‘Hacks’ Costume Designer Kathleen Felix-Hager Explains How Ava’s Fashion Arc Mirrored Hannah Einbinder’s Real Life

Everyone’s twenties are a transformative decade, and great art has a tendency to reflect real life. That was certainly the case on “Hacks,” which tracked the journey of stand-up legend Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and her young writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) from a road trip through America’s smallest clubs to a lucrative career comeback. And as costume designer Kathleen Felix-Hager explained during IndieWire’s Craft Roundtables, that transformation naturally showed up in their clothes.

“To me, the character of Ava, she starts in her early twenties coming to L.A. She has an almost juvenile aspect to her wardrobe at that point. By the end of the series, she’s 30,” Felix-Hager said. “We were really conscious every year of showing her evolution, she’s growing up a little bit. By Season 5, she’s making money, so she was able to buy investment pieces. Her basic vibe is the same, but it’s just more sophisticated and more grown-up.”

The designer went on to explain that part of the fun lies in mirroring Einbinder’s real life within Ava. Even though the actress has a very different life than her character, the central premise of a young artist finding herself and growing up within the entertainment industry was the same both onscreen and off.

“It was very interesting for me to work with Hannah the actress, because it was a very similar journey in her personal life,” she said. “She was in her early twenties, ‘Hacks’ was like her show. She wasn’t that confident, it was all new. There was a very similar trajectory with her growth and Ava’s growth.”

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