HANNAH BENDER
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, where the language of film, music, and art was not just a backdrop but the air I breathed. My childhood was a collage of movie screens, record players, and gallery walls—each shaping my taste for aesthetics that carry a story, a secret, a past. I grew up as an avid film lover, equally enamored with the costumes on screen as with the music that scored them, and with the way fashion could transform an ordinary moment into something eternal.
I didn’t set out to become a costume designer—
I stumbled into it. I began at the bottom, working as a production assistant on Lost, just to be on set and watch the machinery of filmmaking turn. One day, I met the show’s costume designer, who asked if I wanted to observe in the costume department. I said yes, thinking it would be simple: an island, the same sandy, sweaty clothes. Instead, I walked into a basement filled with cauldrons of dye baths, salt treatments, and racks of clothing in the process of becoming.
Shopper bags from Neiman Marcus arrived pristine, only to be deconstructed—washed, sanded, dyed, painted, distressed, and resurrected as lived-in garments that told the truth of survival.
That basement cracked open my world. I realized costume was not about clothes—it was about storytelling at its most tactile. Fabric became character. A sweat stain became a plot point. Distress was not destruction, but creation. From that moment, I was hooked.
I worked my way up, first as a shopper and later as a member of the Local 705 Costumers Union, learning under masters like Betsy Heimann, Ilene Meltzer, and Linda Bass. Ilene Meltzer recognized my drive and brought me on as an assistant designer for The Last Ship. From there I returned to Under the Dome, a show where I had once been a PA, this time as assistant costume designer. Soon after, I had the privilege of assisting the incomparable Julie Weiss—multi-Oscar nominee and the genius behind Frida and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Together, we launched the pilot of Mr. Mercedes. When the show moved to South Carolina, Julie entrusted me with the reins, handing over the rest of the series.
Designing all three seasons remains one of the greatest honors of my career.
Since then, my path has spanned both television and film. I was assistant costume designer on Showtime’s Super Pumped, and contributed to The Goldbergs (ABC), Days of Our Lives, Goliath (Showtime), All American, The Mick, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, among others.
I’ve designed music videos for the Pixies (Human Crime, Classic Masher) and for Slick Naim (In the Vault). Recently, I co-designed MGM+’s The Institute and the feature film Bad Man, written by Michael Diliberti and starring Seann William Scott, Johnny Simmons, and Rob Riggle.
For me, costume design is more than a profession—it’s an obsession.
It’s the alchemy of music, film, fashion, and art; the chance to weave eccentric aesthetics into stories that haunt and resonate. It’s collaboration at its most electric, being part of a team of artists who build entire worlds from threads and shadows.
And while my work takes me everywhere, my constant companion is my dog, who joins me on set and reminds me that the magic lies not just in the art we create, but in the life we get to live while creating it.
