Janie Bryant

The Emmy Award-winning “1883” and “Mad Men” costume designer discusses her career, finding joy, and why accolades aren’t enough.

By Lindzi Scharf

Photography by Birdie Thompson

“At one point, I thought, ‘I want to drop the Bryant and just be called Janie,” costume designer Janie Bryant says in a sweet southern drawl, seated on a couch inside her Glendale home. “Like Adrian, like Halston,” she says, referencing iconic designers of yesteryear. “Like Cher, like Elvis. But my branding agent said, ‘You can’t lose your last name now.’”

As the Emmy award-winning costume designer for “Mad Men,” Bryant was responsible for one of the most stylish series over the last couple of decades. Through her work on the critically acclaimed 1960s drama, Bryant helped elevate the careers of Jon Hamm, January Jones, Elisabeth Moss, and Kiernan Shipka – in addition to her own.

Anyone in Bryant’s orbit would agree that she is as dazzling as the stars she designs for – and she’s just as much of a character – thanks to her impeccable taste and big personality. Case in point: When asked if she repeats her outfits, Bryant purrs, “I’m like Zsa Zsa [Gabor], so once is enough,” and while describing herself, Bryant jokes, “I’m like the dumb blonde. [My friend says,] ‘Don’t say that,’ but that’s who I want to be. I’m not really. That’s my pretend self. I am like Marilyn [Monroe] and Audrey [Hepburn].”

Bryant – who is also behind the costumes on Taylor Sheridan’s “Yellowstone” prequel “1883” –  is most prominently known for her work on period pieces. But don’t call her a fashion historian. “That sounds so nerdy!” she says. “I’d need, like, a high-collar and glasses on. I’m sexy, fabulous, and glamorous!” She laughs, then gets serious. “Period pieces definitely are my passion. But I’m not a professor. I studied fashion design.”

After growing up in Tennessee and working for a fashion designer in New York City, Bryant transitioned to costume design in Los Angeles. She landed her big break with David Milch’s award-winning HBO series “Deadwood” – for which Bryant won an Emmy in 2005. Two years later, she began work on “Mad Men,” which led to four additional Emmy nominations and design collaborations with major fashion brands including Brooks Brothers and Banana Republic.

From the outside looking in, life was grand – as it often appears to be.

“I was getting accolades and I was getting a lot of the things that I thought that I wanted and it wasn’t bringing joy,” she says, reflecting on that era of her life. “I had the expectation of feeling like, ‘If I just get this, I’m going to be happy.’ ‘If I just get that collaboration, I’m going to be happy,’ and it isn’t about that. You’re never going to be able to fill that barrel when you’re looking to the outside.”

The self-proclaimed “true Southern belle” – who bypassed her father’s advice to “get married and have a family” – has since learned the art of appreciation and gratitude. But Bryant admits it’s been a journey to getting there.

THE SOUTHERN BELLE

Born in Cleveland, Tennessee as Katherine Jane Bryant, the costume designer was raised on old, classic movies. “It was a family requirement to watch ‘Gone with the Wind’ – it’s still my favorite movie,” she says, sharing that ‘Wizard of Oz,’ ‘On the Town,’ ‘Wuthering Heights,’ ‘The Sound of Music,’ and ‘Guys and Dolls’ were among the films she and her family regularly watched. Bryant – whose childhood nickname was Janie – also grew up drawing and experimenting with fashion through witnessing her mother’s love of oriental-inspired interior design.

“I was living in this fantasy of wearing the Mandarin-collared dresses, of Chinese culture, and Geisha girls,” she says, sharing that her mother collected oriental rugs, furniture, and wallpaper. “She would decorate the house all the time and she would come home with these huge books of fabrics from the design stores and I would sneak in and cut up all the fabrics, which was not a good thing, but I just couldn’t help myself. There were so many beautiful fabrics…”

Bryant would use the fabric to sew dresses for her Barbie dolls. “I was doing all the same things that I do now – drawing, playing dress up, and designing clothes,” she says. “My actors are my dolls. Everything I did as a child, I do now.”

But back then, Bryant didn’t realize costume design was a job and, instead, studied business at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia.

“My family wanted me to be involved in the family business, which was textiles,” she says. “My grandfather made socks and had a successful business. When my parents got married, my [maternal] grandfather got my father into textiles. It was kind of like, ‘Janie, you love fabrics, you should get into textiles,’ and that wasn’t my dream.” She pauses. “I was studying business because I was into what business women were wearing,” she jokes. “I changed majors several times.”

