Alison Freer's Blog

Yes, It's Possible to Visit Your Family in a Pandemic — Here’s How I Did It

Yes, It's Possible to Visit Your Family in a Pandemic — Here’s How I Did It

— A disclaimer: I am obviously not a doctor. I don’t even play one on TV. I am, however, an obsessive researcher of COVID information, facts, best practices, and latest developments. I was urging folks to wear mask s at the end of March, when the CDC and WHO were telling us not to. I’ve become a vocal advocate for daily rapid COVID tests that can be administered at home. I have access to a COVID specialist who is working t...

This is the Cadillac of Hand Sanitizers

In the course of an average day on set, I touch anywhere from 25300 people while getting them dressed for a scene. Besides the main actors on a show, we regularly dress a crowd of hundreds of background artists for restaurant and party scenes. Its impossible to wash my hands between every single person I come in contact with, so Ive long relied on hand sanitizer to keep things clean and fresh while at work. But not all hand sanitizers are created equal  and Im not interested in using the...

Don't Put Your Purse on the Floor

Don’t Put Your Purse on the Floor

People have been asking what the inspiration was for my new book about accessories (called ‘The Accessory Handbook’, available today everywhere books are sold), and the truth is this: One moment in a restaurant with no place to put my fancy purse made me realize that the world was seriously lacking a definitive guide to wearing and caring for all those fashion accessories you own but aren’t sure what to do with—scarves, hats, belts, shoes, rings, necklaces, gl...

Who Needs Santa?

Who Needs Santa? 12 Days of the Very Best Holiday Trinkets Money Can Buy

Here’s the Real Reason Nordstrom Dumped Ivanka Trump’s Line

Earlier this week, luxe department store Nordstrom announced they would no longer carry first daughter Ivanka Trump’s namesake line of clothing, jewelry, shoes and handbags. They cited lagging sales, something our newly inaugurated president quickly took umbrage with:

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My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right t...

The Best Valentine’s Day Gift is a Knife

Three Valentine’s days ago, I gave this Benchmade Mini-Griptilian pocket knife to my dude in black. The next year, he gave me one in pink. Nobody’s been murdered yet, but the relationship is still young. (I think it’s due to the fact that we aren’t technically married yet, to be brutally honest.)

Benchmade Mini-Griptilian pocket knife, $93.

Everyone thinks we’re nuts for gifting each other knives, but I will say this: opening Amazon packages in our house is a breeze. It’s also become my go-to t...

Use the Stain Remover the Pros Use

This is the Stain Remover the Pros Use

Actors are the sloppiest eaters on earth. And to make matters worse, catering is always doing something dumb like serving them spaghetti with red sauce for lunch. Have you ever tried to make a famous person wear a bib when they eat? You’d only attempt it once, I promise—because they’ll get your ass fired ASAP when you stand over them like a mean mommy and insist they put it on. (Or so I hear.)

That’s why every costume designer, stylist, and set costumer worth their salt drags this little piece of chalk encased in plastic around with them:

Janie Dry Spot Cleaner, $6.55.

Janie Dry Spot Cleaner (which I actually thought was called ‘Janie On The Spot’ until just this very second) is a dry stain stick made of absorbent clays that soaks up oily, greasy stains flawlessly. You don’t need any water, and it’s totally solvent-free—so it will never, ever leave a ring or discolor even the most gentle fabric. Just rub on, wait five minutes, and brush the excess residue off with the included brush.

I once sent my Janie stick home with an actress who had a stubborn cat puke stain on an outrageously expensive silk chair. When a giant bouquet of flowers arrived from her the next day, I figured it must have worked. She won a Golden Globe a few years back, and I’m assuming she had my Janie stick in her handbag that night—because as I was watching, I realized that she never did give it back to me.

Janie Spot Dry Cleaner, $6.55.

Find me on Instagram , Facebook , or Twitter . You can also sign up for my email list here or by texting ALISONFREER to 22828. I’ll only ever send you the cutest stuff — promise!

Use the Stain Remover the Pros Use was originally published in Alison Freer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A Peek Inside Lucille Ball’s Private Hollywood Bungalow

Lucy at home with Desi Jr. (GETTY + HULTON ARCHIVE)A Private Peek Inside My Office, Lucille Ball’s Private Bungalow On The Lot At Paramount Pictures

I am the first person to silence anyone who thinks my career as a costume designer is somehow full of non-stop glamour.

