Meet Me at Crafty

Welcome to the wild and wonderful era of Emmy Awards: Phase 1, a time before nomination voting when the arbitrary rules governing what is timely are set aside, and we can discuss projects that were released weeks or months earlier and deserve to be top of mind again. Another Simple Favor premiered on Prime Video May 1, 2025.

“It was like, OK, are we ridiculous or are we fabulous? How far have we gone?” costume designer Renee Ehrlich Kalfus says of her work on Another Simple Favor. “And somehow it stayed ridiculous and grounded, right?”

If director Paul Feig’s first movie about murderous frenemies Emily (Blake Lively) and Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) is one of the ultimate examples of how style can become substance—what could be more character-specific than Lively’s sociopathic Emily twirling in a ’50s-esque housedress with a giant knife, garnishing a martini?—then his sequel had a lot to live up to. And Kalfus too, for that matter.

 “Knowing Paul and Paul’s work, I said, ‘Are we gonna go for this? What’s our approach here?’” Kalfus says of her initial conversations with Feig about A Simple Favor. “And he goes, ‘Oh, let’s entertain.’” That first movie and Feig’s maximalist approach allowed Kalfus the chance to do something with costumes that she’d always wanted: “make them a character within the story, such as when [Emily] comes into the room and she takes off her jacket and there’s a—surprise!—dickie and tearaway cuffs [beneath].”

Feig and Kalfus formed a bond on the first film that extended to several more films (including 2024’s delightful Jackpot!, in which Kalfus put John Cena in a three-piece suit that frankly redefined three-piece suits and John Cena), so Feig put complete trust in Kalfus for the fashion-heavy sequel. Was there anything she was surprised that he approved?

 “I was more worried than anybody to tell you the truth,” she says. “I was worried about how over the top I was! But it was also really freeing to push those boundaries because it was the appropriate time to do it: You’re invited to a mob wedding in Capri. It was just an opportunity to bring all those characters out.”

Among Kalfus’ biggest swings was Emily’s outrageous gangster outfit on the private jet to Capri, followed immediately by her Italian socialite cosplay upon landing. But she also looked beyond the script for references, including a casual pants and button-down combo for Emily that references both Cary Grant and Lauren Bacall.

 “Lauren Bacall is on every board I’ve ever done, practically,” Kalfus says. “And then [Grant] is as well, because I reference him for men forever. I referenced her for those ‘40s trousers that we made. They were just gigantic, I don’t know how many pleats and how much fabric went into each one. And of course, [Lively] can pull it off. Anytime there’s a chance as a designer to reference things that go to the heart of any movie buff… even if they don’t know it, they know it.”

There was also plenty that movie buffs have never seen before, including Emily’s latex wedding gown with a mammoth train that ends in a blood-red hem. “ The size of the skirt of the wedding dress, it took a whole trailer to just house it,” Kalfus says. “The length of the veil was, like, blocks long. The silhouettes, the hat, the ways in which we fooled with [size], it’s almost like [Emily] took up all the space of the frame. This scale was so much fun.”

The film’s scale extended beyond the women’s costumes.  Kalfus and her team ended up taking a chunk of the budget and manufacturing all of the extras’ suits and tuxedos. “You have Michele Morrone walk in and he’s, what, 6’5” and perfect,” Kalfus says. “And we were able to access all of Dolce and Gabbana. And we had 300 suits made in the most amazing fabric, and of course, they were custom fit.

 “All these men are really pretty stunning, as are the women,” Kalfus says. “This is the thing with Paul, it’s like OK, let’s get the prettiest people, the most talented, and put them all together and have some fun. So it adds to this element of, ‘Oh my God, I wanna watch it. I wanna be it. I wanna look like them. Can I?’”

 Renee Ehrlich Kalfus is a CDG Award winner for Hidden Figures. Her credits include Chocolat, Addicted to Love, Perfect Stranger, and Baby Mama. Her go-to at craft services? “Oftentimes, crafty will make a sandwich when you’ve been up since six and you haven’t really gotten breakfast, or you don’t know what meal you’re on. Crafty sandwich, I would say.”