How to Dress Like You’re in 'Daisy Jones & the Six,' According to the Costume Designer

Watch out, everyone, because Daisy Jones & The Six is about to take over your life—and your look. There’s a lot to love about Daisy Jones & The Six, and fans will no doubt find that they want to be sucked into the luxe Laurel Canyon universe of the show. Some TikTokkers already have, posting outfit inspo clips based on Reid’s book and the trailer for the series. For some firsthand advice on that, though, there’s no better source than the show’s costume designer, Denise Wingate. A former Sunset Strip fashion fixture who once toured with and outfitted The Bangles, Wingate has worked on everything from Cruel Intentions to He’s All That.

Below, Byrdie spoke to her about how she styled the show and how fans can find their own Daisy look.

You have a background in rock ‘n’ roll. How did you find your way to this project?

Denise Wingate: I grew up in the valley and was sneaking out of the house at a very young age with a fake ID so I could go to clubs. I really got into the punk and New Wave scene, especially in the ‘80s.

To tell you the truth, I don't know how I hooked up with The Bangles, but somebody introduced me and said, “You should go on tour with them. They need a stylist.” I was 22 or something, so I said, “Sure. Sounds like fun.”  I did that for a year, and it was fun. I got to see the world. The only reason I stopped traveling with them is because they broke up.

[Flash forward to 2019 and] I was in New Orleans doing a Russell Crowe movie. It was Hurricane Barry and we couldn't leave the hotel. Daisy Jones’ producer had sent me the book, so I read it and I'm telling you: I had a bottle of wine, there was no electricity, and I read it in one sitting. I didn't even have an interview for the show, but I started doing a visual representation of the book. So I made my own book based on the novel. I did this whole entire presentation of visuals and then bound it together.

I had tried to keep it very real and very authentic. I tried to use real photographs of real people. I didn't want the show to look costume-y. I wanted it to look real, like you were watching a documentary about a band.

How did you picture Daisy Jones’ style?

Riley told me, “I don't want to be Stevie Nicks. This is not a biopic of Fleetwood Mac.” Stevie Nicks is super cool, and she had some great style but it's not like we were ever going to do the top hat and the flowy scarves. Riley wanted Daisy to be Daisy, not Stevie. We did eventually take some inspiration, like from Stevie’s big platform boots, which I loved, but they were hard for Riley to dance in, so we didn’t use them all that much.

We started Daisy off looking like early Linda Ronstadt from the '70s, in cut-off shorts and cowboy boots and little halter tops. She was awesome. I also pulled from Cher when she was with Gregg Allman, because she had great looks then. There were so many different inspirations during that time, because there were so groundbreaking women. They were ball busters. I love that group.

You’ve got to cover a lot of ground on the looks, considering we meet everyone in the ‘60s and by the end of the story it’s the late ‘70s.

In the book, we start out in Pittsburgh and it's the late '60s. That was a whole different style because you were still coming out of the ‘50s, especially in Pittsburgh where it was a little more conservative. They hadn't caught up. In the show, you get to see the band’s style be a little mod, then there’s some Byrds influence, and then there’s some psychedelic aspects pulled in from when Karen (Suki Waterhouse) is in her original band.

The inspiration for Karen was a lot of Patti Smith, Suzi Quattro, Chrissy Hynde, Marc Bolan from T. Rex, that kind of glam. Karen has an androgynous look, and Suki can carry and wear really cool suits and jackets and vests and shoes. Everything looks great on her.

How did you crack Daisy’s look for the big finale concert at Soldier Field?

The finale outfit was something that, because we had thousands of changes in the show, we were having fittings all the time. Every time Riley would come in for a fitting, we’d try a bunch of stuff on her. We'd have racks of clothes, because she had so many looks and there were a lot of montages. Then she'd say, “What are we going to do for the finale?,” and I'd be like, “I don't know, this is what I'm thinking.” Then we would come up with ideas or maybe I would make something and we'd be like, “It's great, but not for the finale, so we’d use it for one of the other concerts.”

