All costume reveals and highlights

From costume, wig and set designers to builders, makeup artists and stylists, it’s a proverbial village that helps take an idea from inception to completion every year.

To better understand how it all happens, TODAY.com spoke with some of the people behind this year’s extravaganza and found out what goes on behind the scenes, starting with TODAY production designer Ed Helbig.

Helbig, a 22-year veteran of Halloween at TODAY Square, says each year presents its own set of unique challenges.

“The video store we just created was a big challenge for us, especially since we had less than a week to implement it,” explains Helbig. Plus, Helbig says, while props can be rented, a video store isn’t one of them.

Instead, the team had to purchase new shelves and then convert them into tilting displays typically found in video rental stores. Once the shelves were in place, Helbig says the next hurdle was filling them with old VHS movies.

“I did the math based on the width of the shelves and the width of the tape, and it ended up being about 300 tapes,” which he said they got from a prop rental company and eBay.

The team then stocked the shelves, recreating the look of the iconic video store down to the last detail.

“The most important thing is how many hands are involved,” says Helbig. “I think people assume there’s a small army, but they probably don’t know how many people it actually takes to put on a big show like this.”

Making TODAY costumes

Like Helbig, TODAY costume designer Stacey Greenbaum says creating Halloween costumes for hosts and co-hosts presents some unique challenges.

Regarding the VHS Rewind theme, Greenbaum says it was especially important to get all the details right.

“The biggest challenge is to give credit to these costume designers who created such iconic looks,” Greenbaum told TODAY.com.

“He tries to give credit where credit is due by recreating these costumes that people have come to know and love and that have become classics in their own right.”

And it’s not always easy, given that she works with grainy photographs and old films, as was the case with Dylan Dreyer’s Lydia Dietz costume.

“It’s very hard to see in a photo or in stills what she’s actually wearing,” Greenbaum says of Lydia’s all-black look. “But we’re trying to make you feel like you’re in the ’80s and a little bit goth.”

What people may not realize is that for the most part, none of the TODAY costumes are sold in a Halloween store, but are instead made to order or customized for each host and co-host.

“To look like a character in a movie, we need to focus on two things: the first is the weight of the fabric, the level of construction, whether it’s new or not, out of the box, or if we miss a call to get it to the level that we need it for visual viewing,” she says.

Another? “You have to consider people’s sizes,” Greenbaum says, adding that many TODAY anchors are actually quite tall, meaning most costumes have to be created from scratch, including Carson Daly’s Austin Powers costume. “There are a lot of costumes from the 1960s. Will they fit Carson, who is 6ft 3in?” Greenbaum asks.

Of all the costumes this year, did Greenbaum have a favorite?

“Peter (Alexander) as Mrs. Doubtfire was funny,” says Greenbaum, explaining that because Robin Williams’ character was Scottish, they had to get a lot of accents and details right to get the character right, right down to Peter’s character. custom tartan plaid skirt.

Hair design

Like the sets and costumes, each host and co-host’s hair is handcrafted by a team of designers.

Head hair designer Jodi Mancuso is a 23-year veteran of Saturday Night Live and brings her Emmy Award-winning talents to the TODAY Channel’s Halloween extravaganza.

“It’s always fun because it’s Halloween and everyone gets really excited when we get there and we dress up and everyone just has a good time,” Mancuso says.

Each wig does not come in a ready-to-use box, but is handcrafted and takes between 40 and 60 hours to prepare. “This is just for us. Most people spend more than 80 hours making their wigs,” explains Mancuso.

Because the team is used to SNL’s busy production schedule, they can get a lot done in a very short amount of time, which was necessary since this year, like most others, they had to create the wigs in less than two weeks.

“I do this every week on SNL, so it was actually pretty easy,” she says. “It wasn’t anything that crazy.”

For this year’s VHS Rewind theme, each member of the TODAY team required a wig to embody the character. According to Mancuso, Carson Daly’s Austin Powers and Peter Alexander’s Mrs. Doubtfire wig were among the most difficult, Jenna’s Rose wig from Titanic required special coloring, and Al’s Beetlejuice look required moss for authenticity. All this took a lot of time.

Despite this, Mancuso says she enjoys the challenge. “It takes time, but it’s a lot of fun.”

What’s more, Mancuso says she loves seeing the results, whether she’s working on SNL or the TODAY Halloween show, and is proud of each transformation.

“I live in wigs and they see themselves as these characters. That’s what’s really interesting about this. We always have a good time and everyone is so wonderful.”