Over the past four years we’ve fallen hard for the characters of Euphoria. A raw, vivid take on our late teen years, the show leans into the difficult conversations, explores dark subject matters and exposes the grittiness of life.

And central to the show – and to defining those characters – has been the clothes. Enter Heidi Bivens. Euphoria’s costume designer has created pop culture moment after pop culture moment. From Maddy’s cut-out carnival pants and sheer winter formal fit to Cassie’s Alabama Whitman True Romance tribute and Kat’s hot as hell rebrand, complete with fishnets, tartan and corset, Bivens serves up looks on the reg.

The genius of her work has been brought together in a new book, Euphoria Fashion, a delicious, indulgent look at the iconic style of the show. There are deep dives into each of the central characters and insightful annotations of the fits, which show the level of detail and thought behind Bivens’ work. There are also smart essays around the history of trends, from tennis skirts to co-ords, and interviews with the likes of Zendaya, Hunter Schafer and Alexa Demie. It was made for those who love Euphoria, of course, but also for anyone obsessed with pop culture and the fashion that shapes it.

Before Euphoria, Bivens was the talent behind the iconic fashion of Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers and The Beach Bum, and Jonah Hill’s Mid90s. She’s also worked as a stylist, creating everything from editorials to advertisements, bridging the gap between fashion and film.

To celebrate the launch of Euphoria Fashion, Bivens will be joining us at FLANNELS X on the 27th of April for the first instalment of Inside Job, our new event series in partnership with THE FACE. Expect discussions around style, identity, and fashion’s role in pop culture, alongside an insider look at breaking into the industry, as she joins stylist Leah Abbott and Vogue Business senior trends editor Lucy Maguire, hosted by THE FACE’s digital director, Brooke McCord.

Inside Job is a brand-new series of URL and IRL events spotlighting rising industry voices at the intersection of fashion, culture, art and music. Designed to share knowledge and remove barriers to entry within the creative industries, the series will provide a new generation of fashion creatives and entrepreneurs with the tangible advice they need to level up on their own creative journey.

Ahead of the event, Bivens sat down with us to talk fashioning Euphoria, style, identity and what she hopes to be her legacy.

Sign up now via THE FACE to bag a spot and read on to get to know Heidi Bivens.

Style and identity are central to Euphoria. How did you begin shaping the costumes of the characters?

Casting has everything to do with it. When I first sign on to a project, if I’ve read the script and I have ideas about the look, whether it’s a show or a film, it can change completely once the cast is in place. I usually reserve making final decisions about what I plan on doing until I have cast. So once the cast came on and I knew who was going to play the characters, it was much easier for me to create the looks.

I was inspired by people I know in my life who have really interesting, individualistic styles. Then definitely on social media, looking at what was going on in fashion, but also knowing that fashion being cyclical… ‘90s was coming back and then comes Y2K. So, these decades in fashion, this time in streetstyle and fashion, how they can come back around again and how a new generation discovers what came before. Anticipating that that would happen made it easy for me to tap into the trends of those eras and update them in a way... Looking to the past was a big part of creating the characters and then also collaborating with the actors who are playing the roles; they definitely had a hand in developing who these characters are from the very first fitting. I gave them the opportunity to do that.

We heard Alexa Demie brought in mood boards for her character Maddy…

Barbie Ferreira also brought mood boards! And that’s always very welcomed from me. I always say they make me look better. I come with my ideas, but they all have really fantastic ideas about who their characters are, so that’s definitely one of the elements that contributed to the look of the show. I credit them, for sure.

What role do you think fashion plays in forming and communicating our identities to the world?

I think whether or not we acknowledge it to ourselves, we’re always defining ourselves and communicating to people through clothes. When we get dressed in the morning, what we decide to put on that given day, depending on who we’re going to see and what we’re going to do, these are all aspects of communicating who we are as people. We’re all sort of directors of our own stories and writing our own scripts for our own lives. I think beyond television and screen we’re all telling stories, all of the time.

The fashion in Euphoria is nostalgic and fantastical but it’s also real and relatable and taps into the zeitgeist. How did you approach this?

I think in retrospect I definitely saw a lot of people on social media styling themselves, putting fits and looks together that seemed like they were specifically for a photograph, maybe they don’t dress like that every day in their life. I think there’s been a lot of talk about that, right? Like this outward persona that people will project on social media but that doesn’t necessarily mirror their real life. I know there’s criticism of that but in a way that offers escapism for the people who are looking at the images, to be inspired, and the people who are creating the images. Before social media there wasn’t this kind of outlet and so I think there’s been more attention on personal style because of things like Instagram and TikTok.

I think staying grounded in some aspect of reality was important to me from the beginning, to not pull people out of the story, because that’s something I’ve always been aware of since I studied film in college… your goal is to keep people in the story… When you venture into world building, which essentially is what we were able to do on Euphoria… then the lines are blurred, right? And you have more room to make creative decisions that are riding the line of believability, with the hope that in the creating of worlds, you’re setting up the rules.

How much prep time do you have before a season starts?

