It Ends with Us Costumer on Lily's 'Masc and Femme' Looks, Reuniting with Blake Lively and Discourse (Exclusive)

Note: This article contains spoilers for It ends with usin theaters now.

Costumes in It ends with us let it hit you at every step.

For Lily Bloom (Blake Lively), the owner of a flower shop, her love for everything unusual, daring and beautiful is obvious. Just like in his life, when it comes to what he wears, he doesn’t complain about what he loves.

The film, based on Colleen Hoover’s book of the same name, although framed as a romance, has dark undertones and finds Lily in really difficult situations at times, and her wardrobe reflects that. For costume designer Eric Daman, whose other projects included Gossip Girl (both the original and the reboot), Sex and the city and DUFFhe knew exactly how to approach dressing the cast for such a film.

Below, Daman walks PEOPLE through what it was like reuniting with Lively after all these years, figuring out the wardrobe for the film and more.

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It ends with us.

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Lily’s wardrobe is so unique. She wears a lot of colors, a lot of mixed patterns, a lot of high and low, and it’s hard to pin down exactly what her style is. In one scene she is sexy, in another scene she is wearing a Carhartt jumpsuit. How did you approach her character and who exactly is Lily Bloom?

Lily sees beauty where other people don’t. How she designs her store and how she imagines her floral designs are the same things we wanted to bring into her way of dressing. But I also wanted it to feel a little masked, in a way.

It was important that Lily didn’t feel like a wilting flower or too delicate or that we rely on this ultra femme woman who designs flowers and then ends up being abused and somehow made her feel strong and independent and self-obsessed. And I think putting on these men’s work clothes is part of that.

Lily has a few pieces that bring out the masculine side, like the Bode patchwork coat she wears in several scenes. That jacket just seemed so unique and so beautiful and had such an artistic beauty to it. Not everyone saw the beauty in it the way Blake and I did, and I think that was a great testament to how Lily sees things. In a way, it became a touchstone for her and a kind of hero.

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Blake Lively in It Ends With Us.

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So Lily has two different sides – male and female?

Exactly. This glamazon can also be ultra femme. Like in that scene on the roof, when she’s wearing a dress. But we wanted to separate that and give that juxtaposition between masque and femme and make sure we understood the balance of that—so she’s wearing a Carhartt coat.

Also, when Lily is in that female form, there is an aggressiveness to them. They are aggressively feminine in a way. They are aggressive, they get in your face. It’s hard not to do that when dressing Blake Lively. She’s in a wet paper bag and you’re like, “Oh, that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, how is that possible?” Both Blake and I go back. We made the original Gossip Girl together, so we are connected for a long time. I understand [her look] and we know how to use it, as does Blake to the best of our ability.

But there’s a kind of aggression in Lily that you don’t see in the book, and that’s something that Blake brought to the character that I thought was really special and really wonderfully crafted. She is not only delicate, she is an independent strong woman and what happens to her happens to someone strong is an amazing thing.

So when she’s in an Alexandra Vauthier dress with Carhartt, that blend of masque and femme — but even when Carhartt comes off and she’s in this amazing bronze dress that fits Alexandra Vauthier’s million-dollar body — there’s still an aggressiveness to that appearance. It’s symmetrical and the sexiness is in your face.

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That dress is amazing.

Thanks. It was a great discovery. We went through a lot of pieces to get to that dress, and when it went on, we said, this is the moment.

Blake and I have a very amazing symbiotic relationship when it comes to fashion and understanding what will work in it and how that will turn the party around for us.

Another amazing dress is the one Lily wears to Allys birthday party. Between the dress, the boots and the jewels, it’s a whole moment. And again he comes with a more masculine jacket on.

It starts with a picture of her walking in those boots. YSL crystal boots that are Blake’s. Again, this is the first time we see her in a tall feminine look. So the fact that it starts with this fiery mesh crystal boot. It’s high octane as soon as it enters. Again, that juxtaposition comes with her heroic camouflage hunting coat as it’s also a cat and mouse game going on between her and Ryle. I know who is the cat and who is the mouse, but it goes back and forth.

She is a lioness and maybe a bit aggressive in her seduction behavior. Then he walks into the party, has a coat, sees him talking to some other girl in the background and the moment the coat falls is freaking fierce.

I also think that she’s going into that situation, she’s not necessarily used to going to those parties. And maybe there was a little uncertainty. That’s slightly overpowered by this Christopher Kane black cut-out dress. It exudes confidence, power and sensuality. Blake brought her own jewelry, her Lorraine Schwartz jewelry. I didn’t have the budget for it. It has amazing taste and amazing stuff.

Blake Lively in It Ends With Us.

I want to briefly touch on Lily’s wedding look, even though we see so little of it. Tell me about the inspiration there.

First of all, I am the luckiest man in the world. I got to dress Blake for not one but two weddings! We definitely wanted to lean into the unique vintage vibes. I remember texting Blake asking, “Thoughts on getting married?” And she answered, “Priscilla.”

From there, we went heavy on 60s Priscilla Presley miniskirts with matching coats and embellishments in cream and sherbet pastel shades. We chose this luxe super chic number from Happy Isles, paired with clear pearl beaded gloves from Anthropologie, Blake’s personal Christian Louboutins and her jewels. We combined two vintage veils from 1stDibs and voilà Lily Bloom wedding dress was born!

You’ve worked with Blake before (on Gossip Girl), so you know her, especially when it comes to dressing. How did that influence how you created Lily’s wardrobe? Especially considering that there wasn’t much description of Lily’s wardrobe in the book. Did you start with Blake in mind?

Blake was definitely on her mind as much as Lily that way. This was really about a reunion. Blake would send me ideas. She wanted Lily to have a unique, very special look. Because everyone is aware that Blake and I are back together after 10 years and we have results that we want to continue. So it was important that this character has a cool factor.

And I think that because there wasn’t an intense description of how Lily dressed in the book, it kind of opened up the playing field for us. We both came to the table with ideas of how it should be, and they were very similar. We had an initial screening and then, I think after that screening we wanted to polish it up and maybe add a little more masculine vintage street, lean into the menswear vibe. We used some upcycled pieces from the Consistency Project in Brooklyn, which Blake loved. Most of the pants and Blake’s overalls were from the Consistency Project, and their shape, drape just worked beautifully on her body.

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During the making of this film, there was so much discourse surrounding costumes. Justin Baldoni then spoke and asked people to hold their opinions until they saw the film. As a costume designer, how did that make you feel? And now that the movie is in theaters, how do you feel about working in the world?

[Laughs] A lot of people had a lot to say, yes. People are so quick to judge. But they saw the pictures and didn’t know what Blake brings to this character, but once they see the movie, it will all make sense. I love the look, Blake loved the look, and we made something very, very special and original.

I am delighted and excited and grateful. I’ve been working with Blake again and to be able to create something new and exciting, it feels very different from what we’ve done in the past. It seems to be very true to who Lily is and who Blake is as Lily, and I feel very special and unique and I’m excited for the world to see him in his full glory, as opposed to the pictures on social media that appear from the paparazzi recordings in Hoboken, NJ

It ends with us it’s in theaters now.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or go to thehotline.org. All calls are free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

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