the closet is made of glass (and athleisure)
an interview with heated rivalry's costume designer, hanna puley
This post discusses scenes from Episodes 1-5 of ‘Heated Rivalry.’ It does NOT cover the Episode 6 finale, so if you haven’t watched it yet, it’s safe to continue reading!!!
Last night, at 9pm PST on the dot, I sank my maw into my turtleneck sweater funnel, laid out a snack spread of assorted Pocky sticks, and hit play on Episode 6 of ‘Heated Rivalry.’
And WHAT a Christmas treat it was.
I had never heard of the show, or the original books by Rachel Reid, until about 2 weeks ago. Like most people who stumbled into it knowing very little beyond “sexy queer romance set in professional hockey,” I quickly animorph’d into a fangirl who spent her free time watching Hudson William’s 20-minute skincare routine on The Cut. This show is powerful stuff, guys.
Gabriella Karefa-Johnson described its premise best:
“Two obscenely hot, star hockey rivals spend over a decade hating each other while secretly finding every possible opportunity to enter one another in minimalist lofts across North America […] They are also in love during a time when being out in professional sports was far rarer—even in a sport where center-split pelvic thrusts comprise the warm-up.”
‘Heated Rivalry’ is not a fashion-y show. It’s mostly gym clothes, hockey uniforms, and heinously 2010s millennial male getups. And yet!!! I found myself poring over the costuming details because clothes are a window into someone’s internal world, and I wanted to climb inside the heads of Shane and Ilya to understand their characters wholly.
So I called Hanna Puley, the show's costume designer, to ask her all my burning fashion questions. Our conversation took place earlier this week, and has been lightly edited below for clarity. Enjoy!!!!!
All photos courtesy of Crave/HBO.
Viv: Let’s start with Ilya. His signature cross necklace has become a beloved accessory, similar to Connell’s chain from Normal People. Can you confirm that he’s always wearing it?
Hanna:
We never see him without the necklace on. In fact, Connor would just wear it constantly. I don’t think he took it off throughout the whole shoot.
It was one of those pivotal character pieces that grounded the character. There’s so much related to family, identity, what it would mean to go home, and all of these contradictions he had to deal with as a bisexual man in Russia.
It was an artifact of his character for sure.
Tell me how you sourced the necklace. Was it difficult to find the perfect design?
We found about six different options that were all a real size and texture and all that, but we knew it needed to be a gold Russian Orthodox cross.
To find that specific thing, you have to go off the beaten path a little bit. We ended up finding it at a jeweler in Toronto that was a bit tucked away.
For the styling, were you intentionally trying to showcase the gold cross in his looks?
No, I think gold naturally just shines. And if the lighting is serving that, you’ll get a little bit of a glimmer.
With Ilya’s style, there’s a lot of collarbone. The necklace sat higher because the pendant is on a woman’s chain; it’s supposed to be his mother’s necklace. It’s not sitting as low as a lot of men’s necklaces would.
So the way that Connor ended up wearing the clothes served to showcase it. Or if he wanted to engage with the necklace as an object, then that would happen organically on the scene.
You nailed the cultural specificity of Ilya’s wardrobe. The Adidas gear, the muscle tees, the black house slippers, it all feels very Slavic/Eastern European. Were there any references that went into his outfit moodboard?
For most of the people in this show, I didn’t use any filmic references. Ilya is someone who lives in my act of imagination, where we all know this guy to a certain extent and that’s why it resonates.
I did what I could to make it as grounded as possible while bringing in some fun designer pieces. The sweatpants that he’s wearing in his house for the tuna melt scene, those are Rick Owens pants.
We tapped into this low-effort, ostentatious vibe.
Wait wait wait—those were RICK OWENS?????
Yeah. It’s funny because they have a string that hangs down the back, but I think it was throwing people off. So they tucked it in while we were shooting.
And I was like, no, that’s so important! You can’t tuck in the string!
But these things happen where you can’t lose the forest for the trees and it’s fine.
The most obvious archive designer piece I noticed was the 1998 Jean Paul Gautier leopard print silk shirt for the club scene. Were there any other subtle designer pieces Ilya wore?
Yeah, I leaned into the designer stuff for Ilya and gave him more of my budget so that we could play with looks that felt unique and specific.
The coat he wears to his dad’s funeral is Helmut Lang.
Where did you source the designer pieces?
We bought these clothes at this amazing shop in Toronto called Archive Threads/20 Maud St. They have amazing consignment designer pieces, great menswear.