While it has some seriously fun, creative moments, the truth is that part of my job still entails picking up my actor’s dirty socks. But right now, things are indeed sort of special, magic, and glam.

You see, my costume office on the lot at Paramount Pictures is currently none other than Lucille Ball’s personal bungalow, which she used all throughout the 1960s—and which is attached to ‘lucky’ Stage 25, home of wildly successful shows like Cheers, Frasier, and Lucy’s own, I Love Lucy.

Here’s a fun fact about Stage 25: it comes equipped with a very special, super powerful A/C system, and I have it on good authority that it was installed due to a particular Cheers and Frasier star who would sweat under the stage lights like a whore in church. (I’m not one to name names, but his or her initials are indeed K.G.)

My front door.

If you’ve taken the studio tour at Paramount recently and wondered whose ridiculous pink Hello Kitty Bike that was parked in front of the Lucy Bungalow, guess what? It’s mine!

One of the hazards of riding a bike while wearing a skirt is getting said skirt caught in the chain—and falling flat on your ass.

The Paramount lot was actually Desilu Gower Studios from 1957–1967, and I Love Lucy was filmed on stage 25 from 1962–1968. Owners Desi Arnaz and Ball sold Desilu in 1967, and it quickly became Paramount Television.

Photo, LIFE magazine.

Here’s a little known fact: Lucy bought Desi out after their 1960 divorce, and ran the studio by herself for the next seven years!

The tour guides at Paramount are thrilled that I’m working in the Lucy Bungalow right now, because I have the doors wide open all the time, so they can give the endless tours that traipse across the lot a tiny peek at what it looks like inside. (I guess past occupants have always kept the windows and doors sealed up tight, but a great perk of living in Southern California is being able to keep them open all January long!)

I love it when I’m busy working on my mood boards for an episode and suddenly hear the click of a tourist’s camera. I’m glad it’s getting seen, used and loved! I’m not so pleased about how many people have likely taken unflattering photos of me with my ‘concentrating face’, but whatevs.

I’m not really sure how much of the space I’m even allowed to show you, but here’s a quick little mini-tour I actually made with my iPhone for my mother to show her that I have, in fact, made it big in Hollywood. I’ve never had such an amazing workspace before, and I doubt I will again. (I’ve already seen the office for my next show, and it’s a horrible basement affair with no windows.)

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This little bungalow previously belonged to a star as big as Lucy herself. Katherine Hepburn was signed to a long-term contract at RKO Pictures, and was the star in residence in our cozy bungalow before Desilu took over the property.

Paint-by-numbers Pinkie and Blue Boy hanging out above my desk.

Lucy’s bungalow has two separate rooms (plus a bathroom and plenty of closets) which are connected by a mini-kitchen. Paramount’s resident historian, Gary DeVaughn, tells me that the main room (where I sit and where we hold all our costume fittings) was actually the living room, where Lucy would entertain visitors and give interviews to the press.

The little kitchen still has its original Westinghouse appliances, as Westinghouse was a sponsor of Desilu at the time. The gas oven still works beautifully, and I sometimes bake cookies for the cast in it like the happy homemaker Lucy herself played.

“Let me slip into something more comfortable.”

I tend to put the female actors on our show in lots of skirts and dresses (it’s my default signature style), and sometimes they balk — saying that they can’t perform the comedy bits written for them in a skirt. I like to remind them that we are standing on hallowed ground here in Lucille Ball’s private bungalow, and that she did EVERYTHING in a skirt so women could be taken seriously as comedic actresses. (They always cave and wear what I want them to.)

My assistant costume designer and our production assistant sit in the room that was once Lucy’s bedroom and dressing room. This room used to have a door that led directly onto Stage 25 so Lucy never had to walk outside if she didn’t want to.

But the sad, sadder, saddest part of the whole Lucy Bungalow experience is that prior to my moving in, the original pastel pink, late 1950’s bathroom fixtures were removed to make the offices more modern. Alas, I never got to pee in Lucy’s toilet.

All sorts of crazy junk goes on in our suite of offices. We once made an inflatable tuxedo, because it’s best to be prepared for anything that life may throw your way.

