NBA star Steph Curry makes his acting debut on Thursday in Peacock’s new mockumentary comedy series, “Mr. Throwback,” where his role of playing himself is amplified through his costumes.
The series is rooted in men’s fashion, as the six-episode show follows Curry as he reunites with his former middle school teammate Danny (played by Adam Pally) who is a vintage sports memorabilia dealer looking for redemption.
Peacock enlisted costume designer Olivia Perdoch to marry vintage and modern-day men’s fashion for Pally and Curry’s characters. Her approach was using everyday life as her inspiration and staying close to Curry’s actual style.
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“You’ll see that we kept it really real, and people are dressed like you see them in real life especially in Chicago where most of our show is set,” she said. “But the characters are highly specific, and you can tell a lot about them by what they’re wearing. Every character is so different, and you’ll see that in the wardrobe.”
For Curry’s character, Perdoch wanted to mimic his real-life style, but “turn it up a notch for TV.” The costume designer used emerging and luxury brands for Curry’s wardrobe, creating a mix of sporty casual and streetwear for the NBA player.
Perdoch sourced pieces from independent labels like Los Angeles-based menswear brand Second Layer, Italian-made label Cobra SC and Canadian brand Libero, among others. The costume designer said that Curry helped choose some of his outfits and gravitated toward the emerging labels. She said many of the Libero pieces were his favorite, and he’s seen wearing several of the brand’s jackets in the series.
“In the show, the way he carries himself and the way he is, he looks like those are his clothes. It doesn’t look like he was dressed up, which was our goal,” Perdoch said. “We didn’t want him to look styled. We wanted him to be comfortable and run around as himself, so he looks like these are his clothes. It’s not necessarily things that were in his closet before the show, but we had a really fun time at the fitting just trying stuff on that he wouldn’t normally try on, which was the goal and he ended up liking the stuff so maybe it will end up going into his real life wardrobe now.”
As Pally’s character is a sports memorabilia dealer, Perdoch sourced many vintage pieces for the character’s costumes. She stated Pally wears several thrifted items like a football jersey from the 1940s and other vintage jerseys and pennies.
She said her approach was to not dress the character strictly in vintage sportswear, as she didn’t feel that would be authentic.
“He is dressed more like guys who I know who exist in real life who sell vintage — vintage dealers who are super knowledgeable and it’s their whole lives,” she said. “They’re just super into old stuff and collecting stuff that has history and a story and they don’t necessarily dress like everything that they sell. They’re just kind of in that world.”
She modernized some of his looks by pairing vintage styles with modern pieces to make the looks more relatable and timely, she explained.
Perdoch also highlighted Ego Nwodim’s character for her style in the series. Nwodim, who plays Kimberly, the chief executive officer of Curry’s media company, serves as a contrast to Pally’s disheveled and lazy character, which is shown through her costumes. The actress’ wardrobe reflects her powerhouse, businesswoman character in sleek pieces from designer brands like Bottega Veneta and Saint Laurent.
Overall, Perdoch hopes the show’s costumes helped the actors connect with their roles and that they reflected real life.
“[Costumes are] not just a visual thing for the TV show — they’re an aid,” she said. “It’s to help [the actors] get into the character and then everything comes together with the production design and the music and the actors come alive once you hit it with the wardrobe I found. You’ll really see it in the show because everyone is so different and their wardrobes are so different.”