“Janine Teagues, second grade teacher extraordinaire, is the type to be friendly with the employees of her local Old Navy. And because of that, “Abbott Elementary” costume designer Susan Michalek shops there, too.

Created by Quinta Brunson, who also stars as Janine, “Abbott Elementary” follows a group of teachers who work at an underfunded Philadelphia school, leading Brunson and Michalek to decide to constrain the show’s costumes to a realistic teacher’s budget. H&M, Zara, Target and Old Navy became Michalek’s go-to stores, with occasional splurges at Anthropologie.

“We really want to keep it at what these people could afford, as much as we possibly can,” Michalek says. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, and through the eras, it’s all Gucci and Prada. This is the first show I came in under budget on, and that’s [out of] 40 shows.”