How The Muppet Show Turned Kermit, Piggy & Co. Into Style Icons
March 4, 2021 7:18 AM   Subscribe

Vulture interviews Polly Smith, costume designer on the Muppet Show and other Henson productions. Includes: getting the right size buttons, what a frog needs in a tuxedo, crocheting tiny rat gloves, and the perils of dressing the world's most glamorous pig.

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posted by Hypatia (24 comments total) 30 users marked this as a favorite
 
I can barely sew a hem, but I'm endlessly fascinated by these kinds of looks into costuming. Thanks for posting!

I love her descriptions of what it was like to dress the various Muppets - Kermit is like dressing a football, Dr. Teeth like a hoopskirt with a costume on it, heh.

Also, fascinating that she helped create the first sportsbra. What a multitalented woman!
posted by the primroses were over at 7:49 AM on March 4, 2021 [2 favorites]


"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S A SIZE 20!? Hiiiii-YAH!"
posted by loquacious at 8:05 AM on March 4, 2021 [9 favorites]


This feels like an appropriate place to share this adorable human fanart version of Kermit and Miss Piggy.
posted by foxfirefey at 8:12 AM on March 4, 2021 [9 favorites]


I haven't finished reading the article, because it looks like the kind of deep dive that I want to spend extra time reading and following all the links, but the callout to "dressing the world's most glamorous pig" reminded me of this Miss Piggy calendar I had growing up, which wasn't just a fun look at fashion, it probably was my first introduction to media angles.
posted by Mchelly at 8:51 AM on March 4, 2021 [2 favorites]


This feels like an appropriate place to share this adorable human fanart version of Kermit and Miss Piggy.

a) created by an adorable human;

b) Kermit and Miss Piggy as adorable humans; or

c) all of the above?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:54 AM on March 4, 2021


The interwebs have helpfully tracked her look through the years, including the terrifying hollow-eyed pig in the Sex and Violence pilot.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:01 AM on March 4, 2021 [10 favorites]


Mupets and costuming? This is like designer catnip for me!

Still, she remembers those early years working with Henson fondly. “He was just a fabulous boss who really brought the best out of all of us,” she says.

As much as, or even more than, anything else, this was the real genius of Henson - he could see what other people were capable of (sometimes more than they imagined themselves) and how to gently nudge them into doing it. It was two years between when he first tried to hire a teenage Frank Oz and when he finally accepted (he wanted to be a journalist; can you imagine the waste to the world?) He might never have taken up directing if Jim hadn't said out of the blue one day, "I think you should direct this one." Dave Goelz worked in the shop building puppets, and had no intention of performing, but Jim kept at him. Walt Disney had the same sort of instinct about people. Henson's friends called it "whims of steel."

“My friends were spending their time at sportswear trade shows,” she says. “While I was in London measuring David Bowie’s inseam.”

If I could say that, I'd have it put on my damn tombstone.

She worried about the effect an unfinished hem could have on a young fan. “In their mind, especially kids, the minute they look in the Muppets’ eyes they think they’re talking to a real thing,” she says.

Not just kids! You see it in old videos of personal appearances all the time. Jim's sitting there in full view with Kermit on his arm, his mouth moving, and all eyes are on the frog. We know that it's probably magic.

In fact, for 2011’s The Muppets, Brooks Brothers gifted him his first new tuxedo since 1979.

I guess Brooks Brothers really IS the label for short men!

Still, she was able to make some iconic looks for the argyle sweater vest–wearing Muppet. “To this day, I still see him and think, ‘Oh my gosh, that shirt’s gotta be 30 years old!’” she says. “I guess he takes good care of his stuff.”

Totally in character for Gonzo! Can you imagine him throwing anything out, ever?

Her old-Hollywood style is why Smith believes Piggy’s puppeteer Frank Oz never trusted her to dress the stylish swine. When Hendrickson left the show in its final season, costume designer Barbara Davis took on the role of Piggy’s dresser. “Barbara had the makeup and hair done up and Frank Oz sort of fed off of that,” she says.

I've always said Piggy was Frank's drag persona.

Piggy’s style has evolved over the decades to become more in vogue — and literally, in Vogue — but Smith is partial to her early look. “Back then, she was in her own fantasy world and I think she should have stayed there,” she says. “They’ve tried to change her into Jennifer Aniston. She’s just a movie star of this day and that’s just not quite as silly.”

Yeah, that's about it in a nutshell.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:09 AM on March 4, 2021 [15 favorites]


Totally in character for Gonzo! Can you imagine him throwing anything out, ever?