I always wish we had more. It’s interesting because right now we’re gearing up for season three, I don’t even think it’s been announced… I do have this time now, so I could be thinking, and I could be planning, and I am in some ways, but I haven’t read the scripts yet… It’s like that thing about casting; until I read the scripts and until I know what’s happening it’s really hard to plan what the looks are going to be, especially because I think there will be a departure from second and first season with third season. I think third season, knowing Sam, is going to surprise people; it’s going to feel different; it’s not going to be the same.

We don’t like to pick favourites but what’s been your standout look from the show so far?

I’m really partial to Jules’s looks. Jules in particular. And I really love her New Year’s Eve look, which is in the first episode of the second season. I really love working with Jules as a character because she, probably out of all characters, has the least, what I call, ‘style rules.’ She’s the most adventurous, I would say.

One of the style rules I do have for her is that she has a love of layering. And most of her looks involve layering of some kind. I feel like with layering, especially when you’re using multiple designers or using vintage mixed with modern designers, you really have an opportunity to create something that feels new and different.

‘Remember this feeling’ was the tagline of season two of Euphoria. What part do clothes play in our memories and capturing a moment in youth for you?

I’ve been thinking about that a lot in doing press for the book and I think that I identify with almost all the characters in some way in terms of their aesthetics. I went through lots of phases as a young person with my style, being influenced by different subcultures and music and trends that were at happening at the time. I definitely went through a Rue phase, 100 per cent. And I definitely went through a Cassie phase; being super femme. I don’t think I was ever as provocative as Maddy, but maybe… And definitely Lexi. I definitely identity with her sort of more conservative style. I don’t know if I would have called myself a chameleon, but it probably wasn’t until my mid or late 20s that I really solidified and honed in on what I want my personal style to be, so I do relate a lot to this idea of youth and this time during high school and before that and after that – that whole time during a young person’s life when they’re defining who they are - and clothes are a tool for that. Working on this show has really reminded me of so many fun memories of my personal style when I was younger.

We’ve all had that Cassie moment, where she adopts multiple styles in the space of an episode…

[Laughs]. Probably like a lot of people, I have really distinct memories of very specific outfits I wore at very specific times in my life… And I talk about this in the book too, about picture day at school and how as a young person understanding how you were communicating with your clothes and this picture - each year when you take your school picture, this is part of your personal history. Even for my graduation, when you’re wearing the graduation robe so there’s limited amount of what you can do to communicate yourself… I remember I wore a pearl choker, three-strand, because I knew I didn’t have much real estate to communicate so I took up all the neck.

What role do you think TV has in shaping fashion today?

I think when everyone had the forced vacation and the pandemic hit us and we were all at home watching television and watching films and not being able to be out in the world like we were used to, I think that’s when there was this newfound opportunity for costume designers to make a mark with their work, with television specifically. Magazines weren’t coming out as readily… we weren’t out in the world, seeing people on the street - part of what I’m inspired by is what I see on the streets of New York - and so we weren’t having that constant inspiration. I think it definitely had something to do with the pandemic and people all of a sudden realising that there’s value in costumes in television and that they can move people, they can inspire people.

I think that the studios and all the streamers and all the entities that finance TV projects are now starting to understand the value more, which is really exciting for me. As a stylist I always got the respect from crew on a set… but I think with my experience in film and television – depending on who you’re working with because there are directors who really love costumes and nurture costumes and producers also – but for the most part it feels more of like a cog in the wheel and so many costume designers who’ve done amazing work over time have not received the recognition that I think they deserve.

The world of styling is incredibly saturated right now. What do you think is the secret to becoming a game-changing stylist and costume designer? And what do you think those trying to break into the industry need to do to stand out?

I talk a lot about gut; I think it’s really important to follow your gut. Be strategic about who you want to align yourself with and to find your collaborators. I think it’s really important to create opportunities rather than wait for things to happen… I think that this idea of planting seeds is really important. Take as many meetings as you can... And just trusting that whatever energy you’re putting in to building your career will pay off, and not to be discouraged and to preserve. And to be able to multi-task is a big one… And to say yes as much as possible, especially early on when you have the energy, is so key. Say yes when you’re young! Just do, do it all. Do as much as you can.

What do you hope to be your legacy with Euphoria and beyond?

I always hope that there’s some kind of visual thread that runs through the work. The hope is that when you’ve wrapped a job and it’s put out in the world that people who don’t know that you’ve worked on that will see it and think ‘this feels like Heidi’s work’… And I’d really like to continue to champion costume designers work and advocate for that and for more exposure and more celebration of that. I’ve talked a lot about how one of the things that excited me the most about doing this book was the idea that it could lead to other books for other designers, so that’s really exciting to me. When I first started out in my career, styling and costumes were very different. The industries were very sperate. The artists involved in both industries were very sperate. There wasn’t a lot of crossovers and I also hope that because of the work I’ve done in both industries, that people do see that there’s this bridge. I wasn’t the first person to do that, one of my mentors Arianne Phillips really paved the way for me and set a precedent there.