Rachel Elspeth Gross interviews Daniel Lawson about costuming Carrie Preston as the always remarkably dressed Elsbeth Tascioni in The Good Wife, The Good Fight, and, in particular, the newish howcatchem mystery series, Elsbeth.

“The crash and clash of colors and patterns on screen could easily become chaotic or overwhelming. But Lawson is a master of his craft and he knows exactly how far he can push something, he sees the line where personal style threatens to become camp. He plays with the boundaries, and it is so much fun to watch. ‘We wanted to always have her stand out,’ Lawson explained, ‘not like a sore thumb, because that has a negative connotation. The writers have been putting in every so often people who are truly taken with her style, and then we have a few characters this season who remark on the way she looks, the way she dresses, and you know, so that just sort of reinforces her own sense of style and self. She definitely doesn’t lose herself. She comes around the corner and the first thing you see is the pattern, or the color or her hair, and it’s like that little piece of sand in your bathing suit that just annoys you. And the other thing, I think, New Yorkers being that sort of jaded, cool people that they are, find it annoying to have somebody always effervescent and positive.’”

Read more here. (Thanks, Kate!)