OK, less than an hour after I wrote this, I saw a Muppet Show bit where Gonzo was still wearing the tuxedo from his old magic act.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:53 AM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


This is only slightly costume-related, but I’m so happy that the Disney+ streamed episodes contain the English music hall numbers that were originally intended for UK audiences with fewer commercial breaks, including Fozzie’s Pearly King suit.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:18 AM on March 4, 2021 [5 favorites]


The interwebs have helpfully tracked her look through the years

Ah! that's why Miss Piggy in the The Muppet Show S1 episodes that we're working through at the moment looks so strangely off-brand.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:22 AM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


Ah! that's why Miss Piggy in the The Muppet Show S1 episodes that we're working through at the moment looks so strangely off-brand.

And is played by two different performers, sometimes in the same episode!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:55 AM on March 4, 2021 [4 favorites]


^Sounds off-brand, sometimes, as well: "During the first season, [Richard Hunt] shared the role of Miss Piggy with Frank Oz".
(We had a deal, Kyle, we're in the first season, too. In last night's Vincent Price episode, Kermit ditched the aubergine tux he wears in the panel discussions meant to "raise the intellectual level" of the show, and I missed it!)
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:56 AM on March 4, 2021 [3 favorites]


Buy me a coke, The Underpants Monster.
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:56 AM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


And is played by two different performers, sometimes in the same episode!

One of my top 3 favorite Muppet Show moments is the Muppet Glee Club singing "Temptation." I show it to my choir every year, for hinting purposes. It is, I believe, the first moment when Miss Piggy decides that she is into Kermit. And yet it's so weird with the two different voices.
posted by Melismata at 12:27 PM on March 4, 2021 [6 favorites]


This was so much fun. My favorite quote:
[Kermit] looks brilliant in eveningwear,” she says. “Black and white and green, you can’t get any better than that.”
posted by Emmy Rae at 3:38 PM on March 4, 2021 [2 favorites]


We should do the Muppet Show on Fanfare. The only reason I haven’t posted one yet is I’m not watching them in any kind of order.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:17 PM on March 4, 2021 [4 favorites]


Yes we should! I'm finding S1 interesting in particular as it's such a odd mixture of stuff they got right from the start vs. stuff they'd drop or change in the later seasons -- which are clearly the ones I remember better. (Also: more weird Muppet body horror than I remember. A lot more.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 6:53 PM on March 4, 2021 [3 favorites]


Smith is partial to her early look. “Back then, she was in her own fantasy world and I think she should have stayed there,” she says. “They’ve tried to change her into Jennifer Aniston. She’s just a movie star of this day and that’s just not quite as silly.”

Like, when does she mean by "early"? It sounds here like she means pre-2000s. But Piggy was changing up her looks as far back as The Muppet Show, sometimes pretty radically.
posted by rednikki at 8:46 PM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


clicking on the jabberwocky link in the vulture article led youtube to suggest this to me, and now my day is about 1000% better.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 8:56 PM on March 4, 2021 [3 favorites]


Kermit singing Once in a Lifetime in a big suit. You're welcome
posted by thatwhichfalls at 7:29 AM on March 5, 2021 [1 favorite]


I was able to watch a lowish fi vid of the Alice episode on daliymotion. There’s a part where the band sings a medley of “happy” themed songs to cheer up Fozzie, who has inexplicably selected a Tin Woodsman costume for Alice in Wonderland. Maybe that’s the licensing issue?
posted by freecellwizard at 9:02 AM on March 5, 2021 [2 favorites]


Yeah, the problem is that they sing "We're Off to See the Wizard," and Warner Bros. holds on to the 1938 movie with a death grip.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:59 AM on March 6, 2021


Henson's friends called it "whims of steel."

Huh. Totally different field, yet eerily descriptive of my own boss. It's a pretty unique skillset to observe from the outside.

We've been rewatching the Muppet movies (just finished Treasure Island) and it's striking how good the costuming is on the rats, even though aside from Rizzo, they mostly serve as extras. Didn't notice that tiny crocheting detail though. Impressive work!
posted by deludingmyself at 9:42 AM on March 6, 2021 [1 favorite]


With characters as small as the rats, I’ve often wondered if the costumes were removable or if they were sewn into them. After reading the article and realizing how detailed the work they did was, I’m starting to believe they were probably removable, separate little garments, which is absolutely charming .
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:52 PM on March 6, 2021 [1 favorite]


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