Hamburger Hamlet<\/a> and erected awnings for other recognizable former businesses, like the restaurant Mario\u2019s. <\/p>\nOne of the most memorable locations for Smith to re-create was the Sherman Oaks Galleria, which, she said, was \u201cbasically gutted\u201d in the \u201890s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was where I used to hang out, so I knew exactly what it looked like in my head,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
The Sherman Oaks Galleria was re-created with movie magic.<\/p>\n
(FX)<\/p>\n
The most important visuals to get right were the giant skylight and the escalators climbing up from the mall\u2019s center. Luckily, she found both at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach, which her team covered in red carpeting to stay faithful to the Sherman Oaks mall\u2019s original design.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I saw it set up, I was like, \u2018This is amazing. This is like time travel, but you\u2019re traveling back to your childhood,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve done period before, and you always feel like you\u2019re time traveling to a certain extent, but it\u2019s visceral when it\u2019s yours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Styling the era<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Shards\u201d may be set in the \u201980s, but don\u2019t expect any neon leotards.<\/p>\n
Instead, the show\u2019s costume department leaned into a \u201clate \u201970s, transitional, mauve-y, gray-bluish\u201d color palette, according to costume designer and co-executive producer Lou Eyrich, a longtime collaborator with Murphy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat way, when you pop in the pops of color, they definitely stand out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As with locations and production design, Ellis\u2019 novel provided much of the raw material the costume department needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this dossier that\u2019s basically an Excel spreadsheet of every single reference to music, movies, fashion [and] cars throughout \u2018The Shards,\u2019 so you could always go back to that,\u201d said Josh Marsh, a costume designer on the series.<\/p>\n
Music shapes both the series\u2019 tone and its fashion.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, you were influenced by music videos big time,\u201d Eyrich said. \u201cMTV came out in August of \u201881 and the show starts in July. Until then, besides magazines, you couldn\u2019t just go on the internet and see what was happening over in the U.K. or even in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Debbie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1785945969_466_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Debbie Schaffer (Hayes Warner) faces off with her former fashion model mother, Liz Schaffer (Evan Rachel Wood), in \u201cThe Shards.\u201d<\/p>\n
(FX)<\/p>\n
While \u201cAmerican Gigolo\u201d was still the most prominent reference, Eyrich and Marsh took a bit of a \u201cBreakfast Club\u201d approach to their character design.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was about creating the most elevated version of what their character\u2019s archetype might be,\u201d Marsh said. \u201cClass president, the jock, the cultural disruptor, the new wave aesthetic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The character Ellis, for instance, had to project \u201cthat iconic preppy Southern California look that also evokes desire out of all of these men and women,\u201d said Marsh. His best friend, Susan Reynolds (Kaia Gerber), is an elegant Brooke Shields type, and movie producer Terry Schaffer (Wes Bentley), one of the show\u2019s few adult characters, was influenced by Lindsey Buckingham, all leather jackets and silk shirts unbuttoned to the navel.<\/p>\n
Beyond staying true to the characters and the time period, Eyrich and Marsh had to consider a few practical elements: the disparities in vintage sizing, for one, plus the horror of it all.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith each look we would get excited about, we\u2019d need to think, \u2018Does it need multiples? Do they get murdered?\u2019 Because with vintage clothes, oftentimes it\u2019s just the one,\u201d Marsh said. \u201cWe\u2019re either finding the perfect piece and then making more of them, or falling in love with something and shooting it in a very specific way so it doesn\u2019t get bloody until the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nailing the lore<\/p>\n
Beneath the sunglasses, silk blouses and luxury cars, \u201cThe Shards\u201d is a story of innocence lost. It\u2019s a theme that resonates intimately for the show\u2019s producers and creative team, many of whom were around Ellis\u2019 age in the early \u201980s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really think that this show plays to Ryan Murphy\u2019s particular strengths,\u201d said Rigney, who trusted Murphy to guide his performance as a teen in the era. \u201cHe\u2019s bringing so much of himself and his life and his experience of 1981 to the show that I think it\u2019s a very personal show for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brad Simpson, an executive producer on \u201cThe Shards\u201d who, along with producing partner Nina Jacobson, has partnered with Murphy on shows including \u201cThe People v. O. J. Simpson\u201d and \u201cLove Story<\/a>,\u201d said the show united many of his interests and influences.<\/p>\n\u201cI was a teenager when \u2018Less Than Zero\u2019 came out, and I was living in Arkansas. That vision of L.A., I saw not as a cautionary tale, but something to aspire to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Terry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1785945969_446_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Terry Schaffer (Wes Bentley) and Bret Easton Ellis (Igby Rigney) eat at the re-created Trumps in \u201cThe Shards.\u201d<\/p>\n
(FX)<\/p>\n
As is typical for the Ellis canon, wealth and privilege are paramount in \u201cThe Shards\u201d universe, and Smith called upon her experience as a middle-class teenager attending an expensive private school to help design that world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand the sphere of these people and the motivations and I\u2019ve been to a lot of these amazing houses,\u201d she said. \u201cI would say it\u2019s helped me in my career because I\u2019m not that afraid of wealthy people. You can\u2019t be in Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n
L.A. in the \u201980s was the perfect setting for a coming-of-age mystery, Simpson said, not only because the city was in a \u201cgolden age of serial killers,\u201d but also because the city was on \u201cthe verge of a revival.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Reagan had just been elected, consumerism was back in vogue and a new wave of Hollywood films memorialized \u201ca sleek city defined by these noirish neon nights and these bright, intense, colorful days.\u201d While the show doesn\u2019t confront it directly, Simpson also said the \u201cspecter of AIDS\u201d lurks in the background for the teens who \u201cthink they\u2019re invincible.\u201d<\/p>\n
He hopes the early \u201980s nostalgia will resonate not just for those who experienced it firsthand, but for young people now who romanticize a smartphone-free existence. Though he knows both Ellis\u2019 and Murphy\u2019s work tends to induce \u201cstrong reactions,\u201d he also hopes people will see beyond the \u201cmovie poster exterior.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really is about friendship. It\u2019s about coming of age. It\u2019s about being closeted. It\u2019s about not knowing who you are when you\u2019re 18 and being afraid to reveal yourself. It\u2019s about the terrors of growing up. And it\u2019s about the power of memory and nostalgia,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope people see that in it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the opening scene of \u201cThe Shards,\u201d a teenage Bret Easton Ellis (Igby Rigney) cruises down Mulholland Drive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-424588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Hayes](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1785945968_73_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n