She eventually transferred to American College of Applied Arts in Atlanta, Georgia where she studied fashion design. “It was this feeling of, ‘This is where I’m meant to be,’” she says. “And I thrived.”

However, Bryant had no intention of staying put in the south. “From an early age, I knew I wanted to leave Tennessee,” Bryant says, explaining she begged her parents to attend boarding school as a high school junior. “I was dying to leave my hometown. I had that feeling of, ‘I have to explore and experience life. There has to be something bigger.’ Even though I didn’t know what that was.”

After college graduation, Bryant moved to Paris. “My intention was to be a famous fashion designer and learn to speak French,” she says, sharing that one of her best friends lived there at the time. “We lived together in Paris until my dad was like, ‘Janie, you don’t speak French and you don’t have a job. You need to come home.’”

She continues, “When I was in college I had a part time job in the lingerie department at Macy’s, which I loved. My dad said, ‘You need to get your job at Macy’s and find a man to marry you who is going to keep you in the lifestyle in which you have become accustomed.’”

Instead, Bryant packed up her things and moved to New York City. “I was head strong and independent. I said, ‘Dad, that’s so old-fashioned. I’ve got to do it myself.’ My dad—he is… he was… he’s passed now. He was super traditional. I [now] understand his intention. He wanted to make sure that I had the finer things in life and that I was protected, I was provided for, and that I would get married and create a family…” Her accent gets thicker. “Like any self-respecting southern woman would do.”

She laughs at the tongue-in-cheek statement.

“I was like, ‘No, not me. I’m going to New York, Daddy,’” she recalls. “I could not listen to that nonsense. I said, ‘I am a modern woman, Dad. I am going to fulfill my dreams,’ and so I did.”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

When Bryant got to town, she found work as an assistant to a fashion designer named John Scher. “He taught me a lot,” she says. The two were connected through Bryant’s hometown friend. “He was working for a PR agency and the PR agency was working with a lot of the young, up-and-coming fashion designers.” Bryant also assisted a few fashion stylists at the time, but looking back, she says, “I think I was a terrible assistant. I’m a better boss than I am an assistant. I was in the fashion world for about nine months.”

Through her friend, Bryant also met a film producer. “This producer invited me to his house for a Christmas party,” she recalls. “I met a costume designer there and we talked for a long time. I wanted to know everything about her job. I was fascinated. The next week after the holidays I decided that’s what I was going to do. I started calling every single person that I ever met in the film business and said, ‘I want to be a costume designer. I want to be in the costume department. How do I do that? If there’s anything that comes up, I want to do it. I will do anything. Just call me.’” 

Bryant was eventually hired as an assistant costume designer on a film, which then led her to design costumes for a series of Nickelodeon commercials. “In those days I did not have a set team, a distressing team, a seamstress team; it was me,” she says. “I was, happily, a one woman show.” That project’s production designer then recommended Bryant for an independent film. “It was called ‘Blessing,’” she says. “I don’t think it ever came out, but I was the designer. I was the set person. I was the assistant designer. I wore all the hats and I designed the hair and make-up, too. After I designed that movie, I thought, ‘Do I want to be in the movie business?’ The business is brutal. … I love pretending and dress-up and having these characters come to life, but there’s the other side of it, which can be agony. … I had no concept of how brutal the hours can be in the film business and it’s addicting. You get used to the hardcore nature of filmmaking and it’s easy for your life to become out of balance.”

Despite some apprehension, Bryant felt she’d found her calling. She spent several years working in New York on various television and film projects. Then, after completing the 1999 dramedy "The Big Kahuna" with Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito, she decided to move to Los Angeles.

“Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito lived in L.A. and I just thought, ‘It’s time for me to leave New York,’” she reflects. “After I finished designing that movie, I knew if I was going to really make a career in the film, TV, entertainment business, I needed to be in Los Angeles.”

HELLO, HOLLYWOOD

Bryant landed in Los Angeles in 1999 – and it proved to be a rude awakening.

“The second night after moving here, there was an earthquake,” she says. “I had my two little toy poodles with me. I woke up and the bed was rolling and the poodles were at the end of the bed looking at me like, ‘What the hell have you done to us?’ I was hanging onto the bed like I was Dorothy and it was a tornado.”

It was also a trying time professionally as she struggled to break through. “It was really difficult,” she remembers. “I had no job. Being in the film business, you’re always freelance. Sometimes you have a job. Sometimes you don’t have a job.” Bryant says it’s an often unspoken aspect of what she calls “this sparkly, shiny, wonderful, glamorous movie business.” Bryant says, “The first year I was in the film business, I think I made $11,000. I was definitely on the way, way, way down low poverty level. But thankfully, I had my family to help me.”

