From ºÚÁÏÍø to 'Stranger Things', Amy Parris '07 stitched her own story
Long before Amy Parris '07 learned to age a leather jacket, apply fake bloodstains to a hospital gown or dress a town in 1980s nostalgia, she was a teen in Murrieta, making clothes on a sewing machine her grandmother had given her.
All through high school, Parris took pride in tailoring her own clothes and styling them in ways she didn’t see at the mall. Ask her what she wanted to be when she grew up, and the answer never changed: a costume designer in Hollywood.
It sounded improbable to almost everyone around her. It wasn’t.
Nearly 20 years after graduating in at Cal State Long Beach, Parris is now one of the most in-demand costume designers in film and television, the woman behind the wardrobe of "Stranger Things" — a body of work so iconic that it came to define an entire decade.
Although Parris now credits ºÚÁÏÍø with her first big break, choosing it came down to practical math: As a first-generation student paying her own way, she needed somewhere affordable — and The Beach was closer to Hollywood than any other option.
“Why would I move away from Hollywood if I want to be in Hollywood?" she recalls asking herself.
It was a gut instinct that paid off in ways she couldn't have anticipated.
Learning the language of fabric
At ºÚÁÏÍø, Parris learned the mechanics of clothing — how garments are built, how they break down, how they behave under movement and time. She also learned that fashion designers are storytellers, and that knowing how to build a garment, stitch by stitch, allowed her to stay nimble as those stories changed.
"Having the knowledge of how long it takes a tailor to make something," she said, "or having the knowledge of the construction of a garment with the type of fabric you're using is so invaluable when I'm talking to my tailors, and they're building for the sets."
Even classes that seemed tangential proved instructive.
"I'd be in an anthropology class, which was kind of general, but it connected to the way people were wearing things in history, that connected to the history, that led us to why we wear ties, that leads us to why we merchandise ties," she said. "It all connected in a really unique way."
'This is what I'm meant to do'
Parris especially enjoyed her fashion instructors, who treated students like working artists in training while being plain-spoken about the odds.
"If you look to your right and your left," a professor once told a class of first-year students, "two of you will not be working in the industry."
She remembers faculty members like Tawny Sherill and the late Jean Hardy as “so incredible at nurturing students and really listening to us and being very rooted in reality."
It was Sherill’s connection at Western Costume in Los Angeles, in fact, that led to Parris’ dream internship.
"'This is what I meant to do,'" she recalls thinking the first time she stepped foot in the legendary costume house. "It was a dusty, old, dirty warehouse. But I was like, 'This is it.'"
After graduation, Parris made a habit out of saying "yes," regardless of pay or prestige, and in doing so, worked her way from costumer to assistant costume designer — spending formative years under acclaimed designer Anne Crabtree on "Westworld" and earning credits on "Her" and "A Wrinkle in Time."
Finding her way in the Upside Down
Then came "Stranger Things."
She didn't have to bring anything to the interview, but she brought vision boards anyway — old family photos, kids at summer camp, vacation snapshots from the 1980s. The Duffer Brothers responded, and she got the job — staying on for the show's final three seasons.
She oversaw some of the most iconic looks in recent television history: Steve and Robin's sailor-striped Scoops Ahoy uniforms, Eddie Munson's Hellfire Club vest, Eleven’s mismatched roller rink outfit. It was Parris who slid through fake blood in a hospital gown so Eleven could wear it on set and then cut the character's wetsuit down by hand for her final battle in the Upside Down. Parris even collaborated with Benetton on a limited-edition capsule collection called Stranger Colors of Benetton.
Long Beach, meanwhile, has never stopped resurfacing.
Parris still makes regular trips to Meow, the 30-year-old vintage shop on Fourth Street owned by Kathleen Schaaf. And that Hellfire Club logo? It was designed in partnership with Trevor Girard, brother of Parris’ college roommate and fellow fashion alum Sarah Girard '07.
"My college roommate's brother," she said, still marveling at it.
These days, Parris has no shortage of offers. She is now working on a new Superman spinoff series in development for HBO Max and enjoys a growing creative partnership with Millie Bobby Brown.
"Getting to do the job that I set out to do," she said, "is absolutely the dream."
As for students chasing a similar one, her advice is simple: "Say yes to everyone."
