In something of a surprise, “The Masked Singer” cracked the Competition Series field for the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards. Despite massive ratings for this era of broadcast television, the FOX network series wasn’t necessarily a favorite of the critics or industry. If it somehow manages to steal the Emmy from two-time winner “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the producers will need to find a way to get costume designer Marina Toybina a statue.
READ MORE: Emmys 2020: Competition Series nominees and predictions
Toybina has already won four Emmys herself for her work on “The X-Factor,” “So You Think You Can Dance,” “The 55th Grammy Awards” and Katy Perry’s 2015 Super Bowl half-time show which featured the infamous Left Shark. But it’s her contributions to “The Masked Singer” which have put her in an even larger spotlight. Simply, without her designs and her team’s incredible craftsmanship, the series simply wouldn’t work.
From the intricate details of the Swan to the fashion future trends of the Elephant, Toybina and hear staff continue to take the designs for each secret contestant to another level. Nominated for the second year in a row in the Outstanding Costumes for Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Programming category, Toybina hopes to knock off Zaldy, who has earned his fourth nomination after three straight wins for “Drag Race.” In the meantime, Toybina is hard at work under a cloud of secrecy for the fourth season of “Masked Singer” which will debut later this fall.
Toybina jumped on the phone this week to discuss the challenges of working on the hit series and moving forward in a safe COVID filming environment.
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The Playlist: Hi Marina, congratulations on the nominations.
Marina Toybina: Thank you so much. We’re so excited.
I know it’s already been three seasons, but wow were you first approached about the show?
Actually, for two months, one of the executive producers, Izzie Pick Ashcroft, was trying to get ahold of me and somehow I wasn’t seeing the emails or they were going to my spam. And then finally it was during me working on “World of Dance” that I just happened to answer my phone and she got me on the phone, got me interested in the show. We discussed what the concepts might be. And then they sent me some links from the original format of the show and right away when I saw how costume heavy and how elaborate everything was, I was just seconds away from saying yes to the project.
You’ve had some amazing moments in your career but nothing really in this particular wheelhouse. Was there any fear in taking on something this challenging?
I mean, of course. Every project that I take on, there’s always a little bit of fear of challenge because it’s always new ground, new territory. So with “The Masked Singer,” it was interesting because right before me signing onto season one, I did Pink‘s tour and there are a few segments in the dancers’ costumes where I had to work with oversized masks and create these claymation characters and also the fairy little animals that come together. And, also, a few of the projects leading back to when I did the halftime Superbowl show with Katy Perry, that was the first time I really was introduced to any sort of puppetry or walkabout costumes or anything on the mass scale of true clay formations or fabrication. So, all those little experiences led to the show, figuring out how to make it different.
You’re nominated for season three which involved 18 individual costumes along with the 16 costumes you constructed for season two last fall. That’s 34 individual costumes in one year. What sort of timeframe do you have to conceptualize and build them out? It’s not like you have a year to work on these or you’re working on a movie where you have four months to prep sort of thing.
Yes. I mean we are very limited. It’s almost like for me, it was like being in the last leg of season two, and then already starting season three and brainstorming ideas. So our rollover overlaps are pretty massive. The bigger challenge is how to keep each character as unique and as different and as diverse to keep the show growing. It really comes down to my fabric selections, being able to constantly evolve myself and not repeat myself, which probably is the biggest challenge. We’re constantly looking at new ways to sew, new ways to fabricate masks and new ways to even present the artwork to the talent so that they’re excited, that they get to see something different and wear something different. The constant evolution of the show is on my shoulders. It really comes down to even doing backwards research to previous seasons. And I’m also designing “The Masked Singer Germany” so I’m trying to figure out how to branch out to the other franchise of the show and how to keep everything very diverse and different. I think overall it just helps me be able to be so focused on every single character and being so hands on to where I know how to make the next one even more unique, different, complicated, and it’s a mess. Most of the times we’re overseeing six to seven costumes being worked on at once, whether that’s different parts of the costumes being sewn, different parts of the mask being fabricated, then flipping them around, seeing where I start with a costume first, then we build the mask versus building the mask then building the costume. The process that we’re going through is pretty insane. Most people are shocked when they hear we have about two months to really pull a season off. And then also coming in with limited fittings for most of the talent, if they’re lucky, [there are] two fittings that I get to really go through and perfect the costume. So a majority of the challenge for me is being able to instinctually design and design correct the very first time so it’s tricky.