Then one day, Riley was driving and she called me and said, “I'm listening to [Fleetwood Mac’s] ‘Gold Dust Woman.’ I think the finale theme should be 'Gold Dust Woman.'” I was like, “Okay, that’s a great start.” So we knew we were going to go with gold, and then we found this cape. Well, it was a caftan. It wasn't a cape. It was this Halston gold lamé pleated caftan dress, which we tried as a dress, but it looked pretty terrible. Riley said, “Let's just cut it down the middle and make it into a cape.” It was really expensive, but I cut it with the scissors and it looked great. Then, I grabbed this gold lamé 1920s or '30s macramé dress and put it on underneath. It was just amazing. She got on stage and we were shooting in New Orleans and the weather was hot. There was a storm coming in. She lifted her arms, and the lights hit her outfit and everybody gasped.

You never know how it's going to work but it just ended up being perfect. Sometimes I look at my work on screen and think, “Maybe I would have done something different,” or “I don't know if I should have done that.” This look was perfect. It’s just a great way to end the series.

I admire the way the band’s fashion progresses through the series, not just because of the time shift but because you can tell when they get a little money and get a little fame, they start dressing a little nicer. It’s a whole thing.

I really kept it grounded in the first block of the show, and then when they really go out on their first big tour it gets a little more luxe. I was finding great authentic pieces for the guys like these leather jackets from the '70s that are really hard to find by East West and Gandalf The Wizard. These people were making rock and roll pieces that are now collector's items. Every time I would find a piece like that, it was so expensive that I’d have to tell the actor, “Here's your rock star jacket.”

You can really see how over the top it gets with Warren {Sebastian Chacon) when the band plays Saturday Night Live and he's wearing this full-length fox fur coat. There's levels of opulence and they all become a little bit grander, except for Billy who doesn't change. He's tried and true. He wears denim, but when he gets more money it gets a little darker—and he gets a nice leather jacket.

I didn't want to make it look like The Six was coming off of a runway or something. I saw Rocketman, which I loved and Elton John was certainly outrageous, but I remember a party scene in Laurel Canyon in that movie where I was watching it and some girl in the scene had a hat, sunglasses, and she was carrying a purse. It looked like she was going to a ‘70s costume party. It looked so done. I felt like these people just needed to be real, like all the clothes were aged and lived in.

Also, in the ‘70s, they wore vintage stuff. They bought stuff at thrift stores. A lot of the stuff I used on Riley was from the ‘20s and ‘30s. She has this Japanese robe that was from the 1920s. That stuff was all really fragile. Not everything was new at the time, though. They didn't buy new stuff because they didn't have money.

How did you style Simone (Nabiyah Be)? She really goes from kind of a girl group backup singer to a disco diva.

That was a whole other rabbit hole. Every character had a specific style board, and for Simone, there were so many strong women of that era, like Chaka Khan, Donna Summer, and Gloria Gaynor. All those people had some really great outfits. I actually made an outfit for Simone that was based on a Chaka Khan look where she has a white leather halter top and pants with beads and feathers hanging from it. It's phenomenal. My seamstress knocked it out of the park.

Also, I'm a club kid, but I wasn't a disco kid, so that was a whole other world to do a deep dive on. The whole underground New York LGBTQ  scene… that was a really interesting time because everyone was still kind of hidden. I did a lot of research and anytime I was doing the research, I blared the music, so I got into all these Sirius stations for different genres.

Let’s say I want to put together my own Daisy Jones-inspired look. How would you recommend I go about doing that?

I’ve been a thrift store shopper my whole life. Sustainable fashion has been part of me forever. So I’d recommend going to thrift stores. No matter where you are, every single town has a Goodwill or a Salvation Army, and I’d recommend finding stuff and repurposing and making it your own.

Daisy has some great coats, but I also really like that whole cut off jean/cowboy boots style. People don't wear cowboy boots anymore. They're a little passé, but I think cowboy boots should come back.

For guys, I love flared hip hugger jeans with a cool pair of boots and a really tight t-shirt. Throw on a leather jacket and a big belt buckle and there’s nothing sexier.