Eventually, Bryant was offered a job back in New York for a David Milch-series called “The Big Apple.”

“I thought, ‘I’ll go back to New York. I’m so homesick.’ I was missing the city and I had not adjusted to L.A. life,” she says. “I was in New York for six months. We only shot eight episodes. The show was cancelled. I went back to L.A. and I thought to myself, ‘I am not going to do costume design anymore. I’m done.’”

Bryant began making other professional plans. She remembers thinking, “I am going to design accessories. I’m going to make dog clothes for poodles. I’m going to be a photographer.”

She explains, “I was sewing little poodle clothes out of vintage clothing on my sewing machine. I was making accessories. I was shooting my friends’ weddings. I was doing a lot of photography, which I still love. To this day, I’m like, ‘Okay, time for a photoshoot.’ With all of my actors. I’m like Steven Meisel: ‘Here we go kids. I’m posing you. This is the mood. This is what I want to achieve. You are this character. Let’s go.’ I do full on Vogue shoots. They know what’s coming at the end of the fitting when they’re in their final costumes.”

Once again, Bryant’s plans changed.

ENTER “DEADWOOD”

Milch, Bryant’s “The Big Apple” collaborator, called and offered her a gig on the 1870s-based series “Deadwood.” She recalls putting the phone down and screaming with excitement. “It was kismet because I had just seen [the 1971 film] ‘McCabe and Mrs. Miller,’” Bryant says. “‘Deadwood’ read that way to me—like that tempo. It was one of the things that David and I talked about a lot.”

Bryant became obsessed while researching the town. “I was like, ‘The audience has got to feel like they’re sweating, dirty, smelly, filthy. The audience has got to feel that on the costumes,’ and he loved that idea,” she remembers. “Also, women didn’t shave their armpits during that time, so I’ll never forget when I called the make-up artist and was like, ‘Listen, the girls cannot shave.’ I remember telling the actresses and they’re still my friends to this day and they always make fun of me for insisting that they never shaved their armpits for four years. But it was authentic. Women didn’t shave then.”

Bryant was nominated multiple times for Emmys and won in 2005. “It was a shock that I got nominated for an Emmy and even more of a shock when I won,” she says. “I remember I got up on stage and the only thing that I could think was, ‘If I had known I was going to win, I would have had another cocktail.’ I was so nervous, you know? I was surprised, but I loved those characters and I loved creating that dirty, rotten town.”

THE “MAD MEN” ERA

Television eventually came calling once more – while Bryant was designing a Bruce Willis-movie in New Orleans. “My agent called me and said, ‘Hey Janie, there’s this 1960s show that’s gearing up. You should fly back home,’” she says. “I flew back from New Orleans because Bruce Willis quit the movie and then the director quit. Nobody really knew what was going on. It was in upheaval.” 

Bryant arrived at Los Angeles Center Studios for a meeting with “Mad Men” showrunner Matthew Weiner – only to inadvertently meet him in the elevator on her way to the interview. She recaps the story as if reliving it in the moment. “I run into the elevator and I see this man,” she says. “He has on this gorgeous plaid sport coat and I look at him and say, ‘I love your sport coat.’ I was still in my western mode. I don’t know why I was wearing a western outfit to my interview for ‘Mad Men,’ but I had my big western J buckle. He was like, ‘I like your buckle. Are you Janie?’ I was like, ‘Are you Matt Weiner?’ So we met on the elevator giving each other compliments and we sat down and talked for two hours and the next day they hired me and then that was eight years of my life.”

However, when Bryant signed on, she says she had no idea the project would change the trajectory of her life and her career.

“I loved season one because it was just our secret that we kept in a box,” she says. “It was private and it was our little thing. Once it was out, it had a whole life of its own. My life totally changed in so many ways. It opened doors. The culture changed. Menswear changed because of the costume design on the show. Women changed how they dressed. Fashion designers were inspired and being influenced by my work on the show.”

The cast and crew found themselves in a tightknit bubble. ‘“We were all close, so we spent a lot of time together socially outside of shooting the show,” she says, adding that she still keeps in touch with much of the cast and crew. “We still have a ‘Mad Men’ text chain,” she says. “Kiernan [Shipka] just invited me to a party, but I was in Texas. She’s such a gorgeous young lady. She was a child. It’s the same thing you’re going to say about your children. You were a baby—and now you’re a grown up!”

