Fashion Secrets from Brook Lynn and Chase’s General Hospital Wedding
A lot of thought goes into what characters are going to wear at special events on soap operas. General Hospital is no exception as the show’s wardrobe director explained in detail what went into creating the amazing attire for Chase and Brook Lynn’s wedding.
Gathering Outfits Months Before
Soap opera weddings come in all sizes and styles, depending on the characters and the time period in which they are filmed. For many, the extravagant wedding of GH’s Luke and Laura comes to mind whenever a soap wedding is brought up. For the nuptials of Brook Lynn (Amanda Setton) and Chase (Josh Swickard), the show’s wardrobe director, Shawn Reeves, went above and beyond in creating what the characters would wear, particularly when it was decided that it would be a large affair. (Get behind the scenes at Brook Lynn and Chase’s wedding.)
He spoke to Soap Opera Digest, explaining that once he knew a wedding would be happening, he started preparing for it months in advance. “Of course, the first thing I always have to start thinking about is the key people at the wedding,” he stated, adding, “the bride, the mother of the bride, the grandmother of the bride. Those, I think, are my big challenges, along with not knowing who is going to be at the wedding [when I first start conceptualizing looks].” As the size of the wedding grew, he knew that “I wanted it to be kind of an old-fashioned, big soap opera wedding.”
Splendid Colors Are All the Rage
He remarked that fashion has been kind of bland in recent years, but thankfully, floral color palettes were coming back in style. “When I started seeing these really beautiful colors and florals [in stores again], I just thought, ‘You know what? We need this wedding to be joyful. The audience needs something really big and splashy and spectacular,’ ” he said.
With the exception of Ned (Wally Kurth), Reeves got new suits for all the men because all they each have in their wardrobes are black tuxedos. “We’re not doing formal,” he explained, “We’re doing like, high afternoon, garden, almost British wedding.’ So I wanted the men to be in blues and grays, suits in that late spring/early summer palette.” And the color black was completely off the table with this event, as he stated, “I didn’t want anybody in black at all. I had a ‘no black’ rule and so that meant, you know, Kelly Monaco [Sam] couldn’t be wearing black. It gave us a chance to do something different with some of the characters.” (Check out the five most romantic soap weddings ever.)
Take a look below at the awesome formal attire each of the characters wore.
Reeves, Setton, and her father went shopping together and the first dress they found ended up being the right one. Reeves explained, “The gown was far more contemporary in the type of lace that was used on it, the lace and the trim was more modern, and it had these interesting layers of tulle.” For Chase, they used a Hugo Boss midnight blue tuxedo.
For Lois, Reeves stated, “We wanted her to be a little more rock and roll, and that [Zadig & Voltaire] suit just felt rock and roll.” They didn’t want her usual attire, which would have upstaged everyone else. For Gloria (Ellen Travolta), he explained, “That coral satin blazer, I already had in stock here. It’s by Alice + Olivia, and it was something I had bought last summer for Blair (Kassie DePaiva) when she was on, but we didn’t use it.”
Reeves wanted the have the bridesmaid and maid of honor in matching dresses. “They are wearing dresses by Johnny Was,” he said, adding, “That printed floral silk was just so pretty, and Kirsten [Storms, Maxie] loved it.”
Since Ned (Wally Kurth) wasn’t in the wedding party, Reeves had him wear his oft-used suit, while Olivia’s [Lisa LoCicero] dress was “by Michael Costello. It just felt very Olivia to me.” He made sure some dresses were solid to offset the reigning floral patterns.
Kate Mansi (Kristina) had previously purchased her dress for a real-life wedding but ended up not wearing it to that event. Reeves really liked it, and as the show’s wedding approached, he said, “I remembered that dress. I needed something, obviously, for a pregnant woman.” Remarking that nice, fancy dresses for maternity were hard to come by and that a floral pattern wouldn’t work on Mansi, he asked her to use it with slight alterations to the length. Liking the color palette as well, he added, “I thought she looked so chic and cute in it.” For Blaze (Jacqueline Grace Lopez), he went with a soft floral pattern, explaining that “Blaze would usually be in some sort of black pleather outfit or something, but I wanted her to be Allison [Blaze’s real name]. She was there with Kristina as Kristina and Allison, you know?”
Reeves bought a dress when he began the process that Eden McCoy (Josslyn) wound up wearing. “I didn’t know if we were actually going to use it or not, but it had the colors, the florals — it had everything that I kind of envisioned for the wedding itself in that dress, and it ended up on Eden.”
Although wearing white to a wedding is traditionally frowned upon, Reeves liked the dress Natalia (Eva La Rue) wore. “I was fine with it and when we did the fitting [with different options], this was Eva’s favorite,” he said, adding, “It has such a nice soft floral print to it.” Maurice Benard’s (Sonny) suit was by Hugo.
While Dante’s (Dominic Zamaprogna) suit was from Emporio Armani, Sam (Kelly Monaco) was clad in a Dress The Population gown, which was the second one they looked at for her. “I was surprised she loved it,” said Reeves, who further stated, “It was something kind of outside her [typical] color range, her color palette, but it worked on her.”
Reeves made sure that the bridesmaid and maid of honor dresses matched. Ordering Johnny Was dresses, Reeves explained, “I just really felt this was the kind of wedding that would lend itself to [matching],” further adding, “That printed floral silk was just so pretty, and Kirsten loved it.”
Michael (Chad Duell) wore a suit by John Varvatos, while Drew (Cameron Mathison) sported a Giorgio Armani one. Initially choosing a purple dress for Jordan, her portrayer, Tanisha Harper, didn’t care for it, so Reeves went with an alternate by A.L.C. He stated, “Honestly, I think it worked out better. It was so pretty, and I needed that nice solid color…to balance out some of the florals.”
With the ability to move away from darker colors, Reeves noted, “This wedding gave us a little more opportunity to get a lot of characters out of their normal looks.” Here’s a shot of the entire wedding party rocking their wedding attire!
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