How Do You Build 1880s New York From 50,000 Images with Kasia Walicka Maimone - The Gilded Age

How Do You Build 1880s New York From 50,000 Images with Kasia Walicka Maimone - The Gilded Age

From Voice Of Costume - The Untold Stories of Unseen Artists by Catherine Baumgardner - Costume Designer and Educator

June 19, 2026 · 37 min · Season 2 · Episode 55

About this episode

Kasia Walicka Maimone discusses the intricate costume design process for HBO's The Gilded Age, revealing the research and creativity involved in bringing 1880s New York to life.

The Gilded Age looks like living art—but Kasia Walicka-Maimone reveals the research, strategy, color, and craft behind every gown. Costume designer Kasia Walicka Maimone joins Voice of Costume to discuss designing HBO's The Gilded Age , the Julian Fellowes period drama where 1880s New York society becomes a runway of power, wealth, old money, new money, and visual storytelling. Kasia traces her path from growing up in rural Poland, surrounded by nature and imagination, to making her own clothes, studying culture and literature, designing theater, opera, film, and eventually building the massive costume world of The Gilded Age . She reveals the extraordinary research process behind the series, including a visual library of more than 50,000 period images , inspiration from painters like John Singer Sargent , and the surprising truth that the 1880s were far more colorful than black-and-white photography suggests. Kasia explains how jewel tones, artificial dyes, silhouettes, organic shapes, asymmetry, and historical references help define characters, class, taste, and transformation. The conversation also pulls back the curtain on the enormous team effort behind the costumes: design…

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