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We also have a little buddy who shares the office with us—a beautiful black kitty that we feed and who we named, DUH, Lucy.

Miss Lucy surveying the space.

Right before I started working in the Lucy Bungalow, I was perusing a back issue of The Costume Designer’s Guild magazine—and on the very last page was a flashback photo of legendary costume designer Photo, ‘The Costume Designer’ magazine.

He made many of her clothes on the show, most memorably the burlap dresses in the ‘Lucy Gets a Gown’ episode. I promptly ripped the page out and had it framed. It now hangs happily in Lucy’s little bungalow.

Still life of Lucy pic with viking hats.

Sometimes, just for a little while, life is so very grand.

**A footnote: I wrote this post some time ago, while actually working in the bungalow. I waited to publish it until my non-disclosure clause finally ran out.

Find me on Instagram , Facebook , or Twitter . You can also sign up for my email list here or by texting ALISONFREER to 22828. I’ll only ever send you the cutest stuff — promise!

A Peek Inside Lucille Ball’s Private Hollywood Bungalow was originally published in Alison Freer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

One Lip Balm to Rule Them All

Hello, it’s me: your lizard queen. Come closer—and let me smooch you with my dry, scaly, horrible wintertime lips that are practically falling off my wretched face.

FYI: I bought this wig in real life and it is AWFUL.

Real talk though: How did this even happen? Not only do I live in California, land of zero winter weather, I am a lip balm junkie of the highest order. I’m talking Operating Thetan status here! (You are watching Leah Remini’s crazy new Sci-Ti exposé show, right?)

My collection of personal lip products is unparalleled in these modern times, and I never go more than an hour without slathering some of it on my face.

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The Internet will tell you the reason for your awful chapped lips is that you aren’t drinking enough water—but that is patently untrue. I drink so much water that I’ve had to have an office with adjacent bathroom written into my deal memos on shows, otherwise I’d never get any work done walking back and forth to the loo. Yet still, my lips are in terrible shape right now.

I’m pretty sure the old fashioned floor heater in my 1911 Craftsman house is what’s causing my lips to be dried to bits this winter (because I never have this problem in the summertime, despite being outside in the sun all day every day)—but I’m not going to sit here and freeze to death with the heat off, so I’ve had to seek out some solutions.

The same dumb Internet that told you the solution to chapped lips was drinking more water will also tell you to exfoliate those lips with a toothbrush. Immediately disregard any and all advice from the person who tells you to do this, for they are wrong. A toothbrush is far too rough for lips that are already stressed out. Instead, jump into the shower and use a warm, damp washcloth and massage your smackers in small circles.

If you really want to go for broke, try this delicious lip exfoliator made from real corn grits called (are you ready for this) Kiss My Grits! (A nod to the great Flo from Alice, no doubt.)

‘Kiss My Grits’ lip scrub by Salacia Salts, $12.95.

Made with white corn grits, organic sugar, coconut oil, pecan oil, sea salt, and vitamin E, it’s the most luxurious way I’ve found to exfoliate the horrible dry lip skin that is currently making your lipstick look like hell. I just smear it on and lick it off, as everything in it is food-grade quality—but you may want to behave like a human-type woman and use a warm, damp washcloth to remove it instead.

Once you’ve dealt with the dry, flaky skin, it’s time to mucho-moisturize. But not just any lip goo will do. No, you need to bring in the big guns. And that means First Aid Beauty’s Ultra Repair Intensive Lip Balm.

First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Intensive Lip Balm, $20. (With FREE scooper from Sephora.)

Made with beeswax, safflower and sweet almond oils, shea butter and honey, it has brought my lips back from the dead when even my $60/tub La Mer lip balm couldn’t do the trick. It stays on for 5+ hours (even through light drinking), and I just recently realized that I went an entire day without applying anything after using it overnight. I think the secret ingredient is beeswax, as I’ve noticed most petroleum-based products tend to just sit like snail slime on top of my lips and not really sink in so they can get to softening.

I always feel like I’m gunking up my fancy lip balm pots by sticking my dirty fingers in them all day long, so the last time I was at Sephora I snagged a handful of those little plastic scoopers they have for sampling products. (But before I did, I asked the clerk who was helping me. She said “as long as you’re buying something, it’s fine!” So snag to your heart’s content the next time you’re picking up a new nail polish.) It’s the perfect lip balm accoutrement—and it keeps everything pristinely clean, just as I’d hoped.