The rose shirt that Sasha wears in Episode 2 in Russia when they have their bathroom cocaine scene, that’s an ERD shirt. It’s like a $2,500 silk chiffon shirt.
Gotcha. I’m browsing their website right now. I can see how it suits Ilya’s flashier tastes, without necessarily looking like he’s like a fashion boy…
Yeah. Which I wanted to avoid—I don’t think any of them are fashion boys.
Ilya’s archetype for me was the bad boy and Shane was the boy next door. Scott is the daddy figure. And then Kip is an art history student, so he’s like, sexy and poor.
These are the kind of archetypes that I was playing with, along the lines of ‘Sex and the City,’ so the audience could relate to these characters.
Let’s dig into Shane’s wardrobe. He’s canonically a boring dresser who doesn’t care about clothes or peacocking through his appearance. Similar to ginger ale being his “safe” drink of choice, it feels like he picks his “safe” outfits and sticks with them.
Shane wears so much basic athleisure wear. A large percentage of what we used for him was Reigning Champ. There’s all these factors I took into consideration when I’m dressing a character like Shane. He is Canadian and has money, but he doesn’t think about clothes at all. It’s just like, oh, now I can afford the $200 hoodie or whatever instead of the $60 one.
Reigning Champ is a Canadian company, and it’s slightly higher-end athleisure wear. So it reads a little bit nicer and the colors are great. It’s not overtly jock.
People on TikTok are calling this show a period piece because the 2010s millennial styling is so accurate. Specifically the outfit Shane wears when he’s standing awkwardly in the hotel room, about to leave for Ilya’s house.
I mean, these men are millennials. I’m a millennial. This is what I know really well because for all of my friends, this is our coming of age period.
This outfit plays with the 2010s basic man look, which is the white sneaker and a slim jean a tight t-shirt. It’s a bit of a uniform from that time.
Shane’s line in Episode 5 about hiring a personal stylist was hilarious.
Can you break down his Miami Vice cream suit look?
It’s an inverted color scheme to what he usually wears. I think it’s really funny that this is his version of being stylish…instead of a white t-shirt and a navy suit, he’s wearing a navy t-shirt and a cream suit.
It’s a full white suit, which you don’t see. Our budget wasn’t huge for this show. I had to be really strategic with how we spent the money, but it was a full suit.
He’s wanting to shift and be perceived a little differently, but I couldn’t picture him taking too big a leap. This character is still so cautious in terms of how he interacts with the world. The constraints put in place through his family and the league are so tight.
I can see a personal stylist trying to give some great pieces to him, and him getting nervous and being like, “no.”
Were there any moments where Hudson or Connor gave their input on the costumes or put their own touch on the styling?
For the costumes, I don’t think so. When we were doing fittings, they were very open to whatever I was wanting to do.
But inherently as we shot, there would be a natural movement to the clothing within the scenes, like Hudson chewing on the string of his hoodie.
Or wearing the hood up in a scene, because there’s something about feeling protected. That’s all the actors making those choices.
I wonder if in Season Two, we might get a little more input. We’ll see. They definitely feel more in their characters now.
How much tailoring was needed to get the clothes to fit well?
Well, I can tell you, with athletic bodies, every suit needs to be tailored.
Most pants also need to be a bit tailored. Our approach was sizing up a little, and then tailoring it so that it looks good around the butt and waist.
Last question. What went into making the hockey jerseys? I’m not a hockey person, but it looked very realistic to my untrained eye…
The hockey jerseys were the most time-consuming aspect of the show from my end. We had something like 285 jerseys that we made through a company in Toronto called Marchants. It took something like three months or more to get them all made.
There’s so many design elements to consider: whether it’s cut and sewn and then embroidered, whether it’s sublimated, all of that. You have to be really specific about the player name and the number.
I wanted to make sure that the quality was up the snuff and that they could be held up to scrutiny.
You did an incredible job bringing these characters to life through the clothes. Hopefully you and the whole team feel like you’re getting your flowers, with how much the show has blown up!
We’re very lucky to have a show like this that’s joyful and sexy and seems uniting. And with the NHL responding positively for the most part, hopefully we can shift culture a little bit.
Thank you Hanna. I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions today.
My pleasure. I hope everybody enjoys the finale.
xo viv
Thanks for being here. You can find me on IG and TT. My wardrobe pieces and recs are saved here—unless it’s vintage, of course ;) I may earn a small commission from purchases made through affiliate links.
doing god's work over here
thanks Viv. a very cool read. i love the note about the actors engaging with their costumes.