Catherine O’Hara Breaks Down Her Best Fashion Moments, From the Screen to the Red Carpet

Hi Vogue, I'm Catherine O'Hara

and I'm going to show you, I don't know why,

but I'm going to show you my life in looks.

[upbeat music]

I loved working on this movie.

Our costume designer, Aggie Guerard Rodgers,

took me to Maxfield's, I remember,

on Melrose in Los Angeles.

Where they sell very, very cool, expensive clothes.

Somewhere I had never shopped, myself.

And we got to pick out really wild, great stuff.

I still have this jacket and this hat.

You may see it in another picture.

[Catharine laughs]

This top hat.

Looking at these pictures from this time,

I think wow, I think Delia Deetz,

my character in Beetlejuice and Moira Rose,

character I play in Schitt's Creek are sisters,

if not the same person with a different accent.

It's really strong, really strong wardrobe.

And look at me, and I'm interesting.

This is the second time I've worn this dress publicly.

Juul Haalmeyer, our wonderful costume designer from SCTV,

he had it made for me.

I drew it, we worked on the design together.

At the time, I swear he told me it was made with Kobe beef,

or waygu because he said the cows,

the leather was so soft on this dress.

He said, because the cows were massaged every day.

It's just wonderful when something is actually made

for your body, such a difference.

And I still have it, and I'll wear it again.

Home Alone.

This is one of those wardrobe looks

that one wears for a whole movie.

[Catherine laughs]

It was in the days of really broad shoulders

and long jackets.

It was very well to do woman,

elegant dresser, you know, business woman,

successful woman, that was my look.

Did we go away in the first one?

Yes.

[Catherine laughs]

I forget.

Wait, yes.

It was also travel look I guess.

It was very comfortable, kept me warm.

I had a beautiful coat to go with it.

I kept it for a few years then I gave it to my sister,

Patricia, who lives in England.

It looked great on her.

And I don't know if she got rid of it.

I think she could have made money.

Should've told her to sell it.

This was from Schitt's Creek and Moira was told

that this really cool, high end fashion photographer

was coming and was going to do a shoot

with her, in this town.

This town, whose name she's never spoken aloud.

[Catherine laughs]

And she's so nervous about it,

and she put's this look together.

And this is a Raf Simons dress,

and our wardrobe department,

and this happened a few times with Moira wear,

they had to go online and find out how to put it together.

I stood there, and they tried so many different versions,

and we're all laughing and enjoying it,

but they finally, they went online

and they're blowing up the pictures

and they're, you know, calling people,

What the hell, what do you do with this?

And then we had a great shirt, it might be this one.

I think it is, it's this shirt.

Course, great jewels, you can never accessorize enough

if you're Moira Rose.

But really fun, because it was really

a vulnerable moment for Moira.

Daniel and Deb shopped all year long online,

but you know, FARFETCH and RealReal,

and OUTNET and all the sites that sell designer clothes

for lower prices, because they're, you know,

from earlier collections.

And that's what we needed,

we needed clothes that we had when we were really wealthy.

But, you know, they were, both of them shopped amazingly

and found us the most incredible clothes.

And Daniel said it was hard to stop after he ended the show,

it was hard to stop shopping for Moira.

[Catharine laughs]

For the Tony Awards I was asked to present

the live musical number for Beetlejuice, the musical.

And I wanted to dress in keeping

with, you know, Tim Burton black and white.

And I was looking online for black and white dress,

black and white dress,

and I found this collection of Marc Jacobs.

I thought, How could I possibly get Marc Jacobs to wear?

I wasn't working with a stylist.

And I phoned my friend, Ricky Veder,

who used to be a designer and he's very good friends

with Marc Jacobs, and I phoned her, I said,

Ricky is there any chance you could, I don't know,

ask if I, beg if I could borrow uh, you know?

And she walked into a woman who she knows

who works with Marc Jacobs while I was asking her,

in that very moment.

And she said, Oh, uh, excuse me-

They talked and she told-

And so they arranged for me to borrow this dress.