Consider this case of horrific chapped lips officially CLOSED.

Find me on Instagram , Facebook , or Twitter . You can also sign up for my email list here or by texting ALISONFREER to 22828. I’ll only ever send you the cutest stuff — promise!

One Lip Balm to Rule Them All was originally published in Alison Freer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

10 Crazy Things to Buy From Debbie Reynolds’ Hollywood Collection

10 Crazy Things to Buy From Debbie Reynolds' Legendary Hollywood Collection

True story: I was once rummaging in the bowels of the Warner Brothers Costume Department in Burbank when I happened upon a simple white T-shirt with a black ringer collar. Attached to it was a tag that said:

“This is one of 10 T-shirts worn by Marlon Brando in The Wild One.”

Marlon Brando, 1953.

I immediately dismissed the possibility of it being real—but later realized that The Wild One was released by Columbia Pictures, which eventually became The Burbank Studios. Both companies shared the Warner Brothers Studio lot, so it’s actually not too far-fetched to think that this piece of iconic movie memorabilia could have still been floating around some 47 years later.

It sounds crazy, but Hollywood studios are notorious for not giving a hoot what happens to the costumes and props used in classic films. Not even 10 years ago, an entire rack of Sissy Spacek’s costumes from Coal Miner’s Daughter was just floating around the aisles of a major movie lot—free for all to touch, try on, and maybe even steal if one was so inclined.

I’ve actually bought some incredible stuff at studio garage sales, like this silver leopard sequined dress Kelly LeBrock wore in Weird Science:

Best worn with red cowboy boots.

Hollywood loves to mindlessly trash its history (storage space isn’t free, kiddies)—and nobody knew this better than the late Debbie Reynolds.

After purchasing somewhere between 3,000–5,000 classic prop and costume pieces throughout the years (starting with a buying spree at the landmark 1970 MGM Studios auction), Reynolds had amassed quite a collection. Her treasures included the tunic Charlton Heston wore in Ben Hur, Orson Welles’ fur coat from Citizen Kane, the headdress Elizabeth Taylor wore in Cleopatra, and the infamous white dress Marilyn Monroe wore to stand over a subway grate in The Seven Year Itch (created by costume designer William Travilla).

Reynolds with her movie treasures in 1971.

Reynolds dreamed of one day opening a museum to house them all—and a full 25 years after she first began collecting, the Debbie Reynolds Hollywood Movie Museum finally opened in the showroom of her very own Las Vegas hotel.

Sadly, the hotel went bust just two years later—and Reynolds was forced to file for bankruptcy. The museum was no more, and most of her collection was sold at three separate auctions from 2011–2014.

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However, some of her massive collection still lives—and appears to currently be available for purchase online via Debbie’s own website.

That’s right. You can, at this very minute, snag yourself a mink-trimmed dressing gown that belonged to Agnes Moorhead (Endora on the classic TV version of Bewitched), a circa 1960/1970 chiffon gown from Reynolds herself, or the waxen head of Sammy Davis Jr. No bidding necessary—just click “add to cart” and call it a day.

Reynold’s boundless passion for keeping Hollywood’s history safe from harm is hilariously highlighted by this quote from daughter Carrie Fisher, warmly speaking about her mom at the 2015 SAG Awards:

“She has actually been more than a mother to me…including unsolicited stylist, interior decorator, and marriage counselor—as well as being the kind of person who would give you the shirt off her back … if Vivien Leigh hadn’t once worn it in Gone With the Wind.”

Now, who wants to go in with me on the red sequin number that belonged to Phyllis Diller?

I am a costume designer living and working in Hollywood. I’m also the author of ‘How to Get Dressed: A Costume Designer’s Secrets for Making Your Clothes Look, Fit, and Feel Amazing’ .

Find me on Instagram , Facebook , or Twitter . You can also sign up for my email list here or by texting ALISONFREER to 22828. I’ll only ever send you the cutest stuff—promise!

10 Crazy Things to Buy From Debbie Reynolds’ Hollywood Collection was originally published in Alison Freer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.