Bryant also appreciated how connected viewers felt to the series. “People would call and say, ‘I would love to donate my grandmother’s things.’ ‘I have vintage clothing. Can I send them to you?’ ‘I have vintage fabric. Can I send it to you?’ People wanted a little part of their lives on the show,” Bryant says. “I appreciated everything that anybody sent to me – that just wanted to be a part of it.” 

Through the series, Bryant also had the chance to revisit working in the fashion industry, which she calls a “totally different world” than the film business.

“I designed a ‘Mad Men’ x Brooks Brothers suit and then I designed three collections with Banana Republic,” she says, explaining that she suddenly found herself in a higher profile, more forward-facing position that led to appearances on QVC, HSN, and “The Nate Berkus Show.” She also wrote The Fashion File: Advice, Tips, and Inspiration from the Costume Designer of Mad Men with her best friend Monica Corcoran Harel, the founder of Pretty Ripe.

“I loved having the experience,” Bryant says, but looking back, “I really wish that I had been able to enjoy it more, you know? Most of the time I felt overwhelmed and busy. I wasn’t able to relax.”

BALANCE & JOY

The hustle was real – which made finding balance an impossibility. “Most of my life during those years was a lot of work,” says Bryant, who got married and divorced during her years with “Mad Men.”

Around that time, she briefly – once again – contemplated leaving the television and film business. “I’d decided, ‘I’m not going to do costume design anymore; I’m going to go back to the fashion business or maybe I’m going to have my own brand,’” she says. “It was 2015 and I’d just finished the eight years of ‘Mad Men.’”

She collaborated with a slew of brands including Los Angeles clothing label Black Halo and Australian footwear brand Shoes of Prey. She was even tasked with designing chic uniforms for Washington D.C.’s The Watergate Hotel.

“I wanted to keep the momentum going,” Bryant says, reflecting on the highs and lows of the time. “I wanted to be involved in designing more collaborations. I wanted to be doing more things and expanding my brand. I was so caught up in that whole machine of trying to do that.”

She pauses.

“I don’t really feel that way anymore.”

Really? 

“No.”

What changed?

“I think I just became happy,” she says, “or I should say—joyful.”

“The last few years, I’ve gone down a spiritual journey,” Bryant says. “I started working with this amazing woman Gia Kenyatta, a dating and marriage coach because I’ve been married twice. I just got to the point where I felt, ‘I need some help in this area.’ I’ve always been a spiritual person, but she’s really helped me. I still work with her. She’s taught me: ‘Everything has to do with your relationship with yourself. If you are not good with that, you’re never going to be good with anybody else.’” 

But it took Bryant a beat to reach a place of enlightenment. “I was doing a lot of collaborations and my marriage, basically, fell to pieces,” she says, frankly. “I was like, ‘I have to go and design a show because I need to make money.’” She laughs. “I knew that I needed to have a consistent amount of money coming in and not rely on doing the collaborations.”

Shortly after, actress Eva Longoria hired Bryant to design her NBC comedy series “Telenovela,” which Longoria both starred in and produced. “It was so much fun. I love Eva Longoria. She is a firecracker and an inspiration. That brought me back into costume design again.”

Bryant then designed “The Last Tycoon” with Lily Collins and the 2017 remake of Stephen King’s “It.” Most recently, she wrapped the second season of the series “Why Women Kill” and the “Yellowstone” prequel “1883.”

THE CHALLENGES

While one can’t imagine Bryant – at this point in her career – having to audition for work, she insists that the industry is a relentless hustle. “There have been a lot of challenges – like not getting a show that I really wanted to design and dealing with the disappointment of that.” However, she says, she’s come “to understand that the universe has a bigger plan for me … because whenever I have not gotten a show that I really wanted, I’ve always gotten something better. I believe in divine timing, but that is a hard lesson to learn because there’s so much ego attachment to that… the disappointment of not getting a job. That is really ego, right? Or it’s thinking, ‘This would have been so creatively satisfying.’ As a freelance person, you’re always auditioning.”

Bryant says she’s since learned to focus on the blessings she’s had throughout her career. “The art of appreciation is something that took me a long time to learn,” she admits. “Once the ego is set aside, you come to grips with, ‘Something else is going to come along.’” 

Beyond these occasional professional disappointments, Bryant says she’s had to navigate difficult work environments along the way. “I’ve worked on shows where I probably should have gone to HR,” she says, cryptically. “In situations that were not particularly healthy in the film business, which happens and I think that that was another great lesson for me – how to navigate those waters.” While she declines to elaborate, she clarifies, “I’m not talking about ‘Me Too’ moments. I’m talking about abusive work situations.”

