How the costumes on 'Elsbeth' are used to disarm the unsuspecting

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Given her fondness for hot pink outerwear, it is unlikely that Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) has garments in her closet bearing any resemblance to Lt. Columbo’s iconic, well-worn beige raincoat. Still, Peter Falk’s formidable cigar-smoking detective serves as an inspiration for Elsbeth, with her intentionally disarming wardrobe, and how she outwits the murderer-of-the-week, played by a famous guest star.

“We really want Elsbeth’s clothing to be the equivalent of Columbo’s trench coat,” says Daniel Lawson, “Elsbeth’s” costume designer. He designed the wardrobe for the lawyer-turned-investigator, from Preston’s first appearance on “The Good Wife” in 2010 through spinoff “The Good Fight” and now in the character’s titular turn. Lawson is attuned to the idiosyncratic character’s maximalist-leaning tastes and how suspects and cops view her.

It is Columbo’s persistence and continued presence that Lawson taps into. “Even at the precinct, she comes around the corner, and some cops are like, ‘Oh, come on. Here she is again. Look at that jacket, look at those pants, look at that hat,’” Lawson says. “Her clothing is the Columbo trench coat — the idea of it — the piece of sand in your bathing suit.”

Similar to Columbo, who on occasion sported a tuxedo to ensnare a suspect, Elsbeth has already dressed up this season to attend the opera and gone in costume as Holly Golightly from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” for Halloween.

Thursday’s episode featured a black-tie bash at an exclusive jewelry store where Elsbeth goes face-to-face with glamorous Vanessa Williams, who stars in a killer guest spot that centers on a heist gone wrong. “It’s fun that each episode has its own world and theme. It keeps us on our toes, and hopefully, it keeps the audience feeling like they have something fresh,” Preston says.

After the success of the first season of “Elsbeth,” which had only 10 episodes, CBS doubled the number of episodes for Season 2, allowing the costume department to develop more playful fashion moments. Christmas is already in the can and Valentine’s Day is on the horizon.

Here, Lawson and Preston discuss key costumes from the first four episodes of the second season, culminating with Elsbeth’s high-glam gown opposite Williams.

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Popping in pink and pussy bows

A female police officer in uniform stands next to a woman in a pink pussy bow blouse and a pink and white blazer.

What helps Preston snap into Elsbeth’s mind-set? “Definitely the color pink. It’s used to such great effect on our show,” she says.

Kicking off the season with a L’Agence jacket with a pink and white Mediterranean tile-inspired pattern was a no-brainer. As soon as Lawson saw the jacket, he “could immediately picture her walking down the New York City street.” Whether it’s Gramercy Park greenery or Midtown skyscrapers as a backdrop, Lawson uses color, pattern and texture to ensure Elsbeth always stands out: “I always want to pop my Elsbeth.”

Sometimes, Lawson uses the costumes to reflect a specific part of the city, such as the vibrant pink floral sequin Valentino jacket in “Elsbeth’s Eleven.” “I love the Upper East Side feeling of the slightly boxy shape of it,” says Lawson.

Elsbeth is purposefully bejeweled to fit into the glittering world, with the color dial turned all the way up opposite the sophisticated elegance of Williams (with whom Lawson previously worked on “The Good Wife”). “He [Lawson] thinks about things with such a great amount of detail that I just have the joy of standing there like a paper doll and letting him hand me my character,” Preston says.

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A ‘cacophony of colors and patterns’ at the opera

A smiling red-haired woman in a floral patterned dress followed by a woman in a blue dress.

In the Season 2 premiere, Nathan Lane plays Phillip, an opera aficionado who resorts to murder to deal with a nightmare audience member. Overkill? Sure, but this is the kind of criminal Elsbeth encounters — and then ensnares. Lawson is mindful of achieving the right tone: “We’re always walking a fine line because we don’t want her to look ridiculous.”

Even if other characters have negative comments about Elsbeth’s quirky aesthetic — “There’s an episode we currently are shooting where somebody says, ‘Oh, you dress like a member of the Lollipop Guild,’” Lawson says — he “never wants to make fun of her because she’s not making fun of herself. I want to keep it real for her in her world.”

For Elsbeth’s first time at the opera, a Carolina Herrera rose-print frock ticked the “cacophony of colors and patterns” box but was still appropriate for the culturally rich setting. “I also wanted to contrast her with the blue dress that Carra [Patterson] had on, and we still had Elsbeth popping out wherever she goes,” Lawson adds.

Getting seasoned operagoer Phillip to open up is the goal, so Elsbeth needs to look out of place without alienating the suspect. “Dan could have easily put me in a gown that was a little more subdued; he stuck with the pattern but kept a nonthreatening silhouette. It’s a sweet cap sleeve,” Preston says. “It’s not glamorous, but it is sophisticated.”

