Costume designer with Iowa roots up for Emmy

Tuesday began as any other day in the life of Calmar native Matthew Hemesath, as he dashed through a New York mall, laden with shopping bags for a friend’s CBS project.

Then his agent called, telling him he had been nominated for a Creative Arts Emmy Award as a co-costume designer for the Showtime series, “The First Lady.” It’s his second Emmy nomination.

At a glance

What: 2022 Primetime Emmy broadcast

When: 7 p.m. (Iowa time) Sept. 12

Where: NBC-TV and streaming on Peacock

Artist’s website: matthewhemesath.com/

In 2017, Hemesath was nominated for a Daytime Emmy as a co-costume designer for his work on “Sesame Street,” Seasons 46 to 49. Among his credits is helping his brother, Brian Hemesath, also a costume designer, dress Alan Cumming in Elizabethan garbage bedecked garb, for his portrayal of Mucko Polo, extolling the virtues of exploration to Oscar and his Grouchy friends.

This time around, Matthew Hemesath, now 43 and based in New York City since 2004, traveled to Atlanta last summer as a co-designer for “The First Lady,” which looks at the personal and political lives of Michelle Obama (Viola Davis), Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson).

Hemesath designed and dressed Davis, the Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony-winning actress he described as “absolutely wonderful.“

He also worked with everyone in the Obama-era scenes, and was “was heavily involved” with costumes for the daughters and their grandmother, Marian Robinson (Regina Taylor), who helped care for the girls during the White House years.

And because the soundstage in Atlanta was so huge, the show built a replica White House, with stairs leading to an actual second floor, instead of building a ground-level “second floor” on another part of the soundstage.

“So I feel like now when I see actual news stories about the White House, I can understand where the president is standing,” he said during a phone interview from Manhattan, “which is kind of neat for me to feel like I was in that room.”

He also plans to be in the room when the Creative Arts Emmy winners are announced Sept. 3 and 4 in the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles. An edited version of that ceremony will air at 7 p.m. Iowa time Sept. 10 on FXX. The Primetime Emmys will air at 7 p.m. Sept. 12 on NBC-TV and will livestream on Peacock.

Not one to give a wild reaction, he said when he got the call about the nomination, “I sort of got very quiet — eyes wide — quiet. I just really had to take a moment. I'm not a screamer. And I remember the last time, too, I knew it was a possibility. But it's not something that I thought about or was counting on or really even paying attention to, because that's not what motivates me in my career. It's just I love what I do, and I just keep doing what I do. And so to get an award (nomination) like this, it's just wonderful, so flattering, and I'm so excited. But I already feel like my career is the reward.

“I get paid very well to be very creative. Every day is a different challenge. And I'm doing exactly what I went to school for and what I've wanted to do my whole life, and built on my skills along the way. So to then get a (nomination), it's almost like I don't know what to do with that feeling.”

Award nominations like this can open doors to "more interesting projects, or even projects that would be more creative,“ he said, by giving “a little stamp of quality” to his work.

“It’s also a boost to tell myself that I'm on the right track — like a little pat on the back, now get back to work, keep swimming, because it’s fleeting,” he said. “It's a lovely moment and it's great to stop and feel this wonderful moment, but it will pass and there will be more challenges ahead.”

Creative process

While he does have to tap into different parts of his creativity to move between the sublimely ridiculous historical inaccuracy of Mucko Polo and the historical accuracy needed for “The First Lady,” the process remains the same.

“Everything always starts with research — lots and lots of research — whether it's going for accuracy, or starting with accuracy,” he said. "I'm a very visual person. I just do a lot of research and fill folders, Pinterest boards with different ideas, or books if it's for a (historic) period, just to get inspired.

“And then that one piece of research might lead me down a rabbit hole of other ways to take something. Then that can lead you to find another piece of research and kind of blend the two together. That creates a design where you're taking something realistic and making it less realistic or more unusual. I can't really describe how that happens in my brain, but it sort of gets in there and melts together and comes out in a different way.”

If he needs to design a specialty costume, he’ll do a rendering, which involves sketching and coloring a costume design. His favorite show to date was “Girls5Eva,” a musical comedy series that debuted on Peacock in May 2021. He especially enjoyed all the sight gags, like designing a beekeeper costume for that series, where Tina Fey was among the executive producers.

