Dominique Dawson Talks Swarm’s Costume Design (and more!)

Dominique Dawson has had an expansive career within the creative space. She’s shared her talent on projects ranging from costume-designing Roberto Patino’s DMZ starring Rosario Dawson to Colin Kaepernick’s Colin In Black & White.

One of her most recent projects was Swarm, the dramedy thriller that premiered on Prime Video on March 17 of this year. The series followed Dre (Dominique Fishback), an obsessive fan who stalks high-profile pop star Ni’Jah (Nirine S. Brown). In her quest to get close to her idol, Dre starts racking up a body count.

Lots of people saw the similarities between Dre and Ni’Jah in Swarm and real-life megastar Beyonce’s experience with an obsessed fan. A Billboard article discussed that Ni’Jah was in part inspired by Beyonce but also “more than one celebrity.” However, Dre was not inspired by any real-life serial killer. (Thankfully.)

In a crazy twist of fate, I was offered the opportunity to present some questions to Dominique Dawson, Swarm‘s costume designer. Since I’d never had a chance to ask anyone about this aspect of the movie-making process, I jumped at it.

Q&A with Dominique Dawson

HAUNT JAUNTS: Since I’m unfamiliar with this side of the movie-making equation, I guess I’ll start with… How does it work for you? Do you have to audition to get the job like the actors do, or do the producers know, “Hey, I want Dominique Dawson doing costume designs. Find out if she’s available.” And then they reach out to you and you go from there?

Dominque Dawson: Typically, the producers will have seen my work and reach out to my agent to set up a meeting. In this circumstance, they specifically saw my work on The Last Black Man of San Francisco, and they really liked the aesthetic of that and how I was able to keep it grounded in San Francisco but still have moments of magic realism throughout. That’s what they were looking to do with Swarm.

When they did reach out, I went above and beyond, creating this massive creative deck to show them my perspective of how I see the world of Swarm, how gritty and edgy we could go, and that I wasn’t afraid to scale back, as well. Sometimes people want to throw “designer this, designer that” to have eye candy on screen. I was really more intentional about this minimalist type of aesthetic that allowed us to focus on these few garments, their texture, and how they progress over the course of the show.

After the meeting, it’s also a chemistry read with how you and the creators get along. Do you vibe energy-wise? We really hit it off, so we both just knew that it would be a good match.

HJ: Where does the process of designing the costumes begin for you? Reading the script? Talking with the director to try and ensure you understand his or her vision? Other?

DD: The process of costumes always begins with the script. I read the script initially five times, and I read it from various perspectives. I’m looking for “What’s the tone? What is the overall world that we’re stepping into, and what are the rules of this space?”

Then I really hone in on our lead character, looking at it from her perspective, how she sees the world and why she makes the choices she makes. Then, I switch the lens and look at some of the other characters that are featured, looking at it from the female lens and the male lens and seeing how they might function differently within this space. I look at it specifically from the perspective of how our environment changes the personalities in this script.

In this one, she travels to so many different places, so I really want to look at what the needs of that specific environment call for and adjust the clothing. Or, if that character goes against what is thought to be needed. For instance, if you’re in a cold environment, maybe that character says, “I’m tough, I don’t need a jacket.” It’s really getting into the headspace of the character to know if they go along with what everybody does around them, or if they’re a rebel and go against the grain.

With the information I get from the directors and producers, I tailor the deck and have an additional meeting with my crew where I sell them on the vision, so when they’re going out and shopping for me, pulling rentals, and beginning to assemble our pieces, we’re all on the same page.

HJ: As for the outfits in Swarm, whose did you have the most fun with, and whose challenged you the most?

DD: I definitely had the most fun with Ni’Jah’s costumes. We had three different photo shoots to have as much content as we could, and then we went to Mexico City to film the big music video that kind of brainwashes and hypnotizes Dre. As soon as she sees it, she has this visceral reaction and is just so in love with Ni’Jah.

Those were just such amazing opportunities for me to really play and tackle these heightened looks. Yes, we were riffing off some of the looks we know and love from other pop icons, but we still wanted to create this unique, Afro-centric, sexy look that was kind of futuristic in a way but that also still had a tribal element. To me, that was the best part. When we got to Mexico City, there were so many other designers that we had access to, so we were able to pull really unique pieces and beautiful beads and inform the vision of the music video.