It is totally tricky.
But it’s well worth it.
In terms of the characters themselves, do you come up with the ideas? Do the producers come to you with ideas saying, “Hey, we think we want to do a turtle or a fox” or whatever? Or is it the talent’s suggestions?
The majority of the time, it is a big collaboration. It’s a practice I usually initiate where I do the artwork and pitch a few ideas to the network. We then discuss and see leading into season two and three, I got to collaborate with the network a little bit more because the show was growing. So it was very important to get feedback from the producing side as well as the creative side. So that’s when we came really together and brainstormed some ideas. What character would we like to see on the show? What really worked from season one, what really worked in season two? So from there, then I do the artwork. I work together closely with an illustrator where we create all the digital files for each character. When the artwork is done, I present my ideas for the season to the network. They go through and give me their feedback. It’s very rare that we’ll get to change a lot of the artwork, but we do select our favorites. And then from there, the pitch starts happening with the talent and the casting director going through and letting me know who’s interested in the show or who’s been booked for the show. And then we start presenting our ideas and seeing what makes sense to them. And that’s when I get the second stage of collaboration where I work with the talent trying to figure out does this costume make sense to them as is, or is there something I should go through and customize for them? I do a big questionnaire. Are they claustrophobic? Is there anything specific that I need to know about? What’s their physicality like? Would they like to move on stage or would they like to be standing still and perform? All these things are so important before I even start building the costumes because sometimes people have no idea what their fears are. You’re going into a full costume and you might not even know that all of a sudden [they realized they] are claustrophobic and it’s something we didn’t know. Once the costume is being talked about with the talent, and we secure the final artwork and go through all the notes I start building.
On season three, you had the legendary singer Dionne Warwick who I think is the oldest contestant you’ve had so far. She’s almost 80, and she’s a tiny person. Does s the necessary weight of the costumes worry you at all with the contestants?
Yes, 100%. And I am so particular about my selections of fabrics, the way we build the masks. Once I know who has chosen a costume or who’s going into it, I do my own research. I do start looking around at if they’re a performer, how do they move around stage? What’s the current stage of their health and [mobility]? And then when we start building all those things, we take into grand scale of how we’re going to proceed. With Dionne Warwick, I had an original sketch, which was the enchanted fairy mouse, but I had it based on this ballerina character. And then once I knew that she loved the costume so much, I went through and changed the artwork to make sure I can accommodate the needs, that it was a lighter weight costume. It was a little bit more ethereal and enchanting, and I could use softer textures to bring this gown to life. So all of those things come into play once I know who’s going into the costume.
In terms of season three, what was the most difficult costume to construct or pull off? If there was one.
There were a few things that we played with season three. We used a different fabrication to make the white tiger mask. And all of that was sculpted first. And then it was literally hand covered with this intricate fur to really give us those airbrush moments. So, that costume in general, because of the height and the weight of it and the proportion, probably one of the more challenging ones to really get it right and really make sure that it just came off as grand as it did on stage. And then the robot was a new type of build for me where the entire costume was out of L200 [foam]. So that was an extra process of carving out the foam, creating the structure together, then covering all the pieces with fabric and still making it mobile by using LED elements and working with battery-operated objects to make the costume look even cooler. There were so many new techniques and even more, we’re bringing into season four right now that I think for me, as I’m building these costumes, I’m constantly evolving myself and constantly learning with my team what can we do better. So every single costume, to be honest with you, is challenging.
I was watching one of the episodes again last night and one of the things that just struck me is so many of the costumes you had, the stoning or the jewels or the crystals you put on them just pop so much on screen. Is that something that you’ve discovered doing tests with the directors of photography on the show? Because you can make a costume but that doesn’t mean it’s going to look good on TV.
