“Power Book II: Ghost” Costume Designer Talks Working With Mary J. Blige and Michael Rainey Jr., and Shares Why Shoes Matter in Storytelling
“Power Book II: Ghost” is in its fourth and final season, and since the start of the “Power” spinoff series, each character has developed their own style that was specifically crafted for them, down to their footwear. Costume Designer Frank Fleming spoke to FN about his work on the franchise for the past 10 years and emphasized the importance of shoes when it comes storytelling and character building, especially for characters like Tariq St. Patrick (Michael Rainey Jr.), Monet Tejada (Mary J. Blige) and Brayden Weston (Gianni Paolo).
Fleming noted the significance of footwear in storytelling, detailing how the characters’ shoe choices reflect their personalities and actions. “I am a believer that head to toe tells a story, and that in order to be in character, you need to feel it from the ground up,” Fleming said to FN. “So shoes are important. The footwear has been important for us.”
Fleming, who has been a key figure in the “Power” universe, discussed his journey from costume designer to creative producer over the past 10 years and the challenges of maintaining a consistent vision amidst franchise growth. He emphasized the importance of authenticity when it comes to character design, and how his close relationship to the stars like Blige and Rainey has informed his wardrobe choices for them on the show. Aspects of his work are married with each of the actors’ personal styles and stories, like the “Be Without You” singer who often wears boots for a personal reason that is grounded in being comfortable, so her character Monet is almost always in a pair of thigh high boots.
Fans of the show tune in each week to watch the action and drama unfold, but also to see what each actor is wearing. There are Instagram pages, like @Powerstarz_style, that are dedicated to identifying the designers for items featured on the show. While they have worn Louis Vuitton, Amiri, Dior, Fear of God, Chloé, Thom Browne, Loewe, and more, the costume designer shared insights into the practicalities and difficulties that come with acquiring designer clothing for the show, often relying on strong relationships rather than direct brand support.
Fleming worked on the original “Power” series, which debuted over a decade ago. During his conversation with FN, he shared his vision for the characters and expressed his pride in contributing to the franchise’s legacy and the impact he and his team has had on viewers.
Can you talk a little bit about how your experience has been working in the Power universe and with the people and the stars that have come out of it?
I started with the original franchise, “Power,” coming from network television. One of the things about network television, and I get it, it’s part of the routine, it’s the way it’s structured. It is just that so much of the design process is managed by other people. It’s not just one voice. So too many cooks in the kitchen tend to obviously make the soup a little bit more watered down. It’s not necessarily a clear and concise vision.
So walking into my meeting with Courtney [Kemp] and Anthony Hemingway at the time, who was directing the first episode, it was super important for me to communicate that I’m a collaborator, but it’s important for you to have trust in me and my vision. One of the things that was most important to me at that time, 10 years ago, was the representation of us, people of color, on screen in a way that is positive, and in worlds that oftentimes we show up but are not seen. That was well received and supported.
In terms of creating a space for myself and the franchise, it’s been a great one, because it’s been super supportive and it’s given me a great deal of autonomy, and the freedom to move from being just a costume designer, to being a creative producer establishing the looks for all of the series across the universe.
And they’re all so different, too.
They all are different. It’s sort of challenging when you’ve been a part of the universe for 10 years, and there’s so many characters that have come across your desk, and the process creatively to create them, it’s sometimes hard to talk about as a designer. My philosophy and goal is to be as realistic in the moment as possible, and telling a truth in a space where relevant. Whether it’s “Power,” whether it’s “Raising Kanan,” whether it’s “Ghost,” there’s a lot of truth in each of the characters that you see.
I’ve seen people on X/Twitter, say, “Oh, how do they all wear designer clothes?” I’m like, Yeah, give a 20 year old from New York some money. They are going to dress well. People from Queens, Harlem, everybody has their own style. And you’ve also done such a good job with each character, like Effie dresses way different than Diana. Brayden dresses way different than Tariq. How have you been able to give them their own personality through their clothes?
Well, if we want to just talk about trying to be as true in the spirit of people of color, when we are in different rooms and we have access to different things, when we have money, it’s just a given. So you look at “Power” and the classiness of James St. Patrick, whose desire was to ultimately leave the world of drugs. The goal was to show up as a legitimate businessman. And you know where that wardrobe is placed, in terms of the suits, whether they were custom, whether they were Tom Ford. The idea that Tasha would be able to shop at Bergdorf, the idea is this is their lifestyle. This is what is available to them via their economics. We try to stay true to that world by representing what that means.
