Real Twin Peaks 2025 – Twin Peaks Fashion: A Discussion

During the Real Twin Peaks 2025 event in Snoqualmie Valley, Washington, a special panel discussion was held about Twin Peaks fashion. I was unable to attend this panel as I was hosting one of two film location tours. Thankfully, event co-organizer and fellow Twin Peaks Blog author Mary Hütter captured video from Lauren Lowell and Laura Haskell’s insightful conversation held on Sunday, Feb. 23 in the Twin Peaks Wellness Boutique in North Bend, Washington.

REAL TWIN PEAKS 2025 – TWIN PEAKS FASHION: A DISCUSSION

The “Twin Peaks Fashion: A Discussion” panel began at 10:00 a.m. inside the Twin Peaks Wellness Boutique, located at 209 Main Avenue S in North Bend, Washington.

Lauren Lowell, Professor of Costume Design at Illinois State University School of Theatre, Dance and Film, was joined by Laura Haskell, Costumer and Soft Goods Craftsperson, shared their thoughts about fashion in David Lynch and Mark Frost’s wonderful and strange show.

In June 2024, Professor Lowell published a book about clothing history for entertainment designers titled, “Dressing Historical Characters.” You may notice Wendy Robie, who played Nadine Hurley in Twin Peaks, on the cover as Lauren and her became friends at a local Shakespeare Festival.

Laura has been researching and document Twin Peaks costumed for her Instagram account – @PineWeaselFashionShow. She brought along several replica costumes she tracked down through extensive internet searches.

The conversation with Lauren and Laura ran a little over an hour. The original recording was captured by Mary Hütter via live stream broadcast. The audio was a little muddied so be sure to watch the conversation with closed captioning.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM “TWIN PEAKS FASHION: A DISCUSSION”

It was a standing room only audience for the fashion discussion. Lauren spoke for about 25 minutes offering some insights about costume design based on her experiences working on theatrical costumes.

“I teach budding production design students  of all levels about world building and about the  collaboration that happens and that everything is intentional,” explained Lauren. “And you all know David Lynch, you know that everything is intentional.”

Lynch and Frost’s Twin Peaks is know for dualities – good and evil, dark and light. Lauren began looking at the costume design with this duality in mind.

“His clothing does the same thing – it takes all of these pieces  of a time and place and puts them together in a different way that is uniquely David Lynch,” she continued. “We see it across a number of his works, but is also  uniquely ‘Twin Peaks.’

Fashion in the late 190s and early 1990s saw the emergence of grunge along with “shabby chic” sensibilities. The show combined these ideas with Lynch’s love of the 1950s to create a universe that didn’t exist.

“It’s really kind of cool time capsule that both was like looking forward in time but also influenced the time really hugely,” Lauren reflected. “Both of those worlds embrace what is quintessentially Pacific Northwest in spring.”

Lauren then presented several color studies from all three seasons of Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. She presented characters pictured in black and white outfits – a nod to traditional concepts of good and evil and a pattern repeated in the Black Lodge.

Red is used throughout the show as more of a neutral color which is usually associated with “danger, warning, lust.” Lauren argues that in Twin Peaks it’s a neutral color because it’s used so often. And the fact that the tone of red Lynch uses is  intensified by the color and the lighting, but also matches the blood they use in all of the scenes.

Aside from colors, the show uses several textures including wools, plaid, plaid, plaid and more plaid. So much plaid. You’ll also find knits, stripes and intentional solids. The latter can appear very flat on stage so Lauren believes their inclusion was intentional.

It wasn’t until years after the show debuted on the ABC Television Network in 1990 that fans could get a better look at the textures. With high definition remasters, details now appear clear compared to early VHS releases of the show. One such detail is the pattern on Dr. Hayward’s coat when Sheriff Truman and he discover Laura Palmer.

“Green is my favorite color so I  started fixating on the scenes where we see only green,” continued Lauren. “I found over and over again, there were moments where characters were either being very real with each other and very honest, or  they were expressing pure joy in a way that they hadn’t felt, like that was almost overwhelming. Or they were making a huge truth discovery and revealing that to somebody.”

To Lauren, the use of blue in Twin Peaks seems to always occurs when a “secret’s about to be revealed, something that is ethereal or otherworldly is about to be revealed, or somebody might be somewhat in danger.”

She continued her color analysis with looking at the use of teal, particularly in the Double R Diner, along with possible meanings behind Special Agent Dale Cooper’s ties (going from black and white to colorful patterns).

The second part of the presentation featured Laura discussing how she identified several costume manufactures. Using a combination of Google image searches and endless scrolling on sites like Poshmark, Ebay and Instagram, she discovered the costuming team used clothing from labels like Benetton, Liz Sport, Pendleton and more. She even identified the Double R Diner waitress uniforms that were originally made by Angelica (not designed by Norma Jennings as “The Secret History of Twin Peaks” presents). These were line bought items that have appeared in other movies and shows.

The Benetton cardigan sweater Lara Flynn Boyle wears in the pilot returns in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me as something Moira Kelly wears.

At the end of the discussion, Laura showed off several of the pieces she’s collected over the years. She invited fans to touch the outfits to feel the textures and take a closer look at the designs.

Laura’s interest with identifying costumes started with the iconic black and white tree sweater worn by Sherilyn Fenn as Audrey Horne. At the Lexington Comic Show in Kentucky a few years ago, Fenn told Laura that the sweater was from her wardrobe and the production team lost it.

Fellow Twin Peaks fan 1400 River Road wrote extensively about Audrey Horne’s tree cardigan in this article.

Sherilyn confirmed many outfits from her wardrobe a few years ago after I published a look at her outfits from the first season.

Lauren and Laura’s panel was such a highlight from the event as it explored as side of Twin Peaks not often discussed. I’m hopeful they will return with more discoveries at a future Real Twin Peaks event.

Special thank you to Mary Hütter for providing the recording and to Twin Peaks Wellness Boutique for hosting the panel discussion.