Designing the Lakers Costumes of HBO’s ‘Winning Time’
Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorTo get the right look for “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” debuting March 6 on HBO, practice really did make perfect.For the series, which traces the professional and personal lives of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson-led team that won five NBA championships during the 1980s, costume designer Emma Potter started breaking down the squad’s look by studying its practice uniforms.“What was exciting was seeing how the purples didn’t match, or in one session someone would be wearing shorts from two seasons back, and another had his number written on with a Sharpie,” says Potter, who aimed to capture that energy and fun in her designs. “In a way, it felt like things were more hands-on and thrown together.” Unlike today, when uniform lists for the season are available online in a regimented system, the ’80s were more free-form.