Exploring Class And Character In Costumes For Prime’s ‘We Were Liars’

Amazon Prime’s We Were Liars is a very good show. But please know, though it may feel like the streaming equivalent of a beach read, this story is ancient and close to universal.

Cadence, Cady if you prefer, our main character in We Were Liars, has an awful lot of overlap with Cordelia, the doomed favorite daughter in William Shakespeare’s King Lear. It’s the same way in the novel this show is based on. I cannot promise that E. Lockhart, author of the 2014 novel on which this series is based, wrote it as a modern take on King Lear, but I very much suspect that it was. I also suspect that Lockhart is familiar with the work of Marian Roalfe Cox, but that is far too much to get into.

The stories that people tell each other, the ones we cherish most, have not changed very much over the centuries. The details have, absolutely, but the broad strokes are the same and they are what allow us to find and leave Easter Eggs. Storytelling is about connections and stories remind us that we are all connected.

As We Were Liars opens and we meet our cast of characters, it was immediately obvious that time and effort had been invested in making certain that it would be impossible to confuse any of these blonde ladies. It’s all very Ralph-Lauren-American-Aristocracy, but the five women are distinct, even if their collective costumes all ascribe to a (very) particular aesthetic. When I met with the costume designer for the series, Amanda Riley, I explained that the process of working it all out fascinated me, that I very much wanted to know how it had been accomplished.

“Each of the individual characters felt so different as people,” Riley explained. “So, it didn’t feel like work as much as it was effortless. Once an actor steps into the fitting room, you start to realize this is truly the embodiment of this character. Caitlin FitzGerald, she was Penny Sinclair, all of the things that we gravitated towards in the fitting room had these long lines and elegant colors. Her palette was extremely clean and very refined, a lot of it was architectural, but didn’t feel too stuffy.

Bess Sinclair, Candice King,” the designer continued, “her clothing was harder to source than one would think because how she dresses, it’s not who she really is on the inside. She ends up being this woman that’s just somehow thought that she was doing the right thing. But her clothes, what I loved is it felt like it embodied somebody else, like its just this idea that she’s sweet, that’s not really who she is.

And then Carrie Sinclair, Mamie Gummer, as a designer, pulling all this stuff together, it does take a while to be able to find the exact fabric, but then you find it, you finally see it. And when the actor looks at the rack and says, ‘oh, this is exactly that person.’ Carrie had all this vintage YSL, all of these really great pieces. And her jewelry was made by a friend of mine, CKD Design Studio, we had made that jewelry from scratch for her.”

I was very impressed by the cast, perhaps especially Emily Alyn Lind who portrays Cadence “Cady” Sinclair Eastman. This young woman did an excellent job. All the young actors on this series did very good work.

“This was a challenging shoot,” Riley told me, “because of where we were located. Nova Scotia is far out, there are great white sharks right in the water right there. I mean, locations were really far out. Sometimes you’re driving with no reception for an hour and a half, but wow, the heart and soul that people gave to it. I feel like that’s what filmmaking is all about. Being able to tell the story in that way where everyone’s coming together to make it. I mean, that’s why I love the industry. This was a project where, for me, all of the actors became people that I respected as such wonderful, wonderful human beings. And that really helped when we were in a situation where it’s not as warm as you’re hoping it would be.

People were cold out there, and the showrunners and executive producers could feel that these people were in it. Everybody was into the story, into the project and from behind the camera and what you see in front of the camera, everybody gave it a hundred percent. And I think you see that.”

There is a lot that this show does well, after all, shows don’t become number 1 hits for no reason. Transitions between timelines, differentiation between characters then and now, keeping what happened when straight is a place where even the best work can falter. We Were Liars never does, to Riley’s immense credit, because the costumes she designed will not allow it. Before and After are distinct and the transitions between the two extremes are easy to follow. I asked the designer about maintaining the integrity of the story when it was divided between past and present.

“We start in Summer 17 and it’s really intense,” she explained, “but as Cady starts to feel a little bit more into what could have happened, her new relationship and what changes with the Liars; there is an evolution of Cadence’s look. So, we start to see some of the dresses return. And in the later episodes, she’s got boots on, some of the little floral dresses and cardigans are returning, she’s got some jewelry. She wants to feel attractive in front of Gat. And part of her essence, who she always has been, especially in Summer 16, is starting to come back. So the colors are a little bit different and there’s a lot more subtlety. But she’s starting to wake up and you can see it in her clothing subtly. That first outfit that she wears in Summer 17, when she sees the Liars for the first time, it is really representative of how she is at that moment, how cloudy and dark she is. Even the shirt she’s wearing is this blue, it almost has a cloudy nature to it. The shirt speaks to where she is most emotionally.”

