Given her fondness for hot pink outerwear, it is unlikely that Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) has garments in her closet bearing any resemblance to Lt. Columbo’s iconic, well-worn beige raincoat. Still, Peter Falk’s formidable cigar-smoking detective serves as an inspiration for Elsbeth, with her intentionally disarming wardrobe, and how she outwits the murderer-of-the-week, played by a famous guest star.
“We really want Elsbeth’s clothing to be the equivalent of Columbo’s trench coat,” says Daniel Lawson, “Elsbeth’s” costume designer. He designed the wardrobe for the lawyer-turned-investigator, from Preston’s first appearance on “The Good Wife” in 2010 through spinoff “The Good Fight” and now in the character’s titular turn. Lawson is attuned to the idiosyncratic character’s maximalist-leaning tastes and how suspects and cops view her.
It is Columbo’s persistence and continued presence that Lawson taps into. “Even at the precinct, she comes around the corner, and some cops are like, ‘Oh, come on. Here she is again. Look at that jacket, look at those pants, look at that hat,’” Lawson says. “Her clothing is the Columbo trench coat — the idea of it — the piece of sand in your bathing suit.”
Similar to Columbo, who on occasion sported a tuxedo to ensnare a suspect, Elsbeth has already dressed up this season to attend the opera and gone in costume as Holly Golightly from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” for Halloween.
Thursday’s episode featured a black-tie bash at an exclusive jewelry store where Elsbeth goes face-to-face with glamorous Vanessa Williams, who stars in a killer guest spot that centers on a heist gone wrong. “It’s fun that each episode has its own world and theme. It keeps us on our toes, and hopefully, it keeps the audience feeling like they have something fresh,” Preston says.
After the success of the first season of “Elsbeth,” which had only 10 episodes, CBS doubled the number of episodes for Season 2, allowing the costume department to develop more playful fashion moments. Christmas is already in the can and Valentine’s Day is on the horizon.
Here, Lawson and Preston discuss key costumes from the first four episodes of the second season, culminating with Elsbeth’s high-glam gown opposite Williams.