THE NOW

Despite the on and off production shutdowns throughout the pandemic, Bryant has been lucky enough to keep busy over the last couple of years. However, she – like everyone else – had a brief reprieve during the summer of 2020. “I drove from L.A. to Tennessee during the darkest days of L.A. and COVID,” she says. “I hadn’t spent so much time with my family in twenty years. For three months, I spent time on the lake in Tennessee with my mom and my brothers and sisters.”

The break gave her time to reflect and, shortly after, Bryant relocated from her Larchmont home to her current rental property in Glendale. She then began shooting the second season of “Why Women Kill.”

“At first, it was scary,” she says. “It was the first job back. It was interesting—like, ‘What are these skills that we haven’t practiced in seven months?’ It was a little bit like culture shock because people had not worked in so long and so our skills weren’t as sharp as when you practice something every day. I finished ‘Why Women Kill’ at the end of April, and then I was hired to design ‘1883.’ Taylor Sheridan had asked me to design ‘Yellowstone’ and then he called and said, ‘Listen, we’re not going to shoot ‘Yellowstone’ yet. Do you want to design ‘1883’ instead?’”

The project was a natural fit for Bryant given her background working on “Deadwood.” “I remember one day on-set for ‘1883,’ I told my crew, ‘You know when I designed ‘Deadwood,’ I really did not think I was going to be back here in all that fake dirt again,’” she laughs. “It’s a full circle moment.”

Bryant spent five months filming “1883” in Texas. She’d returned home just a few days earlier. Her partly unpacked suitcases fill her bedroom.

“This year has really been a year of contrasts because I designed the second season of ‘Why Women Kill,’ which takes place in 1949—the ultimate period of glamour,” she reflects. “It’s Dior, the new look. Fashion was back after the end of World War II. Everything was about a corseted waist, a petty coat. Dior really looked to the Victorian era for his inspiration for the new look. It was such a glamorous period and I loved it.”

“‘1883’ is a whole different show,” she continues. “When you watch, I want the audience to feel the severity of the elements because it’s rough. There are no modern conveniences. There’s not. That’s how we felt every single day shooting it, too. It was a reality both for the cast and the crew.”

When she returned home she remembers thinking, “I’m so happy. I can wear hair, make-up, lashes, high heels.” Even so, Bryant says, “I love creating worlds. I love creating facades. I totally romanticize the past and creating those different genres and I love letting the audience relive that through costume design.”

WHAT’S NEXT

“I love doing what I do, but I’m really happy to be home,” says Bryant, who also recently collaborated with outdoor apparel company Tom Beckbe as well as Hamilton Watches on a line of six timepieces featuring diamond accents, light yellow gold PVD, and powdery rose leather detail. “I had the best time doing that. I’m so proud of the collection and how it turned out.”

Following the success of “1883,” Bryant is set to design “Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches” starring Harry Hamlin and Alexandra Daddario.

However, Bryant’s long-term goal doesn’t involve costumes, fashion, design, or material things. Instead, she’s focused on paying her success forward. “My dream beyond costume design is that I want to build a school for underprivileged girls,” she says. “I went to an all girls boarding school. I loved that experience so much. It changed the course of my life.”

Inspired by her upbringing and her father – who studied at the Tennessee Military Institute in Sweetwater, Tennessee – Bryant says she would love to house it at her father’s old stomping grounds, which she drove by while visiting her family during the earliest days of COVID. 

“The building has been condemned, but it’s this beautiful old brick fortress,” she says. “I want to have a very specific program of combining education and life skills; gardening, dancing, painting, learning the arts, and manners in a preparatory school [for students] to go on to higher learning and an Ivy League education. That is my dream of all dreams.”

She wants to call it Sweetwater. “That’s something that I’ve been brewing in my mind for later,” Bryant says.

Perhaps, consciously or unconsciously, it’s Bryant’s way of fulfilling her dad’s dream for her. Or maybe it’s her way of embodying that role for others – to make sure others have “the finer things in life” and are “protected” and “provided for” – without any need to “get married and create a family” – not unlike many themes explored on “Mad Men” and much like Bryant’s own unique path.

Bryant says her father respected the fact that she forged her own path. “He was so proud of me,” she says. “He really was…” Her voice breaks as she tears up. “When he was dying, he told me. But really, I had just started my career. I’d just finished doing a music video.” She wipes away tears. “I’m sorry. I haven’t thought about that moment in a long time.” She takes a deep breath and smiles. “I think he’s proud.”

