Any Netflix subscriber is no stranger to Liz Vastola’s work. Vastola, who most recently costume designed Best of the Best, also worked on the likes of Daredevil and Jessica Jones. She transitions from genre work – horror, comic book and video game adaptations – to films such as Best of the Best and Landline.
For her latest film, from director Lena Khan, Vastola helps immerse viewers into a world of dance. Vastola brought together a variety of influences for the splendid dance numbers. Recently, during an interview with What’s On Netflix, she walked us through designing costumes for Best of the Best as well as her early career days of making cult horror movies.
With the big finale in mind, how’d you want the dance costumes to build all to that moment?
With costumes, we never really had our foot off the gas. Each dance number was its own major task and major hurdle to decide what it was going to look like, where the costumes were going to come from, what the theme was. We didn’t really want to have anything really dip in terms of look or the amount of work that went into the costumes for the performance.
But I will say that for the finale, for the costume design, there were two major elements to it that definitely heightened the climb, that definitely made it even more steep of a build for us. First, it was four artworks that were featured that we needed to bring to life in those paintings and the one sculpture that comes to life.
And then the second was that the idea behind the costumes for the finale was that each dancer and each cast member was really able to come into their own and express a certain individuality. It was really all about individuality. Through that individuality, is there a kind of cohesion that we could find so that everybody looked like they belonged to the same team on stage?
There were different degrees of infusion of cultural, South Asian, Indian cultural dress. There was Western fashion happening on the stage. There were some folks that were entirely in South Asian design. Maintaining those levels for the overall look was a huge task.
It really was all about expressing this idea of yes, and yes, you can be on stage in a lehenga or a sari dress or a kurta, or you could be on stage in wide-leg denim and a thrifted top and a corset or a bustier from European fashion, and it can all kind of mélange together however you want to see yourself. It was a lot conceptually.
At the end of the day, we never wanted it to feel completely out of the realm of possibility. There was definitely an aspirational aspect to a lot of the costumes in the movie, but we never wanted it to go to a place of fashion for fashion’s sake or to overtake any other element in the film. We never wanted it to be a costume that impeded the dance or felt out of bounds for a certain character.
Best of the Best. (L to R) Becky Alex as Dimple, Priyanka Kedia as Anjali, Shreya Navile as Deepica in Best of the Best. Cr. Emily V. Aragones/Netflix © 2026
There are layers, including telling stories within a story. How did you approach some of those dances as their own narratives?
It started with, what is the music and what are the movements? And is this something that already has a baked-in costume design that people are used to seeing who are aware of the music and the movement?
So, for example, the first performance in the movie, Maya and Anjali in high school doing the Bharatanatyam dance, there’s definitely a variety, but a tradition of dress for that type of classical movement. And then it becomes, okay, well, how far are we dipping into it and how far are we moving away or adding something new? Where’s the line that feels appropriate, not only for the characters, but also for us as filmmakers?
How do you answer those questions?
It always starts with that process of what am I hearing and what am I seeing movement-wise. And then the conversation opens up to me, Adam and Henry, the cinematographer and production designer, color-wise, who’s tackling what. And of course, it’s all under the umbrella of Lena, our director, and what she wants for feel and tone.
It’s nice when the costume design for the performances can speak to not only the music and the choreography, but also the narrative. So when UCLA Agni, the team, did the reference to the Bollywood wedding, we wanted to get as close as possible to what a Bollywood wedding in a movie would look like.
It’s a little more colorful. It’s the more traditional dress, so lehengas and saris. Actually, it was lehengas only, really, and dupattas and blouses and kurtas and sherwanis. Anything we could dip into more traditionally for that, we would.
A way to handle it feeling a little more somewhat aspirational is we definitely used fashion. We didn’t put it together from the perspective of costume design, of a costume shop and everybody’s wearing the same kind of fabric. We sought out ateliers and actual clothing that you might actually wear to a wedding to help populate the stage.
In terms of specifics, I want to say Hasan early in the process gave you a copy of a book, Fashion India, right?
Yes.
How’d it inspire you?
I still have Hasan’s version with all of his notes. We had a lot of books, a lot of books. We also used digital media and social media and all kinds of reference, but I love books. Anything physical that’s visual that I can get my hands on, in addition to fabric, actual pieces of clothing.
This is a book by Phyllida Jay, and it basically forces you to get to know modern Indian fashion designers. And of course, almost all of them are playing within the lexicon and the tradition of South Asian and Indian dress. It goes back centuries, to give you a sense of how Indian and South Asian present-day designers are expressing the culture or not, one way or another. It touches on craft and textile and making, and it’s a beautiful book. So that was something that was a real kind of jumping-off point for us, but then it blossoms from there.
This book is certainly not exhaustive in terms of our references, but it was a very quick primer into what the landscape is fashion-wise.
Best of the Best. (L to R) Priyanka Kedia as Anjali, Ankur Rathee as Ronak, Tanishq Joshi as Vishal, Amryn Khurana as Sumi in Best of the Best. Cr. Emily V. Aragones/Netflix © 2026
How important is practical or physical media to what you do on any job?
It couldn’t be more important. There’s one other book that’s such a great companion to Fashion India, called Indian Classical Dance: Tradition in Transition. So this book was incredible for us because it just had these absolutely lush, beautiful, enormous photos that are so hard to get printed in a book these days to take us through a primer of traditional Bharatanatyam costume.
You also have to do what you can to marry it with watching performance, especially when you’re addressing dance. It is so important because I can look at as many two-dimensional photos of Bharatanatyam, but to see the actual dance and the movement and the choreography and how the costume plays into that is as important, I think.
Any particular dances or films that really inspired you?