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Totes aplenty

A police officer in a dark uniform stands next to a woman in bright pink coat and hat who holds three totes on her shoulders

The second time Elsbeth appeared on “The Good Wife,” she already had her signature bags. Since then, the collection has expanded. “We have a lot of tote bags,” Lawson says. But like anything this character does, there is a method to her madness.

“I always think of the totes as an outside expression of what is going on inside her brain — there’s a lot of information. It’s almost like she has this Rolodex in her brain, and the totes are the same,” Preston says. They act as a filing system, inspiration and even a security blanket, but when the case is solved, Preston asks: “Why would she need the totes anymore?” Lawson agreed, and Elsbeth is often bag-free when confronting a suspect with all the evidence.

While she might not go full pussy-bow on her day off, Preston loves to wear bold colors (like the orange pants on the day we talked), and fans spot her in New York when she isn’t working. “They call me by my character name a lot, especially if I’m carrying a couple of tote bags,” she says. “One day, I was walking, and somebody was like, ‘Elsbeth! You even look like Elsbeth.’ I was like, ‘Well, I am her; I play her.’ It was funny because it felt so meta.”

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A role reversal for Halloween

A woman in a black dress and gloves gestures toward two police officers in uniform.

For Halloween, Elsbeth spends the entirety of “Devil’s Night” trying to prove a former child star is innocent of murder, all while dressed as Audrey Hepburn’s character in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Not only is this the rare episode where Elsbeth has zero costume changes, but she isn’t a Technicolor dream. “I totally threw the rule book out and tried to put everybody around her in colors so that she still would pop whenever we could have her pop,” Lawson says.

In Season 1, we get a signal that Elsbeth immediately embraces New York when she wears a Statue of Liberty headband; now, we discover that it was the 1961 movie that made Elsbeth fall in love with the city. “I wanted it to be as close of a resemblance to the Givenchy dress that [Hepburn] wore in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s,’ and so we designed it, although, let’s face it, it was already created,” Lawson says. But Holly Golightly didn’t have to catch a killer. Lawson turned to John Kristiansen New York to custom build Elsbeth’s Halloween look — the same costume house that constructed the fashion show garments seen in the Season 1 finale.

“I was able to be in the fittings and say, ‘OK, I’m gonna have a big hairstyle, so we need to have a zipper. I’ve got to be able to step in the dress,’” says Preston, adding that she asked for a modular slit in the dress for scenes when she needed to run or walk. As for the jewelry, Kenneth Jay Lane custom-built two necklaces to mimic Holly’s jewels, which had to be hand-sewn by Lawson’s tailor Sarah Moore pearl by pearl to anchor it to the dress. “Carrie and I realized every time she bent forward, they were all coming forward,” Lawson says.

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Stealing the sartorial spotlight

Two women in evening gowns and a man in a tuxedo

To ensnare murder suspect Roslyn (Williams) mid-jewelry heist at a gala celebrating the high-society boutique Vivienne Mills, Elsbeth is joined by Officer Kaya Blanke (Patterson), Det. Donnelly (Molly Price) and Capt. Wagner (Wendell Pierce). Instructions to appear as if they can all afford to shop at Vivienne’s mean formal attire, but the chic Roslyn isn’t outdone. “I knew I wanted Vanessa to be in a big dress. It was so big at the fitting, we had to cut out so much of the fabric. It was huge,” Lawson says.

For Elsbeth, Lawson picked out several options, landing on a coral gown by Jovani. “It was an excellent color, but it made me think of the things on the back of a toilet that cover the extra roll of toilet paper,” Lawson recalls. “Oh my gosh, that’s so her — they’re crocheted and sit there. That being said, Carrie looks amazing in this dress.” Again, it is walking that line: “It feels like Elsbeth. It’s quirky, but it’s still elegant.”

Preston likens the strapless dress to a wedding cake, which she initially thought might be too much when it was on the rack. But trying something on can change everything: “We put it on, and we were like, ‘That’s it! That’s what it needs to be.’ It is still the character but in her own elevated way.”

Elsbeth’s jewelry is typically pared back, but she covets an $11-million flamingo brooch on display. Even this price tag is a stretch for the wealthy investigator (“That gives me a great opportunity and breadth of places I can go,” Lawson says about Elsbeth’s finances). Other brooches Elsbeth wears (like a “fuzzy mink pin”) feel like a nod to “The Good Wife’s” Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), which Lawson confirms: “Yes, it’s an homage to Diane but also absolutely perfect for Elsbeth’s character.”

No matter the New York location or the soon-to-be-caught killer, Lawson ensures we can always see Elsbeth coming: “I just want you to follow Elsbeth wherever she goes. You know, ‘Where’s Waldo?’ There she is!”