Throughout the film, costume designer Mitchell Travers offers a stylish streetwear vision while balancing the physical challenges and scale of this genre.

It’s really gorgeous,” says Travers.

Just shy of two years to this date in May, Travers joined Vulture on Zoom to chat about a movie he says “was definitely designed to be big and loud and seen with a bunch of people you don’t know” and he hopes audiences will see it at the movie theater “when they feel ready.” Luckily, it’s coming out under very different circumstances and with a new administration than its original release date, which shifts the perspective.

Travers was not only aware of how beloved this musical is, but also counted himself as a fan of the show and its costume designer, Paul Tazewell (who also designed Hamilton).

“I wanted the costumes of the film to have a little bit of reverence for the original Broadway aesthetic, but I also wanted to pull it into our current climate,” says Travers about visualizing the material through a contemporary 2019 lens.

Rather than worry about delivering timeless looks, Travers would rather “tell the story of what it was like to be us,” and if a stage production was made today “it would be different than when I was doing it two years ago.”.

“Talk about pressure, you’re gonna fit Lin for his musical,” Travers says about working alongside Miranda — whom he describes as giving him “the freedom to make it something else and something new.” The designer spoke of Miranda’s excitement during the fitting-room process, whose Piragua Guy costume is infused with references to Miranda’s grandfather.

“A costume design 101 is you shouldn’t do that.

People are singing and dancing en mass.” Finding the balance between the two was important, “I needed it to have some sort of relevance for a streetwear perspective so that it did feel current and it did feel exciting,” says Travers.

“It did feel like these people that I was seeing on the sidewalks.” Starting his research in the neighborhood he resided in for seven years, Travers didn’t have to approach the landscape as an outsider.

The designer approves every costume that goes on camera and is “big on dressing for the face.” Expanding on this, he explains, “We might have a costume that fits, but would this person really wear this.

This adaptation has added a romantic dynamic between Daniela and Carla, which Travers incorporated in costumes he envisioned Carla had borrowed from Daniela’s closet — “maybe it was a windbreaker she had from 20 years ago; now it’s vintage to  Carla.” One reference point for the salon owner, he says, is Sex and the City designer Patricia Field.

“We took a light inspiration from Pat herself, just in terms of that risk-taking and the combinations of high and low.” Daniela’s powerhouse status includes a nod to Rosie the Riveter for her biggest musical number and Travers also points out that while this character’s wide-leg leopard print pants felt like a risky move at the time, “of course, now, fashion is all about the big pant.”.

I had such fun as a costume designer getting to express a similar idea through three very different sets of eyes.”.

“I initially spoke with Jon about it because we’ve seen the girl who wants to be a fashion designer so many times,” recalls Travers.

“I want it to feel like echoes,” Chu instructed, and Travers pulled away the color to capture this feeling.

And so for me, it was like a protest against what it means to be locked into one idea,” says Travers.

We all got it.” Travers goes on to add, “To feel that energy and passion coming from this room of people just literally leaving it all on the floor — blood, sweat, tears