“People really like his clothes because they are unusual,” [costume designer Allyson B. Fanger] says about dressing Sol, who’s wardrobe consists largely of printed short-sleeved button-down shirts, soft trousers, cardigans, and huarache sandals. “I figured [Sol and Frankie] went camping a lot and stuff when their kids were young,” she explains, so she sought out a lot of Cabrillo camping shirts and gear. “And these odd shirts that I figured that Frankie probably bought for him, like those beige and print short-sleeved shirts.”

“Fanger sources most of Sol’s signature quirky shirts from small boutiques in Malibu, Palm Springs, and Santa Monica. “I’d try to go to a beach community because they live at the beach or they live in a beach town,” she says. And it’s all about comfort: Sol is usually in drawstring pants, and she likes to mix soft textures for his looks so his clothes move with him. His whole wardrobe is a bit ill-fitted on purpose to play up the “goofy awkwardness” that makes Sol, well, Sol.”

But dressing Sol was also a lesson in the differences in costuming for an older character. At one point, Fanger wanted to put Waterson in a modern cut J. Crew seersucker suit, but he resisted. “We had a real battle of the wills about it,” she recalls. “He didn’t like the way it fit because it had been cut by J. Crew for a bit more youthful customer. He just kept talking about the rise on the thing … I had to really learn a lot about their bodies and the fit and how it went beyond the fabric or the style that I was trying to portray.”

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