Lilly Pulitzer swapped out for psychedelic Pucci.
Much to our delight, a lot of what’s seen onscreen is real vintage: pristine pieces of Bill Blass, Galanos, and Malcolm Starr from the 1960s. “It’s really tough to get things that don’t feel like they have 30, 40 years of wear on them—we got lucky,” Friedberg says. “Everybody needed to look like they had just cut the tags off something. Certainly, nobody ever repeats anything. God forbid!”
Where did she find it all? Friedberg is happy to share. She cites Etsy (“a phenomenal source”), Arcade Vintage, the Paper Bag Princess, Carny Couture, The Frippery, and Recess as some of her go-tos. “We had a list of 10 to 15 vendors that we would send mood boards to. We’d say, ‘This is the palette for Allison Janney’s character, this is her size run, do you have anything that might work for a gala?’” In some cases the vintage looks were shot in one setting, but when characters needed to move outside, or had scenes that could cause a bit more wear and tear, faithful reproductions were made.
Here, Friedberg breaks down her approach to costuming Palm Royale’s dazzling cast of characters.
On dressing Maxine
“Maxine really does start out as this sort of wide-eyed, doll-like girl from Chattanooga, and she’s desperate to wash that image of herself off and just immediately assimilate into Palm Beach life,” says Friedberg. Maxine’s story is one of evolution: a Palm Beach–set survival of the chicest. She starts out wearing ditzy Lilly Pulitzer minidresses too juvenile for the elegant airs she’d like to affect and outmoded pieces (like a Gucci bag from—gasp—1960) borrowed without permission from the comatose Norma. “Why don’t you have anything from this decade?” says Maxine as she loots through Norma’s closet in search of something to wear (and another piece of jewelry to pawn).
As Maxine gets more savvy—and starts writing hot checks for her couture—her style becomes more refined. “She goes from this sweet, pastel-pink optimist to emulating the other women’s styles.” One of the high points for Friedberg’s? Maxine’s finale look: a white gown-and-cape set created by the show’s costume department after a Givenchy pattern. “It really highlights the architectural fashion that Givenchy was doing in the late ’60s. It’s heavily beaded, so it’s not quite minimalist,” says Friedberg. “She just looks like a floating doll.”
On dressing Norma
For much of the series, Norma lies in a coma following an embolism. Before that, however, even when she’s only seen in bed, Norma’s fabulous caftans, perfect hair and makeup, and glittering jewelry are visible. “We do tell her story in flashbacks, and you get to see how grand of a hostess she was and how all of Palm Beach really is looking to her for approval,” Friedberg says. “It was really important to keep her at the top of the echelon [in terms of] fabrics and colors and jewelry.”
On dressing Mitzi (Kaia Gerber)
“It’s funny—everybody’s asking me about Kaia Gerber because she’s such a fashion icon in life,” says Friedberg. “But she plays a manicurist from West Palm Beach with no money and wears basically a manicurist smock and some denim.” She pulls it off with aplomb—especially with her character Mitzi’s Jean Shrimpton–esque ’do and doe-eyed makeup.
On dressing Linda Shaw (Laura Dern)
It was actually through Dern that Friedberg got her gig on the show: The two previously worked together on Big Little Lies and Enlightened. If Palm Beach is a bubble, beyond its iridescent sheen in 1969 were the realities of the Vietnam War and the fight for equal rights. Dern’s character, Linda, epitomizes the hippie counterculture, running a women’s group out of her friend’s bookstore (hilariously called Our Body Our Shelves). “She has a very different style than the rest of the women,” Friedberg says. “She is plopped right into reality, and she’s trying to affect change.” Viewers can expect lots of denim, turquoise jewelry, macramé, smocks, and all the other hallmarks of hippie fashion.
On dressing Evelyn (Allison Janney)
Second to the comatose Norma, Maxine’s biggest antagonist is Evelyn, who is currently reigning supreme over Palm Beach—and plans to keep it that way. Janney’s character wears one of Friedberg’s favorite vintage looks on the show: a pleated coat-and-dress set from Galanos, with a beautiful macramé neckpiece that was in perfect condition.
On dressing Robert (Ricky Martin)
In Palm Royale’s Palm Beach, there’s a famine of genuineness; the town runs on ulterior motives. But Martin’s character, Robert, who is gunning for conservatorship over Norma, may be the most likable. He works plenty of odd jobs, but his role as Norma’s caretaker/cabana boy sees him slip out of the uniform that he wears to the Palm Royale club (where he also works) and into a Speedo. “He’s closeted, but he really leans into his culture and the ability to express himself outside his work uniform,” Friedberg says. In other words? His glorious physique is on full display for much of the series.