HOW SHE LIVES…

“I sold my house in Larchmont last spring because I thought, ‘I’m ready to leave Los Angeles,’” Bryant says. “I wanted to be in nature and have more space and more tranquility in my life. I said to myself, ‘Where am I going to do that?’” She decided on Glendale and moved in March 2021. “I loved this place because it’s not necessarily my typical style. I don’t usually gravitate to mid-century modern. Even though I love it, stylistically it’s not my thing so much, but I loved the idea of living in a mid-century modern house since I wasn’t buying a house. I walked into this house and thought, ‘I love the feel of this place. I love the light. I love the space. I love the pool.’ I lived in a house growing up [where] we had a pool, but I hadn’t in California lived in a house with a pool. This is a great place to wake up every morning with the canyons.”

THE NEIGHBORS

“The first week that I was here, I had red-breasted robins make a nest in the front light fixture,” she says. “I knew that the red-breasted robins were making a nest because at my mom’s lake house I would see the birds dart underneath the boat and they were building. They come every season and they build their nest underneath the boat. So I saw the red-breasted robins do that the first week that I moved here. When I moved into this house, I felt this spirit and joyfulness here and I loved the idea that these little birds were coming to greet me and build their nest here and start their family here. The mother bird hatched five blue beautiful eggs. The daddy bird and the mama bird would switch off on duties, sitting on the eggs, and one day, the babies hatched. I called my mom everyday because I was like, ‘Mom, I think those birds have died. They’re not moving. What do I do?’ She said, ‘Janie, they’re just resting. They’re babies. Don’t worry. They’ll survive and if they don’t, it’s nature. Don’t worry.’ They were fine. They all survived. They flew the coop. I was like, ‘I’m sad. My little babies have gone.’”

THE ROOMMATE

Bryant lives with a standard poodle named Prince Valiant. “I rescued him at three,” she says. “I had my other standard poodle Lucy [at the time] and she was getting older. I wanted to get another dog for her, so I went online to find a rescue poodle. He was at a bad breeder and he had been surrendered with his two other brothers that were breeder dogs. He was used as a stud dog and he was basically a big head and a boney body. … He was so damaged. He hid outside for a year. I had to go chase him down. He would go in the yard and would be anti-social. He’s come a long way. He’s such a magical dog. He’s eleven now and he’s perfect. Now he flies with me everywhere. He’s a certified service dog. He goes to set with me every day. He goes with me everywhere. He’s always with me. In Texas [where ‘1883’ was shooting], all the cowboys were like, ‘What’s up with that haircut?’”

THE STAINED GLASS GIFT

“These are my three poodles—Valli, Daisy, and Lucy,” Bryant says. “This was made for me by my sister’s mother-in-law. Her friend does stained glass work. … These are three standard poodles, but I started with toys. When I was a little girl, my grandmother would make our Christmas stockings and my grandmother made my Christmas stocking with felt and sequins. She made my stocking with a train and on the train there sat a black standard poodle. So from the time I was a very little girl, I was obsessed with poodles.”

THE DANCING POODLES

“My first poodle was a black toy poodle,” she says. “His name was Bosco and I loved him so much. Then I rescued my silver toy poodle and his name was Otto and I got him from the Humane Society in New York City and then my third poodle was my first standard, Lucy, and then I got Valli and then I got Daisy. So I had Lucy and Valli—they’re my champagne poodles and then Daisy was my white poodle. I rescued her, too. I rescued all three of them. There are so many poodles that need to be rescued.” She points to a white figurine. “My babysitter when I was a child, her daughter lives in L.A., and we became very close. She’s kind of like my little sister. She bought me these little vintage dancing poodles.”

THE ANTIQUES

“There are amazing antique stores in Whittier, California,” she says. “So I go down there a lot and I found these beautiful jars there. I just love them so much. Those are part of my vintage collection. I love collecting china, sterling silver, crystal. I’m super old-fashioned.”

THE SHELL

“I got this shell in Mexico,” she says. “I got it in the most magical place called Holbox, Mexico. Most people don’t know about it. It’s an underdeveloped little place that is so beautiful. I bought it before I knew that you shouldn’t take shells from the ocean. One of my old assistant designers, she was my assistant designer on ‘Mad Men,’ she said, ‘My mother would never let us collect and take things from the ocean,’ because her mother always taught her it was important to leave things. You can pick it up, you can listen to the sea inside the shell, but always put the shells back. This was the last thing that I have taken from the ocean. But isn’t that the most magical thing? It is

THE CRYSTAL

“I love decanters,” she says. “My parents always had decanters in the liquor cabinet. Bar culture was popular when I was growing up and my parents always made us be the bartenders. By the time, I was ten or eleven, I knew how to mix drinks. It’s a good southern skill, right? Know how to make your cocktails, ladies! My mom and my dad would have big parties and they would always dress us up and we would tend bar.” A white wine goblet sits in the center. “This was my mom’s that she gave to me,” Bryant says. “I love white. It’s the color of enlightenment. Really orange is the color of enlightenment and creativity, which is why Buddhists wear orange. But white is that light, airy, bright color. I love it.”