“I just love comedy,” Hemesath said. “I love bright happy colors. I like patterns. I like all that visual stuff” he doesn’t get to play with on serious projects. “With that show, I could just let my creativity fly and there were no limits.”

It takes a small army to costume a show. Hemesath learned to sew while studying at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, but it’s been years since he’s run a sewing machine and he doesn’t even own one today.

“I’m lucky enough to have people for that,” he noted.

As head designer, he attends creative meetings with the writers, producers and the showrunner who manages the shoots.

“And then I come up with the palette and the ideas or the style for the characters. And then my assistant designer — who is very much a creative partner — helps realize that by doing a lot of shopping for swatches or fabric buying.”

On larger shows, he said they’ll hire extra shoppers for a day or two to gather up all the clothes they’ll need for the actors. He also has a tailor on his staff who can do the alterations and quickly build specialty pieces, and another eight to 10 people working on various design aspects, as well as five to 10 people on the set working with the actors and tracking costume continuity from scene to scene.

He’s worked in theater, television and film realms, but said TV requires the quickest action.

“I often think the most challenging aspect is the time frame in which we have to deliver,” he said. “In theater, we get five weeks of rehearsal and multiple fittings. In episodic television, you have three plates spinning at once. You have today's shooting schedule; the scenes you're actually shooting and helping actors get ready and get to set … and then as soon as today is up and going, you're on to tomorrow. …

“It's like your brain is in three different places. It’s wild trying to be creative and come up with interesting ideas with the clock ticking,” he said. “It actually works to my advantage. It's best if I'm working on instincts and moving quickly. If I have time to second guess myself, I will.”

Career journey

One thing he doesn’t second-guess is his career choice. He enjoyed working on theater productions at South Winneshiek High School in Calmar. He still meets with his drama teacher, Pat Downs, when he comes back home, filling her in on his adventures.

He moved on to Coe College, intending to be an actor, but along the way was assigned to work in the costume shop, crediting theater professor Susan Wolverton with igniting a creative spark.

He graduated in 2001, and also worked for Jim Miller, who owned Center Stage costume supply shop in downtown Cedar Rapids. When the shop began working with Theatre Cedar Rapids, Hemesath designed costumes for “The Miracle Worker” and “Tommy.”

“He is so talented, fun, funny, and I'm proud to know him,” Miller told The Gazette. “He was an amazing person to have on the Center Stage team.”

In a “small world” moment, Hemesath ended up reconnecting with Catherine Blades in New York City — one of the children in “The Miracle Worker” — when he costumed her for a speaking role in Showtime’s “The Loudest Voice,” which began filming in late 2018.

Hemesath continued his studies at Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama in Pittsburgh, earning an MFA in costume design in 2004. Then he headed to New York City, and began working consistently, listing 20 project credits on his resume.

His career has taken him all over the world, filming on location in Japan, Mexico and Atlanta — and his favorite site, Morocco, designing for stars Keanu Reeves and Halle Berry in “John Wick: Chapter 3.” He spent two months there in the fall of 2018, with shoots in Marrakech, Essaouira, Erfoud and the Sahara Desert.

“Morocco is an amazing country. The people are really kind and generous of spirit — and talented. They still are very skilled with handicrafts,” he said, adding that not only did they embroider by hand, they also made their own embroidery floss.

His Iowa roots have served him well, instilling a work ethic setting him apart from the crowd in his field.

It’s also served his older brother, Brian Hemesath well, as he, too, has carved out an award-winning costume design career in New York, garnering Daytime Emmys in 2010 and 2014 for his work on “Sesame Street,” as well as a 2022 Oscar nomination as part of the costume design team for “West Side Story.”

Their parents, Carol and Phil Hemesath, have moved off the farm and into Decorah, as have their two sisters and their families.

That Iowa upbringing “helps me every day,” Matthew Hemesath said. “I try and have patience with people, be kind to people. I was instilled a very strong work ethic growing up on a farm and around Iowans, who are a very practical, hardworking people. And I think that is very refreshing in New York City — and very marketable.”

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com