Mussenden is a big believer in reading, not just looking at photographs. She also believes in using fellow costume designers as part of her team. “I never designed a Western before, so I had to start my research from scratch,” she reveals. “I began with the Civil War using Time-Life’s The Old West encyclopedia that I borrowed from my friend, costume designer Kimberly Adams. I hired costume designer Christine Cantella for three weeks to visit all the museums in Texas and take photos.” Additional research included combing through digital libraries.

The Studio lives in the space between art and commerce, idealism and vanity, actuality and image. All the characters balance along that tightrope. The characters are immediately recognizable, particularly to anyone who has worked on a set. Clearly drawn from personal experience from show creators, the series is inhabited with fictional characters drawn so close to life that actual celebrity cameos fit in like jigsaw puzzle pieces.

“None of this had been done before—and never on this scale,” she says.

The CDG is committed to exposing and eliminating systemic biases in all aspects of our field. We commit to doing this both within our organization and with advocacy throughout our community” Standing together to celebrate a diverse group of people that represent different ethnicities, a vibrant range of cultural, racial backgrounds, gender roles, and sexual orientations.

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