ENTERTAINING

“I’m not a big drinker,” she says, “but I do love champagne and if I have a cocktail, I’ll have a Gold Rush, which is bourbon and lemon and a dash of honey. That is my cocktail. I do like bourbon and then I squeeze a whole lemon in there. I like it tart with a dash of honey and then you just put rocks in there. If you have a cold, you can have it hot because it’s a good hot toddy, too.” 

THE OLD HOLLYWOOD ART

“Those were given to me by my ex-husband,” she says. “He bought them from a street artist in New York City. I love Audrey and I love Marilyn, of course. So he bought them for me.”

THE COOKBOOK

“This book is by my friend Melinda Lee Holm,” Bryant says. “She is such a talented, beautiful artist. She is a jewelry designer and then she reads tarot cards. She also has a brand of spiritual oils and body products. She wrote this tarot card cookbook. Look at that Baked Alaska. I mean, don’t you want to eat that up? It’s a pity I don’t cook.”

THE ICON

“My mom gave this Dolly Parton book to me,” she says. “She’s a fellow Tennessean. My Tennessee connection is Elvis, but I love Dolly, too.” 

THE COMICAL COFFEE TABLE BOOK

“This book is amazing too,” she says. “My friend Monique Marvez is a comedian. She gave me this book. Ya’ll, this book is crazy. Can you believe [it says]—‘ Crinoline—Fashion’s Most Magnificent Disaster!’ I beg to differ! I think it’s the most incredible invention ever—along with the corset. I know a thing or two about corsets. I mean, look how fabulous! I love foundation garments for the manipulation of the female form. Of course, it’s created by men.” She laughs. “They’re like, ‘You’re uncomfortable? Oh, too bad!’”

THE MEMORIES

“My ex-husband took that photo in Palm Springs,” she says. “It was the morning of my birthday and I’d just woken up and the poodles were on the bed. Valli is here still luckily. Lucy passed when she was thirteen.”

THE CAT PAINTING

“I got it at one of my favorite vintage furniture stores at Casa Victoria in Silver Lake,” she says. “I love Persians. A Persian [cat] is like a poodle. I love any fancy animal. I grew up with Persians and the reason I bought this painting is because for my parents’ first year anniversary before I was born, my dad bought my mom a silver tip Persian named Tippy and Tippy was my love. I loved that cat so much. But I’ve had poodles ever since I was on my own.”

THE PORCELAIN DOLL

“That was my mother’s and she gave it to me,” she says. “It was a gift to my mother from my grandfather when he traveled to Japan. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a geisha girl and that was the first thing that I ever drew as well. I was obsessed with kimonos, obis, the hairstyles, the make-up. I just thought that was the ultimate expression of femininity. I love that doll/statue.”

A LOVE OF TRAVEL

“I love traveling,” she says. “I’ve gotten to go to a lot of amazing places while designing movies. I was two months in Morocco and I was two months in South Africa. I designed ‘The Hills Have Eyes 2’ and then I designed ‘Last House on the Left.’ I was in Morocco during Ramadan, which was incredible. I loved meeting the people there and learning about their culture. Most of my team was Moroccan, so during Ramadan they can’t eat all day and so then at five, they would have to go and pray and they could eat once the sun went down. And I love South Africa too. I want to go to every single country on that continent.”

HER JUMPSUIT & STYLE

“I’m obsessed with this jumpsuit,” she says, clad in a look by British / Lebanese designer Nadine Merabi. “I found this brand recently on Instagram. Her things fit me like a glove. I actually ordered a white lace jumpsuit because I was getting ready to [host] the Hamilton Watch launch. I love her evening stuff. It totally suits my personality. I love anything that sparkles. I love feminine things. I love girly things. She incorporates all my favorite elements of style, which is sparkles, lace, feathers, velvet, everything. I love the fit of her clothing. It’s sexy, but not too sexy. It’s still sophisticated and glamorous.”