It was very cool.

I've always loved black and white

and I think it can be very clean and works anywhere.

And then working on Schitt's Creek for six years

really, you know, just strengthened my love for

black and white even more.

It's bold and it's strong and it's graphic and cartoony.

[Catharine laughs]

And cool all at the same time, classic.

This was a big fun year for us

being invited to Hollywood in awards shows and,

you know, from doing our little show in Toronto.

I got to work with a stylist, Andrew Gelwicks.

And he found me so many great, great, great looks.

And this is a Norma Kamali jumpsuit.

But it is so graphic and fun and

its really soft material, it felt great.

I think I did that pose many times over the night

to scare people and show them how cool my outfit was.

I finally learned that you cannot

go buy clothes on the hanger.

I used to, when I would go to a wardrobe fitting,

and I'd look at stuff on the hangers.

I'd go, No, no, uh okay, uh no.

Just, kind of nervous and fearful

and now when, in the last year or two

when I've worked with Andrew,

he'll bring clothes, and he'll say,

Do you want to try this on?

And I'll say, Yes.

'Cause you don't know, you know,

and I'd never now how that would look,

that great Norma Kamali one piece,

without trying it on.

It's just, it felt great.

I have never sat in the first row of a fashion show,

and I've always wondered how it felt.

And I got to wear Tom Ford,

this very cool suit, which felt like sexy armor.

It was really strong, and the skirt was really tight.

And those shoes are so high but so beautifully built

that I was comfortable for the whole night in those shoes.

I couldn't believe how serious people were.

Really, really serious about what impression

they were making on each other.

There was so little laughing or smiling, it's so intense.

The least uptight person there was Tom Ford.

He's so loose and cool and he's very funny.

He's very easy.

I just felt like a happy alien in that place.

Okay, this is Pamela Roland dress.

The dress cost more than anything, any several outfits,

together that I ever wore on the show.

It was so beautiful in person.

The detail of beading and ostrich feathers I think.

I felt beautiful.

Then this crown that I'm wearing is made of zip ties

that I found on Etsy.

I felt like Moira felt.

I really felt like I was at a real premiere.

[Catherine laughs]

In this sad little town.

It was just exciting as any other red carpet.

I've always thought that Moira's wear was

very protective and very defensive and like armor.

It's aggressive and defensive at the same time.

Offense and defense.

And it's wanting to prove something,

I'm different, I don't belong here, I have talent,

I should be famous, I should, you know?

I have such potential.

And then she actually has this movie,

and even though she's in this town with this premiere

and her daughter as her PR agent.

I think there's an openness that she's comfortable

and confident enough to wear something

this feminine and this revealing and this beautiful, really.

It's not defensive at all, it's just,

I'm actually in a movie,

and it's actually having a premiere.

And I may actually be on the road again to being famous

and acting, and you know it's full of hope.

Before we went back to work for sixth season,

Daniel called me and told me all the outlines for the

season coming up and our story.

He was telling me what Moira was going to experience

and he got to this wedding and he said,

And Moira's going to officiate.

And we're thinking about what she's going to look like

or what she's going to wear.

And I did sit in, Daniel will vouch for this,

I said, What about a papal look?

You know the mitre?

I tried on the mitre and found out that they're

pretty crispy hard on the head.

So, I asked Onya if she could make a roll of hair around,

and I did a little drawing, which she has,

but she made it.

And she went through, I don't know how many nights

at home, trying to put this things together.

She ended up using the glue that she used to put down tiles

in her kitchen to keep this thing together.

It's an Alexander McQueen dress, that Debra found.

Tom Ford gold boots.

Daniel has said that because

Moira took the job so seriously,

and cared so much about why she was there,

that she actually managed not to upstage

the wedding couple.

So, even as insane as is, it was about them.

And I cried all day long.

[Moira gasps]

Good evening everyone.

Vogue, thank you so much for letting me

go down memory lane with my looks,

I hope you enjoyed them as much as they frightened me.

[upbeat music]