Right. When we built the costumes, from my end I do test out a lot of fabrics and I do test out a lot of different ways that we can embellish or finish a costume. From there we do have creative meetings prior to really producing the show for a live element of it. We sit down with the lighting department, with the creative directors of the show, with every single department actually and going through what can we do to really show forward? Of all these different intricate art on each costume, each mask, its individual, “How they’re going to perform, what can we do to enhance that?” And I think because we work so closely together, all those elements are translated on the final product when they’re on stage. But we do all work very, very closely together, and I’ll go through and I’ll give extra notes to the director and the lighting department, what treatments we use. Am I using a UV type of paint? What kind of stonework are we using? How are the stones cut? When the light picks it up, is it a direct light, is it above overhead? So all those little elements are always considered, run even through our test drive with the fabrics alone.
I was looking at Kandi Burruss’s Instagram and posted a really close up shot on her costume because she loved the detail so much. Is there anything, in particular, you would tell your peers to look at?
Every single costume I think just has so much love and so much passion that goes into it. So for me, it would be to have the viewers pay attention to every single costume, down to the airbrushing that goes on the fabrics, down to creating our own textures and materials to execute a costume. How much we even work with the footwear of each costume, how every single element blends into the fabrications that we use on the shell of the costume. When we do our wings or any kind of backpack silhouette on each costume, that’s also being embellished and married into the actual fabrication of what’s on the body. It’s so hard to say because even taking somebody like the Swan, all those feathers that were on her mask were individually cut out, then individually flocked, then put together with the mask. And including the costume followed through with that same technique, we hand sewed every little feather that was on her costume. So it’s every little detail is so precisely thought through, and I am such a perfectionist when it comes to that. And there’s been multiple times that we have to resew the costume literally four to five times just to get the shape right, to get the pattern right.
Earlier this year you became only the second Costume Designers Guild Awards award winner in the Variety, Reality-Competition, Live television category. What did that mean to you to win that award from your peers?
I mean, not only was I honored, I was just honored to receive the award on behalf of my team and everybody that’s involved. Sometimes I think when people say reality television, it kind of puts us in this demographic of this is what it is. “It’s trash TV, it’s fun TV.” But when you look at the work and the costuming, especially that goes into “The Masked Singer” I would like to believe that we’re on a different platform and element to where what we’re bringing to the stage is truly this innovative, intricate way of costume design that was just such an honor to get recognized by the peers, because it is something that you would see in a movie. It is something that you would see on a bigger stage. It is something that’s tour worthy, and it’s not slapped together. And it’s not fast TV, and it might seem like that to the audience, but what we’re capable to do in such a small amount of time I think is very difficult for most people to even wrap their brain around.
Lastly, I believe you and your team are working on the fourth season of “The Masked Singer.”
Yes, we are currently in the midst of our test stages for season four, and if all goes well, we will be shooting in the fall. So, we’re excited to keep that going.
The irony here is everyone is now wearing masks.
I know.
How has COVID affected your work? Is it affecting at all how you’re looking at doing the masks for the show, or it’s just a production thing that you have to deal with?
It’s been a challenge. It definitely affected everybody. We are usually the department that starts the show ahead of full production so we got hit with the protocols and everything else right away. So for us, it’s been a lot of it and more so to figure out internally how to keep our team safe, how to maneuver around all these now new protocols and new rules as to how we can operate as a department. Then from there we go into how do we build the costumes, how do we sterilize the materials. What’s the best way to kind of approach this unique workmanship environment where we do have to be so close but far apart to execute all this. Then we go into the actual craftsmanship and the creating of these costumes. It’s constantly top in our minds because now safety comes first. Even though this is a show where the talent is already safe, they’re masked, they’re in their own costume element. But now there’s just so much more to think about. How do we sterilize the masks right after they’re being worn? What materials will take in sweat that I need to consider? Is there an extra lining that has to go into the costumes? Are there any extra elements that I need to make sure are removable and easily cleaned and easily dry cleaned? There’s just so much more to consider, and we’re trying to work on it very hard every day, try to just provide not just the quality work that we’re used to, but also how to provide pure safety and just following the protocols to make sure our talent is safe and happy, as well as our team and crew.
“The Masked Singer” season 1-3 is available on FOX’s app and on Hulu.