Costume Designer Giulia Piersanti on Dressing Ayo Edebiri and Julia Roberts for ‘After the Hunt’

Much of After the Hunt’s action revolves around the relationship between Yale professor Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts) and her protégée Maggie Resnick (Ayo Edebiri), which sours when Resnick accuses one of Imhoff’s colleagues of sexual misconduct. Vogue spoke to Piersanti about her longtime friendship with Guadagnino, the difference she sees between fashion design and costuming for films, and making the choice to eschew overt coziness or femininity in Imhoff and Resnick’s wardrobes.

Vogue: How did you and Luca first meet?

Giulia Piersanti: We met years ago through a mutual friend at this dinner, and we’ve stayed friends ever since. This was in my early 20s, so we were both quite young, and we started to work together later on. But we were really good friends to begin with.

I know you and Guadagnino have been working together for a decade; what do you value most about your partnership?

Well, first of all, there’s a friendship side, of course. When Luca and I work on movies together, we stay at the same hotel, we hang out after, we hang out before; you know, we’re very close, and so there’s a strong bond and friendship. When it comes to working together on a project, for me, it’s like, How do I contribute to my friend’s project and how can I do my best to support him? Personality-wise, Luca amazes me. He’s such a multitasking person. He’ll be filming and doing photo shoots of fashion and architecture…Every time I’m tired, I’m like, no, if Luca can do it, I can do it. [Laughs.] He’s definitely my most inspiring friend. He’s so talented and and we have so many things that we like to do in common.

What’s the biggest difference between your work with with Guadagnino for the screen and your role as head of knitwear at Celine?