<\/p>\n
Christian Cowan<\/a> manifested his Broadway debut.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a dream of mine,\u201d says the fashion designer, standing on the mezzanine level of the St. James Theatre.\u00a0\u201cI was going around town for two-and-a-half years basically telling everyone, \u2018I really want to do a Broadway<\/a> show.’\u201d<\/p>\n One of those people was producer Bill Damaschke.\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cAnd then two years later he was like, \u2018Hey, can I call you? I think I have something that would be perfect for you.’\u201d<\/p>\n That something perfect was the new musical \u201cThe Queen of Versailles,\u201d inspired by photographer Lauren Greenfield\u2019s 2012 documentary of the same title about billionaire Jackie Siegel. In the mid-2000s, Siegel and her husband David Siegel were in the process of building America\u2019s largest private residence in Florida, modeled after the Palace of Versailles. And then the 2008 recession hit, and things went awry. Almost two decades later, the house is nearing completion.<\/p>\n More from WWD<\/strong><\/p>\n The hit documentary inspired the creation of a musical stage version of Siegel\u2019s story, attracting some major star talent along the way. Following the musical\u2019s world premiere in Boston last year, \u201cThe Queen of Versailles\u201d lands on Broadway with legendary actress Kristin Chenoweth at the helm and F. Murray Abraham costarring as David Siegel.<\/p>\n Cowan, known for his love of showstopping creations, relished the chance to bring Siegel\u2019s over-the-top sensibility to the stage. In fact, the looks are woven strategically into the plot.<\/p>\n Chenoweth\u2019s first of many costumes in the show is a hot-pink feathered minidress. \u201cI wanted it to be like, bam, here is Jackie Siegel,\u201d says Cowan, pulling the opening costume from a rack. \u201cIt\u2019s pink, it\u2019s tight, it\u2019s cleavage, it\u2019s sparkly, it\u2019s short. It\u2019s just everything Jackie is,\u201d he continues, before turning attention to the back of the garment: three oversize clamp clips down the back of the dress.<\/p>\n \u201cShe turns around, and I think it gives a snippet into some themes of the show where the dress is unfinished. It\u2019s got clamps on the back, because she never got it fitted,\u201d Cowan adds. \u201cAnd everyone in the audience laughs.\u201d<\/p>\n The musical is set in the grandeur of Jackie Siegel\u2019s world and told through her lens. \u201cShe\u2019s kind of this exotic bird amongst normal birds,\u201d says Cowan, describing the supporting characters who flesh out the vision, including a fleet of builders, plastic surgeons and her own family. \u201cYou really play off the contrast throughout the show. To show that she\u2019s so deep in the non-reality of what she\u2019s after.\u201d<\/p>\n Case in point: Jackie\u2019s construction site costume is a bright green bedazzled and fringed short jumpsuit with matching high-heel boots, and a bedazzled orange hard hat bearing a rhinestone \u201cJ.\u201d \u201cShe\u2019s brimming with the vision, even though everything\u2019s still plaster boards and steel girders,\u201d Cowan says. \u201cShe is living the fantasy no matter what, and she\u2019s focused on building that brand of Queen of Versailles.\u201d<\/p>\n When Siegel pays a visit to the real Versailles in the show, she travels in full Parisian cosplay, complete with a beret and a \u2014 fake \u2014 Birkin bag rendered as the French flag with blue, white and red rhinestones. \u201cIt\u2019s just everything you could imagine an overly excited American tourist visiting Versailles would wear,\u201d Cowan says, as the bag is displayed on a chair surrounded by other accessories and ephemera from the show, placed during load-in and waiting to be relocated to the costume shop backstage.<\/p>\n A few of Siegel\u2019s outfits in the show do reflect reality: the hot pink fitted gown with gold \u201cQueen of Versailles\u201d sash is a riff of the dress that Jackie wears in her Sundance documentary, and there\u2019s a version of Siegel\u2019s actual wedding dress.<\/p>\n \u201dYou want to epitomize the character, and you also want to make it Broadway friendly. We amp it up a little bit, while also being respectful and genuine to the character who\u2019s going to sit there and watch it,\u201d says Cowan, adding that he got an approving cosign from Siegel herself. \u201cWe are kind of cut from the same fabric of the things we love,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n In the lead-up to creating the costumes, Cowan visited Siegel at her Orlando, Fla., home and got a tour of her closet, which features two floors, a bed, paintings everywhere and a stripper pole.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a massive inspiration to be able to delve into her closet,\u201d Cowan says. \u201cShe\u2019s a lover of texture, which I really tried to show in this show. She\u2019s a lover of animal prints and tweeds and crystals and feathers, and she loves maximalism.\u201d<\/p>\n Outfits span high to low, with 2000s-coded denim shorts, tank tops with exposed neon bra straps and platform flip-flops. \u201cI wanted to toe the line of reflecting the real-life character and her intricacies that we have come to love from studying her, but then also making sure that applies to Kristin. And then also making sure it works on stage,\u201d he says. \u201cYou see her in many different time periods throughout the show, and so I really wanted them to feel believable and real.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to spanning Siegel\u2019s more sartorially demure younger years, the musical also takes a detour into a totally different period: the 18th-century world of Marie Antoinette\u2019s French court. \u201cTwo periods, and somehow the 2000s feel more jarring than that,\u201d says Cowan, adding that creating those ornate period costumes were a project highlight.<\/p>\n After the Boston debut last summer, Cowan has been fine-tuning the looks in anticipation of its Broadway run, leaning into more of a high-low sartorial contrast, and eliminating some of Siegel\u2019s more fashion-forward looks.<\/p>\n \u201cNone of the outfits can be too chic or too fashionable, because that isn\u2019t the character,\u201d Cowan says. \u201cShe\u2019s a lover of fashion. She\u2019s a lover of luxury, but it\u2019s not someone who\u2019s editing everything perfectly.\u00a0 So that was also something that I wanted to tweak and be like, no \u2014 we need to put more wild necklaces with that outfit, or giant pendants.\u201d<\/p>\n Just like the House of Versailles, it\u2019s still a work in progress.<\/p>\n Launch Gallery: Backstage with Christian Cowan and His Designs for “Queen of Versallies” on Broadway<\/a><\/p>\n Best of WWD<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for WWD’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Christian Cowan manifested his Broadway debut. \u201cIt was a dream of mine,\u201d says the fashion designer, standing on the mezzanine level of the St. James Theatre.\u00a0\u201cI was going around town for two-and-a-half years basically telling everyone, \u2018I really want to do a Broadway show.’\u201d One of those people was producer Bill Damaschke.\u00a0\u201cAnd then two years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2077897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[390280,370741,390279,375181,390281,390282],"class_list":["post-2077896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-christian-cowan","tag-david-siegel","tag-jackie-siegel","tag-kristin-chenoweth","tag-queen-of-versailles","tag-versailles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/The-Staging-of-a-Queen.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2077896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2077898,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077896\/revisions\/2077898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2077897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2077896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2077896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2077896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}