‘Gilmore Girls’: Richard Gilmore Had More Than 50 Bow Ties
Lorelai and Rory Gilmore were the stars of Gilmore Girls, but its highlights were Lorelai’s parents, Richard and Emily Gilmore. Richard and Emily exuded class and oozed wealth, which they were more than happy to share with their daughter despite her refusal. Richard had a wardrobe full of suits accompanied by cute bow ties. The show’s costume designer once said Richard had over 50 bow ties.
Richard Gilmore had several bow ties
Whether at a Friday night dinner with his granddaughter, celebrating her graduation, or simply lounging with his wife, Richard Gilmore was rarely without a suit. Richard was a successful businessman; his impeccably cut suits attested to that.
The character also almost always never wore his suits without one accessory, a bow tie. Richard loved the accessory so much that even his daughter knew it would make for a nice thought when she used it to wrap his birthday gift.
Gilmore Girls costume designer Brenda Maben revealed in a 2016 Vanity Fair interview that Richard had over 50 bow ties on the show and shared that one had a Yale logo screen-printed on it.
Maben theorized that Richard’s suits would have been custom-made, given his societal wealth and stature. “People in his capacity, his stature, they don’t keep buying new clothes. Everything they buy is expensive and classic,” she said.
Richard Gilmore’s suits had a unique nod to his status
Not only were the bow tie and suit combos iconic and very on-brand for Richard Gilmore, but the costume designers also took the outfits a step further by including a unique detail that spoke to who Richard was. In the Vanity Fair interview, Brenda Maben revealed that not only did Richard wear custom-made suits, but they also had his initials embroidered on them.
Maben said she sewed Edward Herrmann’s character’s initials ‘RG’ into every suit he wore on the show. “[It] was my little touch. No one ever saw it, but I just felt it was good for the character,” she said. The costumer theorized that Emily would be the driving force behind the engraved initials in the Gilmore Girls universe.
According to Maben, Emily would have been very instrumental in selecting suits that her husband wore and stated that the character would insist on the detail. She said, “Emily probably helped in that process. His character could probably care less about the embroidery, but Emily probably said, ‘No Richard, you should have this done.'”
Richard and Emily entrusted their longtime fashion consultant, Miss Celine, to make their outfits. It, therefore, would make sense that Emily would require that Celine embroider Richard’s initials in every suit he wore.
Every character in ‘Gilmore Girls’ was dressed according to their personality
Richard Gilmore isn’t the only character in Gilmore Girls whose outfit speaks to their personality. According to Brenda Maben, the show’s costume department tried its best to dress each actor according to their characters and what they were like in the show.
Showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino contacted Maben when the show was already two episodes in, so according to the costumer, she already had an idea about who each person in Stars Hollow was. For example, Lauren Graham’s character Lorelai was “a cool mum” who wanted only the best for her daughter.
Her outfits, according to Maben, reflect her caution-to-the-wind personality. Maben recalled Rory’s first day of school when Lorelai overslept and ended up grabbing any outfit she could find to get her child to school. “Instead of just having on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, it’s a little funnier, and it says a lot about her character,” she said.