What challenged me the most was the bottle episode, number 6, where we have this break in the universe and go into this documentary, kind of “48 Hours” aesthetic. There’s this real detective who’s an African American woman, who is really expressive in how she dresses. She has long French tip fingernails, she loves to wear her jewelry, she gets her hair done, and she’s this really amazing detective.

For that episode, which was directed by Donald’s brother, Stephen Glover, he really wanted to incorporate her fearless fashion. For me, it’s like she’s out there trying to track information on a serial killer. Some of the pieces we were choosing were kind of comical, and so at first I had a hard time toeing the line. I was like, “Shouldn’t she be more serious?” My instinct kept wanting to do that.

As we talked, he was like, “That’s the point.” This is an unconventional killer who gets swept under the rug because nobody thinks that a black woman could get away with this many murders, and she’s being found out by an unconventional detective who people have disregarded and thought was no good because of something as stupid as how she dresses. It’s our responsibility to give her as much personality and fun in her clothing, so that’s when she cracks the case, and we get to see this identity that we judged earlier and look at her differently. We have to pay homage and say, “You did that. You got her.” It raises the question of not judging a book by its cover, basically. Once we had those great conversations, we just went there and gave her the most audacious, loud pieces we could.

HJ: Okay, this next pun is totally intended. Maybe the biggest buzz about Swarm is everyone speculating which star Ni’Jah’s is modeled after. It’s easy to draw similarities with Beyonce, but in a Billboard interview, Janine Nabers said more than one celebrity inspired Ni’Jah’s character. What about Ni’Jah’s costumes? Did Beyonce’s style influence your costume designs at all? Or were they also inspired by a variety of sources?

DD: Of course, Beyonce is the Queen Bee. I couldn’t help but incorporate some of her brilliant looks into Ni’Jah, but it was a combination. Rihanna has this free, effortless fashion that we also incorporated, so not everything was so calculated. The whole point of Ni’Jah’s festival album was to encourage people to let go and break free from the norm, so we utilized fringe, straw, and beads that were just messy and could shake and move and have an unpredictable feeling. That really created this chaotic feeling that Dre also latched onto and infiltrated into her look as well, so you’ll see Dre has little elements of fringe throughout. I think across the board, we looked at Rihanna, Beyonce, and throwback talent like Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson, just those iconic people that live on this pedestal of Goddess level.

They made the choice to cast this amazing girl, Nirine Brown. She’s a professional dancer and actress. She’s dark-skinned, and I wanted to do whatever I could to just let her skin be glorified. Even with the fringe, we added these metallic industrial pieces to this big, fringed garment so that it had this afro-futurism level. Then, the metallic of the garment just made her glow, like she was a superhero. One thing that we maybe haven’t seen is this unapologetic blackness. She was writhing on the ground, in the dirt, unafraid. She was just letting it be free, and that’s just the whole mission of Ni’Jah.

HJ: What was the most gratifying part of working on Swarm for you?

DD: I think the most gratifying part is the family component. In the beginning, you start working with these people, and you hope that everybody will jive and all get synchronized, but you never know. Every production’s different, and sometimes you don’t connect with people.

On this one, I really got lucky. Because several of the directors did multiple episodes, we could establish that rapport, and when they’d come back, we could just pick up right where we left off. I feel really lucky that I now have this tribe of artists that totally understand what I’m capable of, and we just have this back-and-forth language now that we’ll be able to carry on to other shows.

HJ: Word has it that we’ll also see your work and talent in Ava Duvernay’s highly anticipated film adaptation of the novel series, Caste. I’m not sure if Caste will be a period piece or not, but have you ever worked on a project with period clothing before? If not, would you like to? If so, how does it compare with working on projects with more contemporary clothing?

DD: Yes, I just wrapped that feature in March! You’ll have to wait for more details as they reveal themselves, but I’m really looking forward to audiences seeing the story unfold.

HJ: Looking forward to that! (Added after Dominique’s answers were received. I couldn’t resist. Excited to see more of her work, especially since Caste has already generated a lot of buzz.)

Check-In

Have you seen Swarm? Does it help you look at the characters a bit differently after reading Dominique’s answers?