In a twist, Danabassis’ sleepy Saskatoon upbringing set her up for success in the L.A. hyperzone. Central Canada’s utter lack of culture cranked her appetite for fashion up to a fever pitch. Working retail as a teen, she coveted her discount Diesel jeans, pored over Paper Magazine, and obsessed over the cutting edge beyond her bubble. On Zoom, Danabassis makes binoculars with her hands and mimes a frantic search. “It was really about paying attention to people around you that you saw that inspired you, truly. I mean, it wasn’t going to be at the mall,” she laughs, then sighs, then repeats, “it was not going to be at the mall.”

Her big-city sensibilities brought her to Vancouver where she pursued a degree in Communication and Anthropology at Simon Fraser University. In her spare time, Danabassis assisted friends, including Mila Franovic of Legends Cafe, styling for fashion shoots, commercials, and movies. 

The degree married her passion for fashion with media theory, William Gibson style.“Storytelling is the main thing here,” she says, “communicating with your clothing.” It was a circuitous path to costume design, informed by ideas instead of illustrations. Along the way she picked up expertise in human psychology and group behaviour, without ever losing sight of who was now wearing tube socks over their forearms on Instagram. 

But there are bigger cities than Vancouver, and eventually Danabassis moved to L.A. to be with her now-husband pro skater Jerry Hsu — an it couple if there ever was one. The Angels of Los smiled upon the newcomer and before no time she was working in Hollywood, returning the favour ten-fold. 

Danabassis waves a script overspilling with sticky notes at the screen. It’s phase one of her labour of love: read the screenplay and colour code every outfit. Then, moodboards. She scours IG, photography books, films. She snaps stealthy pics of people in public. When all else fails, she returns to her favourite fount of inspiration: the late 90s — Winona Ryder, Gwyneth Paltrow, Meg Ryan, Prada, Miu Miu, Jill Sander. 

Danabassis compares herself to a detective, stepping into the mind of each character: “What kind of music do they listen to? What are the shoes? Do they wear a beat up pair of shoes every day? Or do they wear something really unexpected? Accessories? Are they left handed? Do they wear a watch? Do they have a worn-in type of sensibility or is everything crispy and new? Do they care about fashion? Do they not care?”

Once she’s in their shoes, she can shop for their shoes. Costume houses, vintage stores, thrift shops, fast fashion, estate sales. It’s a frenzy until shooting starts. “We are basically just staying ahead, walking a tightrope,” she says, “one foot in front of the other, every single time.” 

Luckily for us, Danabassis took a pause from the frenzy to share a peak at fitting photos from her three latest features.

PAST LIVES – Celine Song (2023) 

Seung Min Yim as Young Hae Sung and Seung Ah Moon as Young Nora (Past Lives)

Celine Song stunned audiences this summer with her debut film, a small-in-scope, big-in-feeling drama about playwright Nora (Greta Lee), torn between her husband Arthur (John Magaro) and childhood sweetheart Hae Sung (Teo Yoo). Outfits are paramount in intimate, character-driven films. “The difference was so culturally significant that I was like, I have to nail this,” Danabassis says, “because if I don’t, it’ll be so obvious.”  

Song, crafting an autobiographical story, collaborated on costumes. They agreed Hae Sung wasn’t as fashionable as he thinks he is, Danabassis laughs, “his clothes should be a little bit too tight and fitted.” 

They found themselves in a bind with Greta. Song insisted, speaking from experience, that writer’s take pride in not dressing well. On the other hand, Greta had to be iconic — they were making a movie, after all. “We found a happy medium,” Danabassis says. “She’s casual, but she’s like New York, so she has this sort of effortless ease and cool factor no matter what.”