Catching up with “Beyond the Gates” costume designer Jeresa Featherstone-Winfield.
Before the sun is up six days a week, Jeresa Featherstone-Winfield arrives at Assembly Atlanta studios in Doraville. She is the costume designer for “Beyond the Gates,” a soap opera about affluent and powerful African- American families in a Maryland suburb. It’s a job she says she’s uniquely qualified for, having grown up in Maryland. “It’s like I know these people,” she says. “I have true reference points to pull from.”
Featherstone-Winfield likes to do a run-through of all wardrobe items being used that day before she and her team of 11 dive into production. At any given time, almost 350 characters need dressing. Here, she shares more about her career and day-to-day.
A Stylish Start
A theater costume design elective at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, changed the course of Featherstone- Winfield’s life. “I didn’t even know at the time that that was an industry, let alone a career,” she says.
Once bitten by the bug, she completed a master’s degree in costume design from Long Island University in 2014 while working as a stylist on off-Broadway productions. She was also an adjunct professor of costume design at her undergraduate alma mater.
Featherstone-Winfield and her husband are bi-coastal between Los Angeles and Buckhead, and she worked on the LA-based “The Bold and the Beautiful” for seven years before landing her gig at “Beyond the Gates.” Her work on that show won her three Daytime Emmy Awards for costume design in 2023 and 2024.
The On-Set Setup
While many people know costume designers exist, few understand the exact function they play on a set. “My whole job is to bring the creative vision to life for a character through clothing and support the script,” she says. She learns the character’s backstory and then interprets it through clothing.
For example, Anita Dupree, the matriarch of the soap opera family, is a former celebrity singer, which informed the way Featherstone-Winfield outlined her wardrobe. “She’s comparable to Diana Ross. I always want her to have a level of stage presence, so I use eye-catching elements that create movement such as ostrich feathers, sequins, statement jewelry and a rich color palette,” she says.
She and her team scour thrift stores and malls, commission designs or on occasion, design clothing, although the volume and speed of production do not always allow for it. “Sometimes we do a fitting at 6 a.m., and we’re on camera by 8:30 a.m.,” she says.
In a crunch, she turns to triedand- true Atlanta staples. “I’ve been fortunate to find places like Tootsies, which is great for a curated selection of high-low,” she says. S
he says the costume house at Assembly, run by Misti Moreaux, has been key to keeping things organized and filling in gaps. “Misti has been so helpful and resourceful. We run over there often, looking for specialty pieces or extra uniforms.” she says.
Featherstone-Winfield loves how fun her job can be. “We’re trying to make magic happen. It’s fantasy, so it’s elevated from regular dayto- day,” she says. “I want to make sure we are having fun with what we are doing and not taking it too seriously. It’s a soap opera.”
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