Six years later you move into “Ghost,” and it’s the same story in terms of socioeconomic. Money moving through the hands of these kids and where they are and where we are today. The idea is that they have accessibility through the through the amount of money that they have access to. Now, Tariq, clearly, there’s an ode to the classic quality of his dad, and that’s one of the things that I struggle with when I’m not designing the show and when, for me, it’s very easy to see what that is. It’s very easy for me to see what those lines are. It’s very clear about having something that is a nice fabric, that’s luxurious, but the simplicity brings attention to him and flatters him, but is not ostentatious and in your face, like his father.
Because he’s a college student at the end of the day.
Yes, for sure, but there’s definitely the desire to reference the fact that he is still connected to his dad. Even in the sensibilities of things that you pick up that you’re unaware of. Brayden, obviously there’s an ode, and a reference to the non-colored friend who spends a lot of time around his friends of color. So there’s the element, especially as the character develops, that there’s more and more each season where he’s more rooted in the street and in the culture versus where he started.
Which is different from Tommy.
Very different from Tommy. Tommy was about action utility, always being prepared for something to pop off. I always say that each of these characters, in some respect, is a bit of me, a bit of my personality. And so it’s not hard for me to see them. It may be hard for me to describe them, but it’s easy for me to see them. Tommy in particular will probably be the person that’s closest to me. So that was a little bit more difficult to describe. But the goal was to make it an interesting, dynamic character who has access in a different way and a point of view that wasn’t necessarily widely known, but that said, it was very functional and practical.
The girls, moving into Diana and Effie. When we first talked about who Effie should be so much of that is that girl who has a bit of the tomboy quality in her. Obviously that is, thematically, the core of who she is. As each episode is written and the story shifts and changes there are places where you will see her be let’s just say more feminine or more sexualized in a different way. Whereas Diana is truly meant to be a younger version of her mom. It’s Monet, it is guided by the eye, but not necessarily the economics. In terms of Effie, for a moment, the reference was sort of Lori Harvey’s Tomboy quality. There’s a tomboy sexiness to her, which is the goal.
At this point of this franchise, especially with Michael coming from the original “Power,” he has become his own star, and people are watching what he’s wearing, he’s at Fashion Week. Has his change in style been affected by anything you’ve done in the shows as the seasons have gone on?
I mean Michael was a kid, I’ve watched him grow up into a teenager and into a man. I think he learned to appreciate and develop an eye for fashion through the show. I’m not going to say it’s uniquely [because of] me, but I’m just going to say that he began to understand the importance of it. I think he developed his own sort of sense of taste and style, which, interestingly enough, he does as an adult now mirror certain fundamentals of Tariq. Other than jewelry, Michael is like, in his personal light, there’s a simplicity to his understanding style.
Oftentimes we used to have a conversation with Naturi [Naughton] because Naturi was like, “I like brights. I like this, I like that.” The more seasoned she became, and the more press that she did, she began to understand. She was like, “I thought about you when I was getting dressed. And you’re right, less is more. It is not always, more is better.”
Designing the show, I wanted to create strong characters. I want the clothes to help convey the story. I don’t want it to overwhelm the story. But there are times through the process over the years, where you are not involved, and that sort of moves a little bit away from the brand. I get it, everyone gets excited. They come into the show like, “Oh my god, we have access. We can go buy designer clothes but that necessarily wasn’t my motivation in designing the show.
It wasn’t about just having access or the ability to buy designer clothes. It was really trying to tell a true story of where these kids would show up and why in certain situations. One of the things we’ve always said is yes, someone can be wearing designer clothes. Oftentimes in the latter seasons, it became much more visible, because I think a lot more brands were outwardly branding themselves. But if you’re gonna kill someone, you’re not going to want to have the Givenchy logo on the back of the jacket or the shirt, because, obviously it makes you recognizable. The teams that I work with most closely have always tried to balance the fact that people respond to the show for its fashion. They want to see it. They want to be inspired by it, but trying to also keep it to the story.
But as a fan, you know if Tariq and Brayden are wearing head to toe black, we’re gonna have a crazy episode ahead of us. It kind of sets the tone. You already know, like, “Oh, they’re in their Ghost and Tommy mode.”
They’re in their kill outfits, yes.
They are getting burned, for sure. When you talk about pulling these pieces and buying clothes, how was your experience working with designers and having that access when the first show started, as compared to now?
