Cristina Spiridakis, the Emmy-nominated costume designer for A24 and Peacock's prequel series Crystal Lake, grew up as a summer camp kid, but it was watching a friend play Friday the 13th: The Game, that reminded her how much she loved the look of Camp Crystal Lake. “It was really fascinating for me to see what had translated,” she tells FANGORIA. “What were the things that some characters that were referenced, the things that they decided to bring to the video game because they were so important to the lore?”
Of course, the biggest costume element was Pamela Voorhees's sweater, which, when worn, could keep you protected around Jason. Spiridakis found this “hilarious” and got even more excited to rewatch all the films in preparation for Crystal Lake. “When you re-watch the original film, I don't think people remember how beautiful it is; the way they used color,” she says. “There's a lot of purposeful choices made in that regard, and it was nice to re-watch it from that perspective and to figure out what was important to the die-hard fans.”
Spiridakis grew up on the movies, as did most of her generation, but reengaging with the franchise only deepened her appreciation for the series’ attention to detail and inspired her to incorporate elements that hardcore fans would appreciate, like putting counselors in green and yellow rain slickers to evoke the ones worn by Brenda and Alice in the original film. “It was important to us […] so I was glad we were able to put it in somewhere.”
Crystal Lake is a period piece, which meant Spiridakis and her team had a lot of research to do to accurately capture the look of the decade. They tracked down vintage issues of magazines like Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, Ebony, and Jet to get a feel of what trends people were chasing back then. “We were trying to place ourselves there and remember politically what was happening, culturally, all of that, and make sure that was influencing what we were doing,” she says. “And then the best part is that because it's a horror show, we got to build so much of it.”
While your average movie or TV show can source costumes from one of the many rental warehouses studios use, the need for multiples on a show where garments will be covered in blood meant the Crystal Lake costuming team had to craft their own costumes. Spiridakis had two assistant costume designers and a costume shopper, and they scoured fabric stores and online dead-stock sellers to get what they needed.
They even found a place that specialized in spandex and sold 1970s prints that made great swimsuits — a godsend considering how impossible it is to find vintage children’s swimsuits, let alone multiples that can be destroyed by buckets of fake blood.
Spiridakis was given full creative freedom by showrunner Brad Caleb Kane and tells me, “What Brad likes to say is if he wanted to be a costume designer, he'd be a costume designer. He's a writer, he's a showrunner. So he hired myself and Lester Cohen, our production designer, as department heads that he trusts.” She estimates that roughly 90% of the costumes Linda Cardellini wore as Pamela Voorhees were made by the team, and that the costumes for other characters were also based on the film's original designs, like the cop uniforms.
The team crafted a patchwork shirt to honor Annie from the original film without directly copying it, and used vintage quilting squares to make a halter top for the character Willow. The necklace she wears is even based on one Spiridakis personally owns, made by a small Atlanta designer they then commissioned to make multiples for the show. “It was a dream,” she says. “I would say the majority of what the principal actors are wearing, we made.”
While recreating iconic looks was a true honor, Spiridakis says some of the most fun came from making custom uniforms in bulk for characters like cheerleaders, fast-food employees, and high school letterman jackets. It was a way to step back into the past and bring the fashion to the present.
Additionally, because Episode 7 was meant to look like Technicolor, the costumes were built to read better on camera, which meant they would look different in hand. “Shoes are obviously a challenge, so most of those are modern,” she tells me. “Vintage shoes are disgusting, and they're a curse. They will fall apart in your hands.” All of Cardellini’s shoes in Episode 7 are modern Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo, inspired by 1960s designs. “Vintage shoes, they've taken a beating, and they will not hold up. Not for a 12-hour day, certainly,” she explains.
The modern shoes aren’t the only “canon-breaking” happening on Crystal Lake, but Spiridakis says the team has already prepared for it. “Jason's birthday is out of canon because it had to be a Friday the 13th in 1964, and it wasn't June … We know it's coming, she says. “We know there are choices in the series that people are going to get stuck on, but the joke I keep making is Jason went to space, and we all accepted it.”
Personally, the look of the show makes it clear that people who love and respect the source material designed Crystal Lake, because it wouldn't look this good if they didn't. Even when people fight about canon, that is the one thing everyone's going to agree on. And speaking of canon, Spiridakis is willing to die on one of the most-debated hills when it comes to arguably the most iconic costume piece in the entire Friday the 13th franchise, outside of a hockey mask.
Pamela Voorhees’ sweater is blue. “I understand that in Part 2, it's like a gray-oatmeal, but it's also been rotting in the woods,” she says. “Back then, nobody cared about continuity, but I did have my Pam Voorhees doll out before, and if it is blue on the doll, the sweater is blue. This is the hill I will die on.’ I'll die there with her. It's blue. “When we pan out, I hope people are like, ‘Oh shit, it's the blue sweater.’”
Because the show takes place in 1971, they gave Cardellini a late-1960s silhouette and hired a knitwear designer to adapt the original sweater's knitwear to the new sweater's size. A woman named Maria Ficalora made the original sweater that Pam wears for most of the show, and they tracked down a manufacturer in Industry City to make multiples. “They made us 20 sweaters. We needed 17. So we had three extras just for fun,” she explains.
“I know it's different. I know it doesn't have the turtleneck. I know she's not wearing the flannel. But again, this is a retelling; this is a new silhouette, and just a different chapter for this franchise.” And while eagle-eyed fans might be looking for hidden Easter eggs and references in the lines, character names, and props, be sure to also look at the costumes of some background characters. Spiridakis assures me there are some hidden gems left just for die-hard fanatics willing to go frame-by-frame to find them all.
“We tried really hard to tell our new story and make sure that the fans knew that it was made by fans, that Brad is a massive Friday the 13th fan […] we celebrated Jason's birthday when we were in prep,” she tells me. “I hope it comes through that it was made by people that love and want to honor the original franchise while creating something new for the other fans and for new people to engage with Crystal Lake. That's our hope.”
For more insights into Crystal Lake, FANGORIA Magazine Vol. 2 Issue #33 features a deep-dive into the new series, now streaming on Peacock.