Oh yeah. Well, there’s this incredible movie that I’ve referenced, Taal, and it’s a ’90s Bollywood movie. What I love about the costume design, first of all, it does not skimp on color. I think that’s a huge through line.
I read in some of my research that the neutral color of Bollywood cinema is this fuchsia pink – and I just love that. I mean, the costumes are lush and vibrant, and also it looks stunning, but there’s this interesting almost play between minimalism and maximalism in that costume design. Which worked out so perfectly because the ’90s and the early 2000s are back in fashion, so it married in a nice way.
There’s another movie – I’m sure everybody has mentioned this to you – Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
First mention.
First mention? I’m going to throw the title in the chat. It’s from the mid-’90s, but the leather jacket and the fedora that Ronak is wearing in the first UCLA Agni, that is a direct reference from this movie. This is one of the absolute most famous Bollywood movies, but it was a reference. Just because it’s ubiquitous and very well known does not mean that it’s any less important to us. We ripped a costume right from that movie.
Homaged.
[Laughs] Homaged.
Best of the Best. (L to R) Becky Alex as Dimple, Nihar Duvvuri as Nirbhay, Shreya Navile as Deepica, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Maya, Ankur Rathee as Ronak, Nico Greetham as Harry in Best of the Best. Cr. Emily V. Aragones/Netflix © 2026
Before Best of the Best, you’ve done a variety of genre projects. There’s Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Twisted Metal, but you also got your start with some really cool horror movies and thrillers, Stake Land and Cold in July.
Oh, yeah. Thanks for looking at that.
Oh, I like those movies.
I know. I love Jim Mickle.
How’d you get off to such a cool start in your career?
So I went to college in New York City, and I graduated from college in 2007. When I graduated, a couple things were happening in the city. New York State was instating its first tax credit, and it was a big one. Film and television in the city was about to blossom.
I just had the fortune of graduating from college, and deciding naively that I wanted to try to jump into the industry. My peers at the time, the way we got jobs was Mandy. That was a film job site, Mandy.com.
Glass Eye Pix, which is run by the great Larry Fessenden, does low-budget horror movies in the city and was really cranking them out at that point. I got connected through a friend to be the wardrobe supervisor on one of those movies for a costume designer, who’s now a friend of mine, David Tabbert (Werewolves Within). I saw what it was like to work on those movies, and it was so fun, so creative, so crazy. I just was like, “Please let me try to design one of these.”
I designed one, Bitter Feast, and then while I was on that movie, I heard about Jim Mickle doing Stake Land, and that was going to be Larry’s next movie. And then Ti West did The House of the Devil, and I saw that, and I was like, “Please let me do Ti’s next movie.”
The Innkeepers! Another good movie.
I’m so grateful for Larry. I’m grateful for the mini studio he had going in basements and in buildings. I’m grateful for the Christmas parties he has where he invites all the directors of all these movies to come to his incredible apartment in Manhattan, and that’s where you meet all these people.
I was making a little bit of money doing that. I had other kinds of odd jobs and craziness, but I just built my career up by low-budget movies in the city. At the same time, trying to find PA gigs simultaneously. Keep PAing, assisting, and keep designing.
At one point I just was like, “I’m just going to design.” It went from there, and it hasn’t been easy. It’s been incredibly challenging, especially with even recent – the pandemic, the strikes, et cetera.
How do you keep moving forward?
I think whatever you can do to stay in it, somehow you’re rewarded for just staying with it as long as you can until you can’t anymore. And then you’re like, “Okay.” I know people too who are just like, “I’m out. It’s too much,” and that’s fine. Maybe if I get there one day – I doubt I will – but maybe then that’s okay.
But yeah, I think it was a combination of right place, right time in New York, and then also just sheer naïveté and passion and trying to barge in those doors.
You’ve continued to stick to your roots throughout your career, too, with The Bondsman and Twisted Metal.
Well, it’s funny because a lot of times, in this industry, your work begets what you’ve done. They try to be like, “Well, has she done this? Okay, so then we’ll do that.”
My work on those movies helped me somehow get in the door at Marvel when Marvel Television was happening in the city with Netflix, and then that helped me get in the door for Twisted Metal. Actually, the Marvel work also helped me get in the door for Best of the Best because Lena, one of the first things she said to me is like, “Your work on Jessica Jones is what made me want to interview you because I knew you could handle dressing badass women.”
I’m so grateful to the early version of myself and those early opportunities.
Do you ever miss Jessica Jones?
Of course. I miss the world we had. We had a thing going right before Disney set up Disney+ where you would do a season of Daredevil and then a season of Jessica Jones and then a season of Daredevil, and you kept your crew. You were celebrating holidays and birthdays.
It felt like you were on one of these long-running shows, and it was really hard work, but Krysten is just singular in her ability, her leadership. Yeah, I mean, that was a dreamscape. And then 2020 happens.
Liz, my last question for you, because I think you’re the only costume designer I’ve had the chance to ask this: What was it like collaborating with Sam Shepard, having fittings and talking about character and story?
Oh my gosh. I remember when Jim said the cast for that movie, he was like, “It’s going to be Michael C. Hall’s first project after Dexter, and we’re going to have Don Johnson, and then we’re going to have Sam Shepard.” I was like, “What? What?”
I was so nervous to fit him because it’s an indie movie. I’m unloading the Salvation Army bags, ripping the tags off, and hopefully washing it before I have a fitting with Sam Shepard. I think there’s always this moment in fittings, especially with really famous actors or really experienced actors, where they decide they trust you.
I remember there’s just this moment with Sam where he, through the clothing that I had, through the options and through talking with him, he was able to work through character beats of, “I think these shoes are particularly right that you have, and we’re going to just stick with this one jacket.” When you’re witnessing an actor like him find a character through a costume that you’ve brought to the table, I don’t think there’s any better feeling.
He also was a great time at a bar.