Heated Rivalry’s costume designer explains ‘queer coded’ costumes

Heated Rivalry‘s costume designer has shared some of her thinking behind the decisions she made during the show’s first season.

Since first debuting at the end of November, Heated Rivalry has taken the world by storm becoming a bona fide hit. Led by Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams‘ much celebrated performances, the show has adapted Rachel Reid’s Game Changers book series about the love affair between two rival ice hockey players.

Unsurprisingly given the show’s success and the virality of its stars and scenes, Heated Rivalry has already been renewed for a second season with hints at a third being a possibility.

Sitting down with The Hollywood Reporter, costume designer Hanna Puley explained her choices for outfitting the two leading men as Ilya Rozanov (Storrie) and Shane Hollander (Williams).

“I didn’t lean much into fashion really in this show. I tried to keep it really grounded, but still aspirational,” she said generally.

This was the case with Rozanov in particular who, as a Russian player with a generally unsupportive family, might play things down. However, there are also moments in the series where the character opts for bright colours and patterns such as a Hawaiian shirt.

“It’s a little bit queer coded in some ways that’s hidden,” Puley told The Hollywood Reporter. “In Slavic culture, I don’t think that’s something they’re trying to do. But for us it reads that way,” she said.

As for Hollander’s wardrobe, Puley shared that one garment she made gained particular attention online which surprised her: a comfortable-looking fleece jacket for Team Canada’s appearance at the Sochi Olympics in the series.

“I don’t know that we always get to choose what becomes iconic,” Puley said of the garment’s viral moment, which has seen the jacket recreated as well as a petition for the real-life Team Canada to make the jacket part of its merchandise for the upcoming Winter Olympics.

As for how the character’s style will evolve in season two, Puley suggested two approaches again for Rozanov and Hollander.

For the former, she indicated there wouldn’t be much change arguing that it’s “there’s something to how people grow up and the way that they see themselves and how they dress that is so related to comfort and to a sense of identity”.

Though she added there are “reinventions of self that can happen at certain points”, of which Rozanov may have found himself at with the end of season one…

And with Hollander, Puley mentioned some “understated” steps towards a more queer wardrobe. “Maybe he starts wearing a necklace,” she mused.

Heated Rivalry is streaming now.

Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.