There are subtle transitions in this narrative, carefully plotted points of reference which keep the story from ever feeling disjointed or abrupt. This is a place where costumes do a lot of heavy lifting, and Cady is a great example, her wardrobe shows us what is happening to her inside.

“She’s coming back to herself,” Riley explained. “When she’s on the dock with Gat and wearing this beautiful floral dress, it’s the first time that she dresses up for Gat because they’re going on a date. Carina Adly MacKenzie, our amazing showrunner and executive producer, along with Julie Plec, are so involved in the story and the costumes. We worked together. And one of the things we discussed was how we manage that change. Because one of the style points that we used for Cady was the fact that she wears these high tops, which are so cute and flirty, but still show that she’s a teenage girl. We decided to use that same element, but something that’s a little bit edgier because Cadence is really questioning all that’s going on around her subconsciously. I believe she knows when she’s out with Gat that something is off. She just can’t figure out what it is. To show the rebellion she’s got these boots on, even though she’s wearing the dress.”

“Harris,” Riley said with a laugh, “with his idea of his Sinclair women, they’re well-dressed and tanned and put together. And we never see what’s happening on the inside.”

Harris Sinclair (David Morse), Grandfather to the Liars, who gives off creepy vibes immediately, has very specific ideas regarding the women in his family. “Love, and be silent” is not much of a stretch. There’s a whole underlying theme related to the difference between material wealth and honest emotional connection, between perception and reality, that all feels very timely, given the state of, well, everything in 2025.

”For the Sinclairs,” Riley told me, “it was important for me to be able to have a handful of really key pieces. But I believe that the people like Sinclairs, they’re not throwing their money away. Even if she’s buying a pair of $5,000 pants, those $5,000 pants, they’re going to probably last, that’s one piece she’ll wear throughout the entire summer because they understand the value of investing in these things.

“As a costume designer,” she continued, “knowing that every single thing that we touch on the planet as humans, as people, as living beings, affects other people. Being able to work on a show like this that I think is the content itself feels really important to share. I think we’re seeing a lot of change, especially in fashion, because something has to happen about the world of fast fashion. I believe that designers need to start speaking up, we need to start. And this was a huge goal of mine too, like, how can I find things that are beautifully made, designer, but don’t necessarily come right off the rack of a department store. How can we use things that are secondhand or gently used or designer consignment? Especially here in Europe, it’s amazing the stuff you can find, and why pay that much money for clothes?”

I asked the designer if she had seen the finished episodes, what she thought about the show as a whole.

“Every time I watch any of the episodes I cry, ” Riley told me. “I’m savoring a few of them because I wanted to watch with a couple of other people, but the last scene where she’s running in that dress, I mean, that’s Cady, she’s becoming herself. Even though she’s tanned and bronzed as Harris would like her, the woman that has gone through this incredible tragedy, the person that she has always been inside, looking for answers, she knows that this life that she’s born into is something to be questioned and where does she fall in it? Where are her values? How can she make a difference? It is a fairy book story, and even though the ending is tragic, there is something so beautiful about remembering that, and using that as a guidepost.”

The ending to this story is sad, but it is also powerful and deserves to be seen. This is not Nahum Tate and we are not in the 19th century convinced we can “fix” Shakespeare’s work so that a tragedy becomes a happy ending. Today’s audiences, even our youngest adults, want the devastating emotional assault. Perhaps all of us should think about why that is a little more. As with many enormous ideas, it’s summed up rather perfectly in a line by Shakespeare, one he gave to Cordelia aptly enough Bard:

“We are not the first

Who, with best meaning,

have incurred the worst.”

All episodes of “We Were Liars,” with gorgeous costumes designed by Amanda Riley, are now available to stream on Amazon Prime.

MORE FROM FORBES

ForbesAll Hail Qveen Herby: A Conversation About Costume Versus ClothingBy Rachel Elspeth GrossForbesCreating Costumes For Teen True Love In Netflix’s ‘Forever’By Rachel Elspeth GrossForbes‘Dressed To Kill’: PBS’ ‘Human Footprint’ Examines Apparel And EvolutionBy Rachel Elspeth Gross