Woven with Love: Hollywood Costume Designer Discusses Ukrainian Roots and Influence
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Loading... - Karl Huber
- 03 Oct 2022
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Ukrainian-American Costume Designer Hala Bahmet has worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Ben Kingsley (“House of Sand and Fog”), Julianne Moore (“The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio”), Ed Harris (“Sweetwater”), and John Travolta (“The People Vs. OJ Simpson”).
Along the way, she has earned two Emmy and Costume Designer’s Guild nominations. She spent the last six years working on “This is Us,” a drama series that spans 80 years of a family’s life. The long-running award-winning television show allowed Bahmet to dress the characters in contemporary and period clothes.
Bahmet spoke to Kyiv Post about her career in Hollywood, how her Ukrainian culture influences her work, and how her family’s history inspired her to take action when Putin invaded Ukraine in February.
Kyiv Post: You were born in Chicago to Ukrainian immigrants and raised in Minnesota. How did you get into the entertainment industry?
Hala Bahmet: I went to school at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota, because they had a textiles department and a great art department. While there, I volunteered to work at (late singer Prince’s) Paisley Park in their costume department while Prince was directing a film called Graffiti Bridge. The film’s costume designer, Helen Hyatt, took me on as an intern, and then put me on the payroll shortly after. I worked in the costume shop, where I learned so many different techniques. I got a taste of what it would be like to do costuming and be a designer for film and television versus just as a clothing designer for fashion. That was the turning point for me. That’s when I knew what I wanted to do.
KP: You moved to Los Angeles and began working in music videos for singers like Kelly Clarkson, Michael Jackson, and Jonny Cash. Your costume background made you a magnet for these high-end, theatrical videos, which naturally led to filmmaking. What movie was the turning point in your career?
HB: 2003’s “The House of Sand and Fog” because it was the first film I designed that received Oscar nominations. Not for costumes, but for music and actors Ben Kingsley and Shohreh Aghdashloo. That association put me in a position where I could pursue influential films with A-list actors. Read More...
