Only Murders in the Building is a show about coats instead of murder, say its costume designer

‘Only Murders in the Building’ is a show about coats instead of murder, say its costume designer.

Dana Covarrubias - who was nominated for a Emmy for her work on the Hulu series about amateur detectives living a posh Manhattan apartment building starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez last month - thinks outerwear became the main feature of the show after the many coats sported by Selena sparked a topic of discussion between Conan O’Brien and ‘Succession’ star Kieran Culkin on the podcast, ‘Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend’.

She told Cosmopolitan magazine: “That's really a hilarious story. Conan O'Brien has a podcast and a bunch of friends of mine texted me and they were like, Hey, Conan O'Brien is interviewing Kieran Culkin on his podcast and they're talking about your costume designs. They very sweetly were talking about how much they love all the costumes. They made a joke about how Mabel changes her coat every scene. I usually try to keep things somewhat realistic as far as people not changing or not changing a ton. But when they said that I was like, ‘This is now a show about coats. This is not a show about murder anymore’.”

Dana thought it was important for the show’s sophomore season to honour her and Selena’s Mexican heritage and “sustainability” so opted for a lot of used items.

After being asked if she sought to show off “specific designers”, she said: Yes, for sure. For season two I did shop a bunch of different designers that were all Mexican because I'm half Mexican and Selena's half Mexican, so I wanted to get some Mexican designers in there. I definitely also think about sustainability of the clothing industry and I try my hardest to shop secondhand.”