Believe it or not, the show’s never necessarily ever been given the support in terms of people lending clothing, or opening the showroom to us in that respect. We’ve always tried to figure out a way, and we’ve had really great producers to support it. Understanding like “Sex and City,” like the clothing and the world that you create has helped drive the story. So we bought a lot of things, but we do have great relationships. I have great relationships with a lot of the major designers in the city, which allows me the flexibility in terms of having it out for fittings before we purchase it. I can take seven fur coats from Louis Vuitton for Mary and “Okay, my fitting’s in a week, two weeks. Is it okay if I have these out?” and then we’ll purchase the one that we keep. For me, I’ve been doing this for 30 years, I always stress with my teams that it’s important to do business well and keep strong relationships with designers. But I think it’s been pretty supportive.
They should be throwing clothes your way.
No one’s doing that these days. I just finished this Pharrell film “Atlantis,” and walking into it, they were like, “Louis Vuitton, you can have anything you want. We can make it in two weeks.” Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and so. And it’s a period film. And I was like, “Okay, well, we don’t really have time.” I just know from my experiences, like, yeah, I appreciate the offer, but it’s never going to happen. I know how this works. And we had Anderson .Paak as one of the characters. I was like, “Well, maybe Louis can make something for him that works in the 70s.” And of course, got on all these calls, then it was like, “Well, you can choose from the current collection.” I was like, “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
And even Pharrell was like, “Well, I thought I could.” I was like, “Yeah, no, you’re, you’re a man for hire just like everybody else.” That’s just not how it works. So unless you are probably in a Ryan Murphy franchise, or the “Emily and Paris” franchise, for us, it’s definitely a challenge in color. People of color just don’t get it.
The shoes also are such a great aspect of this show. New York is also a character in “Power,” and the sense of style in New York is so specific and so unique compared to the rest of the world. A lot of the series takes place in the winter, so we see a lot of boots, a lot of sneakers, like Monet with her boots, which is also very Mary J. Blige. Can you talk about the shoe choices that you have so far?
I am a believer that head to toe tells a story, and that in order to be in character, you need to feel it from the ground up. Oftentimes with television, in particular, your shots, when it’s edited, are very tight. They’re very close. We’re going in for a two-shot. It’s tight. So a lot of people don’t focus on footwear. They’re like, “It doesn’t matter. We’re not going to see the feet.” But I’m a firm believer that a man in a suit, it’s the proper dress shoe, or a woman in a suit or a skirt, it’s like, OK, your feet might be off camera, but you put a slipper on under that desk is going to give you a completely different body language and tone to you being fully suited.
Your walk is going to be different, and your posture is going to be different.
All of that is so important. So shoes are important. The footwear has been important for us. I think in the beginning of the show, there was probably a lot more attention, in the first two seasons with Tariq in particular. It was a variety of shoes, like a Givenchy boot. Shoe choice was a complete derivative to outfit choice as opposed to later seasons, where, again, I think reflecting a little bit of the more cultural shift and following cultural norms, where, you know, the boys are a lot in Jordans, each having their own sort of style.
Tariq was a Jordan 4 or Jordan 1. You start at Jordan 1, then went to Jordan 4 with a little bit of like, Maison Mihara Yasuhiro in there. It became a little bit more practical, because it was a little bit more action driven, a lot more running and doing those things. Monet is Mary. Boots are the most comfortable thing for her. Thus the Mary legend of the boot is really rooted in her comfort level. It’s a look, but it really is more comfortable to her than most things, if she’s not wearing a sneaker or a slipper.
That’s so interesting.
So much of that character, when it was created, is based off of someone that she knew. It’s a world that she circulated. So when there is that similarity between the gray lines, between Mary and Monet, there is a little bit of that person, MJB and Monet, so it’s not a surprise for me that I have to integrate the two. We have a great relationship. She has a great deal of trust with me, and sometimes trying to move her away from Mary and more into Monet and challenging her with different silhouettes that are not necessarily where she would land instinctually, but again, finding footwear for her that was comfortable is a huge part of her character tissue.
She loved Paris Texas boots when we introduced them like, “These are really comfortable.” But she wore Bottega, LV, there’s a range, but a lot of it is geared towards completing that character more so than acquiescing to the environment of [her being] outside. Her movements, for the most part, until the last season, were pretty contained. This last season, she’s a little bit more aggressive and a little bit more action driven, right? So then the heel just gets a little thicker and a little less dainty.
You’ve been there since the beginning, what has been the most rewarding part of working on this franchise for you?
I think it’s to have been a part of a project that I think will have a legacy. I’m very much a person that is more likely to fade into the background than to be trying to do a bunch of press. But I helped be a part of shaping and creating a world that people have bought into for 10 years and believe in. The costume department has contributed a great deal to the success of the show. And it’s quietly a very proud moment.
“Power Book II: Ghost” airs on Starz, on Fridays at 8 p.m.