THE GLAMOUR

“Designing ‘1883,’ my regular daily costume would be jeans, cowboy boots, a cowgirl hat, usually a t-shirt, and a belt,” she says. “Usually, I would have lots of dirt all over me.” She laughs. “I told the producer one day, ‘I need some glamour. Please.’ We were getting ready to go to a new hotel in a dusty little town in Texas and I was like, ‘Can I please maybe stay at a Ritz Carlton?’ They were like, ‘Janie, I think you’re lucky that there’s a Motel 6.’ I said, ‘Honey, you’re probably right. There’s not even a Ritz cracker there.’ I was like, ‘I need glamour. I need a bubble bath. I need to get the dirt from underneath my fingernails out.’”

HER STYLE PHILOSOPHY

“This is sort of like an Elvis outfit, isn’t it?” she says. “I think Elvis would wear this – like in a manly way. He was sexy and glamorous and gorgeous. He was so manly that he could wear pink.” Of her personal style philosophy, Bryant says, “I only like to wear things once. I never want to repeat an outfit. I don’t like it. [My friend and Pretty Ripe founder] Monica always gives me a hard time, ‘Janie, that’s not very sustainable.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I’m like Zsa Zsa [Gabor], so once is enough.’ The only reason I repeated it was because I wasn’t doing red carpet. I am not ashamed. I am a true Southern belle.”

THE IVORY DRESS

“I love story of my ivory silk Valentino gown,” she says. “I was designing ‘Deadwood’ and I got nominated. I couldn’t believe that I got nominated for the costume design. The amazing, lovely, generous, wonderful, genius David Milch, the creator of ‘Deadwood’ said to me, ‘Janie, go down to Rodeo Drive and find yourself a gown for the Emmys. Send me the bill.’ I couldn’t believe it. So David bought me that beautiful gown. I cherish that gown.”

THE GRECIAN GOWN

“I was nominated again,” she says, referencing a second Valentino dress. “I went back to Valentino because I had made friends with the number one salesperson at Valentino. We were friends for a long time. Anyway, I went back a year later and was like, ‘I’m nominated again. I need a gown.’ [The salesperson] was like, ‘This is the last one on this mannequin and it’s your size.’ It’s almost like a Grecian goddess dress with silk pink chiffon and beading of silver and gold. I love that dress.” While she tends to avoid re-wearing clothing, she admits, “I did re-wear both dresses. I wore my white silk gown to another ‘Deadwood’ Emmy event and then I wore the pink/lavender gown to the Emmys one year when the show was nominated for ‘Mad Men’ and we won.”

THE SOUVENIR

“I also have the dress that Jane Sterling wore to the ‘Mad Men’ Christmas party,” she says, “when [Roger] Sterling had just married Jane Sterling. I actually bought it from a costume house called Roxy. They were selling all of their inventory. A couple years ago, they decided to close shop after being in business forever. I had rented so many of their gorgeous things when I was designing ‘Mad Men.’ Jane Sterling wore that beaded sleeveless shift dress, which was also another total goddess dress. I love [actress who played her] Peyton List so much. She was my muse for that season. I always loved to dress her in ivory. So I was at Roxy, going through all of their stock, because we were buying costumes for ‘Why Women Kill.’ I found that in their stock and I was like, ‘I have to have this.’ So I bought it. It was one of my favorite things that I did on ‘Mad Men.’ So I bought it for myself. I might wear it. It’s so chic.”

THE JEWELRY

“This is my friend Victoria [Natkin] Goodman,” she says. “Her jewelry line is called VNG. She gave this to me for my birthday last year. She hand-crochets leather. Isn’t it gorgeous? This is a vintage broach. Victoria’s husband is Gary Goodman, an old friend of mine. He’s one of the head executives at Lionsgate. I became friends with him when I designed ‘Mad Men’ and then Victoria and I became friends. She does the most beautiful work.”

THE EARRINGS

“These are some of my favorite earrings,” she says, referencing a pair she purchased at Intermix. “They work with a lot of artisan jewelry makers. It’s all of my favorite things—green, gold, pearls.”

THE SCENTS

“I love perfume,” she says, sharing that her signature scent is Gucci Gardenia.

THE STATUE

“One of my favorite paintings is the Birth of Venus,” she says, referencing artist Alexandre Cabanel’s painting, which is housed in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. “I’m a Libra, so I’m ruled by Venus.”

THE BELIEF

“This is how you make your dreams and desires come true…” she says, discussing the spiritual journey she’s found herself on. “You manifest through writing. Gia is the one who got me started on journaling and affirmations. That led me to 369, which is Nikola Tesla’s technique of manifesting. To make dreams and desires come true, it has to be written over and over and over.”