Major Crimes costume designer Greg LaVoi in the “Edith Head Memorial Fitting Room” at Raleigh Studios
As part of our new weekly series “Inside the Fitting Room” we spoke to Major Crimes costume designer Greg LaVoi to get an inside look at the fashion and costumes behind this weeks episode, “Cashed Out.”
MajorCrimesTV: This episode spent a lot of time jumping back and forth in time. Did that affect how you designed the costumes for the episode?
Greg LaVoi: It was so much fun doing this episode, because of how it was structured. I loved going into and out of the real story and then cutting between those with Cynthia’s interviews with the team. There were no titles on the screen that showed the changing of time like there often are in movies, so the only way we could tell what was happening on which day was with our character’s clothing. The day we filmed with Cynthia (actress Sonya Leslie) was such an important day, and it was fun to be able to film it like that in one day. I wanted the costume changes to be important, and also got to play with some of the looks a little bit since the team wasn’t solving any crime that day, they were just giving interviews.
It was most important that Cynthia’s clothing stayed the same and was recognizable to help with the time shifts, so I put her in an ALC print blouse from Neiman Marcus, and a great Tahari flannel suit from Saks.
MCTV: I feel like this episode we saw a glimpse of Sykes more put together than we’ve ever seen her before, with the beautiful tailored suit.
GLV: I’ve had that Theory dress and jacket in Sykes’ closet for four years, and never had an opportunity to have her wear it because she’s always in the field solving crimes. And to me Sykes just wouldn’t wear a dress or skirt when she’s crime solving. So with a leap of faith I added it into the interview day, and I loved it. And that scene with Sykes and Cynthia was amazing. I thought both of them knocked it out of the park, and it was so wonderful to watch Sykes be so powerful in a dress and go toe to toe with Cynthia in pants.
One thing that’s so interesting about that scene between Sykes and Cynthia was how their suits wound up looking on the HD camera, and what that can do to colors. The Tahari suit with Cynthia, and the Theory suit on Sykes were almost the same color to the naked eye. When I went onto set and saw how that looked together, I became concerned because I thought they were both going to look like they’re in the same shade of grey. But amazingly enough, with lighting and the HD camera we film with, Sykes’ suit had a lot of blue in the grey, and Cynthia’s was warmer. So Sykes’ suit came off as blue-grey, and Cynthia’s stayed that kind of warm grey. So I was very pleased it came out looking like two very different greys.
MCTV: In that same scene we also saw Amy in heels, which I feel like was also a new thing for her?
GLV: Sykes had on Manalo pumps. Usually we see her in the stack heeled boots with her pants, which are perfectly correct and true to life for a real cop to wear. I loved being able to put her into a high heel for this episode – not super high, but a simple high heeled Manolo shoe.
This Armani jacket features a Bakelite clasp (inset) that is so delicate, the costume department has to remove it anytime it comes off set, goes into storage or gets cleaned.
MCTV: This week we saw one of my personal favorite Raydor jackets, which we’ve seen before in the show, I believe? Continue reading
their relationship, to your minds, how is it that Amy has earned this, this spot with Provenza and his respect after starting off on such rocky footing?
has seen Buzz and Rusty team up to reopen the unsolved murder of Buzz’s father. Through both storylines in episodes, as well as Rusty’s 
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This has been a big year for Julio “Scary” Sanchez on Major Crimes, as he has dealt with lingering anger management issues, coming to better terms with his wife’s death, and as we’ve seen the last few episodes, perhaps finding love again with a new member of the division. We visited with Raymond on the set of Major Crimes during the filming of the winter episode arc to find out some more of what we can expect this season and beyond from Julio, and what other projects Raymond is tackling during his hiatus. 
difficult. It’s been a lot of hard work as an actor to deal with these storylines because you have this character who suffers from a traumatic incident in his life, then he carries his post traumatic stress syndrome throughout the rest of his life. You [Julio] never get over it. So that always has to be there for him, it haunts him. As the actor who portrays all of this, it begins to wear you out. It’s a very heavy weight to carry and after a while, it affects you. It exhausts you.
MajorCrimesTV: This season has held a lot for Julio so far, both personally and professionally. Any hints on what we can expect to see in these final two episodes of the winter season?
Julio’s wife had died in The Closer, but didn’t get the complete picture until years later on Major Crimes?
one case over five episodes instead of the traditional murder-of-the-week structure is a first for Duff, and in many respects, a first in general for televised programs. Duff admits that the choice is both unconventional but exciting, “It’s very different. It’s interesting to see the show continue its evolution and finding interesting things for our fantastic series regulars to do. We are very excited by the challenge.” It’s a bold move for a highly successful show with a devoted fan base to suddenly flip the switch part-way through a season, but Duff is confident that fans, whom he’s always shared a close connection with, will appreciate the creative liberty which he has taken. He notes that if it doesn’t sit well with them, “our audience will not be shy in telling me if I’m mistaken.”
As Duff explains, much of the reasoning behind bringing Sykes to the center of the action in the winter arc has to do with the character of Sykes herself, and points out that as the newest member of the team, she was the most likely candidate to be willing to explore the mystery surrounding the new case in a way that would be unthinkable to anyone else on the squad. Duff also says he relished the chance to finally give Sykes her own fully realized storyline. “We’ve never been able to fully utilize Sykes in our previous seasons and the structure of these episodes finally allows us to do just that. Unlike most of the cast, she wasn’t part of the original The Closer crew so it’s been a slower ride up for her and I’m just thrilled to be able to show everybody what Kearran Giovanni can do. She’s got game, and Amy Sykes has game, and I think the audience has really grown to like Sykes and that they’ll really enjoy getting to see her in action.”
along with the structure of the sustained arc, work together to also function as another storytelling device, and a new prism through which to view the characters. “It just gave us a lot of opportunity not to just tell a mystery, but also to delve deeper into our characters, and to see how our ensemble reacts in different circumstances. We saw how Flynn reacted to the various conflicts that took place during our winter episodes, and now we want to see how Sykes and Sanchez and Tao react to the conflict of these final episodes. Sanchez is still dealing with the issues related to his wife, and having someone else there who is relating to long-term grief issues as well. And, Tao in particular has a really epic scene in the second episode that I think will really shock people!”
Geddrick’s Hickman, as well as the gang-related case at the center of these episodes also serves as a tool for the writers to touch on the very relevant and very real issue of race and racial tension between civilians and police, but Duff maintains that his purpose as a storyteller is not to present these issues with bias, but merely present them as they are and allow his audience to judge them for themselves. “I’m ruthless about not politicizing issues or current events, that is not what I am trying to do with this show. What I am trying to do is be authentic and as unbiased as possible. I present issues that reflect our current events as they are and the facts clearly indicate that there are racial tensions between minority groups and the law enforcement community. I am not making that up, I am merely acknowledging it.”
Looking forward, Duff reveals that the writers are already hard at work crafting season five, which will premiere this summer. After the intensity of these final episodes of this season, it seems natural, and welcome, for Duff to have a more harmonious theme to open season five: balance. “We will be exploring how we balance our professional and personal lives, how we balance needs of adults and needs of children, how we balance our virtual world with the real world, and how we balance our fantasies of how things are going to be with the actualities.” In addition to finding balance in the lives of his characters, Duff jokes that he is also on a personal journey to finding balance with his cast and crew. “Balancing a cast this large is phenomenally difficult, and it makes me really, really appreciate Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey and those are even larger cast shows. It’s a very interesting process!”