FX’s “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette” was a world created with understated, minimalist, and romantic themes.
Ryan Murphy’s film, set in the 1990s, depicts the relationship between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. Production designer Alex DiGerland is from New Jersey and attended New York University. He knew the era well.
He built a world that was true to the era, while also finding a place for creative freedom. Here, Diggerland details the major film sets in the series.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s Fifth Avenue Apartment
The few photos left in Jackie Kennedy’s apartment are from Cooking for Madam: Recipes and Reminiscences from the Home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. A Sotheby’s auction catalog published after her death provides further insight.
“It’s a great apartment and she has impeccable taste, but some of her design choices were a little inconsistent with what we wanted for the show,” says DiGerland, who took creative liberties in the design. But he was always asking how exactly to match and how to “twist the dial, the overall vibe.”
Most of the furniture was an exact match.
“We tweaked the home decor. She had a blue-striped couch in the dining room, but to fit in with that tone, we went with pink and white stripes,” he explains. Elsewhere, Onassis had used “buzzing red-patterned wallpaper in the dining room,” but one of Digerland’s team decided to replace it with blush tones.
John F. Kennedy Jr.’s Loft
Diggerland referenced the loft spaces of the time when designing the space, leaning against plain white walls and choosing not to display any artwork.
“It was a horrible choice,” he admits. But by doing so, we were able to keep the focus on the actors. “If you look at the show as a whole piece of work, I think it worked because the actors moved to the forefront and the artwork became who they were.”
The golden age of Tinseltown was a source of inspiration.
“If you look back at classic Hollywood romance movies, those sets were built on tighter budgets,” he says. “There’s a reason they were called stars back then, because they got attention, and that’s all you really needed. So we adopted that philosophy.”
Calvin Klein office
Klein’s headquarters took over an entire 17-story building on Manhattan’s 39th Street, and DiGerland hired interior designer Joe D’Arso, the father of high-tech minimalism, to decorate the space with industrial materials and fixtures.
When Klein moved his flagship store to Madison Avenue in the 1990s, he hired minimalist architectural designer John Pawson. “Ryan and I were both very inspired by Pawson’s designs. He took minimalism to a new level,” says DeGerland, who kept a treasure trove of archival photos from the time.
He also reflected the modern minimalist style Klein favored, limiting the color palette to grays and neutrals, with outdoor floodlights installed on the walls and gray sheet metal industrial shelving.
Roxy
With New York’s iconic Roxy nightclub no longer in existence, D’Gerland went to Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood and found Elsewhere, a much smaller venue with “a big, cavernous space and high ceilings.” That was enough for De Garland and his team to add swings, banquettes, mirror balls and chandeliers and transform the modern club into a 1990s venue.
Panna II Garden Restaurant
Before the series debuted on FX and Hulu, it was easy to get a table at Panna II. everything that has changed
New Yorkers and tourists began to flock to this place.
“In the script, it was one of the restaurants that wasn’t called by name. It was only designated as an Indian restaurant because part of the conversation was about John’s stay in India,” explains DiGerland.
He looked at multiple Indian restaurants as well as non-Indian restaurants that could be repurposed. But he couldn’t find anything that fit his aesthetic.
“Miraculously, Panna II still exists and exists in almost the same condition as it was back in the day,” he says.
“The owner says she ate there, but we don’t know if that’s true or not, but we thought it was the right place. It’s so secluded that we can believe he would take her there to avoid the spotlight.”
The restaurant’s busy aesthetic was an opportunity to break away from minimalist rules. “This is an exciting incident where they have met each other before, but now their spark has solidified,” he added. “What better way to visualize that than with a cornucopia of exploding Christmas lights?”
Mr. DiGerland had to work to bring the exterior in line with the times and change the health food store underneath. “It was a lot of work, but I’m really happy with it.”
