Q&A with Dagmarette Yen
My conversation with a costumer who has worked on "Loki," "The Last of Us," and other notable television shows and movies.
Nepotism in Hollywood is nothing new, so naturally I sat down to interview my own family connection to the industry… my aunt, Dagmarette Yen. (That’s pronounced Dah-mar-etta, for the uninitated.) When I first moved to Los Angeles in 2018, she generously allowed me to crash on her couch for a few months until I could figure things out. Dagmarette has worked in the costume and wardrobe department in a variety of television shows and movies, including “Mad Men,” “Transformers: The Last Knight,” “Loki,” and “The Last of Us.” She lives with her husband, Alec Contestabile (also working in the industry as a production designer) and her two children, Cal and Cate.
Let’s start by having you tell me a bit about yourself. How long have you been in Los Angeles? What have you been doing in the film industry?
I’m from Laguna Beach, California. I've been in LA since 2011, so, wow, 13 years! That's wild. And no, I didn't always know I wanted to be in the film industry. I kind of just fell into it because the career I thought I wanted to do just didn't pay very well. I was working in fashion in New York. There's decent money in film, actually, you'd be surprised! And there's union benefits, health insurance and all those things that I wasn't getting. So that's how that happened.
What has your career path been like? Walk me through your journey breaking into the film industry.
Okay, so I moved to LA and got involved in celebrity styling, actually. And, I was doing that for a while. It was very inconsistent, I wanted it to be more consistent. And I knew a friend — specifically, my ex-boyfriend's brother's ex-girlfriend. I knew she worked on “Mad Men,” and I was just obsessed with the show. Like, who doesn't like the styling? The look, the story, everything about it. And I was just like, “If there's ever a chance they need someone on the show…”
And she said she’d keep me in mind. And then, sure enough, I was finishing up a Beyonce music video, the hardest thing I ever did in my life. And the next day I got a call and she said, “Hey, can you interview for ‘Mad Men?’” And I didn't even know what I was going in for. I didn't know the role or anything. And I met with the designer, Janie Bryant, and she really liked my experience in fashion, my background. So she hired me. I started the next day, and it was at a studio in downtown LA. It was my first time trying to navigate a studio, and I remember I could not for the life of me figure out how to get in. And I parked somewhere in downtown on the street, and I had dressed really cute because in fashion you, like, always dress it up. I wore these uncomfortable shoes, and the next thing you know, I'm running around downtown LA, trying to figure out how to get into the studio. I took off my shoes. I remember I was running around barefoot and I showed up to the gate all sweaty and they're like, “You know, we have parking in the studio.” And I was like, “No, I didn't know that.” No one had told me!
So anyway, that was my first day of work, classic first day on set. And I remember coming from the world of fashion, I would dress up every day in heels and dresses or skirts, and very quickly learning that film is a totally different beast. You’re running around doing lots of grunt work, and I was kicking those heels off a minute into the job and switching to my sneakers.
What do you do, specifically, within costuming?
I'm called a shopper: I go out and I find costumes to dress the actors, if it's contemporary. And if it's not contemporary or fantasy, I'll go and shop specialty pieces to inspire the pattern makers and the designer and help them find a direction to go. I’ll give you a specific reference. I was a shopper on the Marvel TV show “Loki,” which is all fantasy, but it was really fun. I’d noodle over to Rodeo Drive and go buy pieces at Louis Vuitton. And I’d bring them back to the designer and she'd say, “I really like the cape on this.” Or, “I really like the color.” And we'd implement these pieces from different designers and then create our own costumes. So I’d bring in a piece that works as inspiration, and then they would create it custom — inspiration has to come from somewhere… So I get to shop for a living. It’s sort of amazing, you know? Sometimes you can get too in the weeds, and the hours can be draining, but at the end of the day, we're making something fun.
Is it difficult to maintain a work/life balance, having a job like this and a family?
Honestly, I don't think I've figured out the answer yet, but it's hard because both my husband and I work in the industry, so the hours are tricky. But I think we have a lot of support from family and friends, and on the days they can’t help we have nannies and preschool and daycare to fill in the blanks. But the beauty of working in film is it's project-based. So it's always going to be really hard for a couple months. And then at the end of it, you can take as much time off as you want so you can be with your kids.
So that is actually really nice, though we're still trying to navigate the balance. But you know, we just had a baby and [my husband] Alec and I were both able to have maternity and paternity leave that was longer than most people get in the 9-5 working world. So we spend a lot of time with our kids when we're off, which is nice.
You’re not active in the LDS church right now, but is there advice you'd give to people who are in the LDS church who might want to work in the film industry?
I would say go for it. I would say it's not as scary as maybe you think it is… I think the film industry is a collection of interesting and eclectic people, and I would say Mormons or LDS people are both interesting and eclectic. I think they would be interested in the perspective you’d bring.
I know some people feel like there’s a whole stigma surrounding religion and Hollywood. I think that if you have a stigma, maybe it's only going one way. Maybe Mormons are more shy about going into Hollywood, whereas yeah, Hollywood is actually a pretty welcoming place.
I mean, it's been a while since I've been in [the church,] so I don't even know if not working on Sunday is still a thing.
Uh, it is.
But most everything is Monday through Friday. You have your weekends off. The teams I work with are all accommodating if you need it. If you need to leave early for something, like, if you have a calling, I feel like people are pretty understanding and want to help. And, you know, we have training all the time for respecting different religious beliefs and not having bias. I think Hollywood's a place for everyone, in a weird way. It was a place for misfits and rejects. Not that Mormons are, per se, but historically it has been like that and I think that they're open to all sorts of people.
Any parting words of advice you’d like to give?
I’ll give you another story from “Mad Men.” I told you that when I got the job, it was such a dream come true because, just imagine, watching your favorite TV show and then getting to work on it and walk on the sets… it was so surreal. But also on this amazing job, I almost got fired. And I remember it was over what I thought was a small thing, but it really set the tone for how the smallest thing in the industry can be so important. I was called and asked to run a necktie to set, and I was currently working on something else. So I asked one of the interns to run the tie to set, and the tie didn't get there fast enough.
And I remember I got a call from the designer, actually the designer's assistant, who said, “Janie is very disappointed in you. Pack up your things and go home and we'll see if you'll come back to work tomorrow.” And I just remember feeling so dejected after that, and thinking, “I totally messed up. And I went over to [my boyfriend at the time] Alec’s apartment afterward... I told him, “I think I've gotten fired off this job. And I remember him saying, “Well, you're nobody in Hollywood until you've been fired.” And it's so true because I think we've all had an experience where we've been fired.
Like, Alec was the production designer on Hacks season 2. And he got an Emmy nomination [for production design] and they called two days later saying they were going to go with somebody else for the next season. And then Isaac, of course, you got fired from the Sacha Baron Cohen movie. Which is a great thing to look back on now because you can say you got fired from “Borat 2” for making a dumb mistake. But screwing up a lunch order is huge! People get hungry, it’s a real thing. So don't let that be a discouragement! Like, actually, you should be discouraged if you don't get fired.
VERY cool! Like a buyer in retail, getting to do that for sets sound so so fun.
Your aunt seems amazing! Can’t wait to look out for her stuff!