The Best Fits From 'Coming To America,' as Described by the Film's Costume Designer Deborah Landis

You may not know Deborah Landis by name, but you most definitely know her work. From the "COLLEGE" sweatshirt Bluto wore in Animal House to Indiana Jones' entire look to Michael Jackson's THRILLER JACKET, Academy Award nominee Deborah Landis has conceptualized and crafted many of pop culture's most iconic costumes.

Yet, even though she supplied the King of Pop with his eternally famous red zipper jacket and inspired multiple generations of college dorm art, neither of those projects are her favorite. That distinction belongs to Coming To America.

Twenty-seven years ago last week, Coming To America was released in theaters around the country. The 1988 Eddie Murphy-led comedy has since worked its way from urban cult classic to mentions on all-time greatest comedies lists, based largely on the strength of the cast and Landis' ability as costume designer to bring the fictitious African nation of Zamunda to life.

To mark the anniversary of the film's release and to celebrate one of the unsung heroes of modern movies, we sat down with Professor Landis to discuss her experience working on the film, her favorite and most famous looks, and how a Jewish woman born in the Bronx was able to successfully (and respectfully) create African art.

All images captured from Coming To America in HD.

"[Coming to America was special] because it was really wholly my creation—well, I should say the look was wholly my creation, certainly not the film. John, my husband, gave me a brief and said to 'create this world.' And so that was my brief. Who are these people, you know? It was very tricky. For a white designer…it really kept me up at night, every night, trying to consider which way to go."

"So here I am, just think of me—this very, very, very tall white girl who was born in the Bronx, grew up in Washington Heights, and just had this passion for dress at a very early age."

"The secret is that I have a passion for dress. And by dress I mean dress in culture, dress in social science, dress, dress, dress. Some people think about dress as fashion, other people think of it as style or personal style, other people think of dress in terms of historic clothes, and some people think of it in terms of tribes. But I just love dress, and clothes, and I have since I was a little girl."

"And so I had started collecting, from the time I was in college, African arts magazines. So, much later on, after I had designed Coming to America, my friend was like, 'Oh, I see you have African arts magazines—of course you have that, because you designed Coming to America.' I said, 'No, that’s not how it works at all. I had African arts magazines in college.'

"There’s a real North African thing going on between Morocco, Senegal, and Gambia. And then the jewelry on that was gold box jewelry. And you know, all of this was custom-made. James Earl Jones and Eddie Murphy wear this big, brass boxes—you can find Guinean kings who are wearing the exact same thing. All I did was copy them."

"I was familiar…I had already internalized some of African design—east, west, north, south—by the time I had got to Coming to America. I didn’t have time to internalize all that information about all those people in a two-month period. No, no, no. I'd loved that from the time I was young. And so when I was given the dream project, I had a beginning, I had something to think about. I already had knowledge."

"I mean, I really mixed it up—I think it’s good I mixed it up—but in the end, I really needed everything to hang together pretty well. And that was very tricky. It was the most difficult design assignment of my entire life, that’s for sure."

"The overarching issue for me was respect. That was a constant for me, the respect, and to make it beautiful. But I didn’t want to be insulting, and in terms of culture, there were many ways to fall down on that, not just for African-Americans, but also for African culture."

"In 1980, John and I were living in London and he was directing and I was designing a movie called An American Werewolf in London. The picture was a contemporary picture, and I designed it, worked on it, but I did have free time in London. And one of my favorite places was Brixton Market. So Brixton was considered very rough in those days. They had—still have—a fabulous, fabulous market. And even within the market I became very friendly with dealers in African fabric."

"...And I bought samples of African fabric then, in 1980. I bought fabric that had Mercedes Benz on it, I bought fabric with Jesus Christ on it, I bought fabric with entire soccer teams on it, I bought all different fabrics that were absolutely fabulous."

"So, now, eight years later, what comes into the mailbox at Coming to America? I have all these incredible fabric samples and all of the cards of all my friends who owned all of those stands at Brixton Market."

"When I had to design that wedding ball, and I wanted to put everyone in those gowns and base those gowns on Gambian and Senegalese dress, I called all of my wonderful market traders at Brixton Market. And they just started sending me samples. I coordinated all the samples, and in came hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of yards of fabric."

"I had horror of making a misstep, because I wanted this royal family to look glorious. I wanted for there to be a legitimacy and authenticity and most of all, grandeur and a dignity about this family."

"And really, this kingdom of Zamunda is truly a fairytale kingdom in every sense of the word.​"

"I coordinated the colors—they all came in separately—and then I coordinated all of them, and then we made the ball. Yeah, it was a huge, huge effort. But I loved every minute of it. I would do it again in a nanosecond.​"

"When it came down to designing these dancers, I really didn’t have experience. I drew a lot from East Africa and South Africa for the dancers, and a lot of that beading looks South African. I knew what I wanted, and I certainly had drawings, and had conceptualized—but when it came to building them, I went to the person who I knew had the experience to tell me...."

"...I went to Bob Mackie. Bob Mackie was famous for designing everything for Cher, but he had lots and lots of experience building shows in Las Vegas. And so I had all of those dancers built by the workroom that created all of those shows in Las Vegas."

"And not one bead fell to the ground. No beads were lost in the making of this film."

"Every bead stayed in place. We had professionals who know how to do this in Hollywood. So this production, from top to bottom, was made by professionals."

"I had to cast every single piece of jewelry..."

"The original [face] casts, these were not things that I had sculpted. This was one original cast, an original iron piece from Nigeria that I then had cast in brass."

"That gold dress. I remember the day I bought that gold lace fabric in New York City. I was around 38th Street, in the fabric and notions district, and I saw this gold, fabulous, fabulous fabric—it’s gold lace, but it’s covered in sequins and embroidery. And I said, 'That’s Imani’s dress for sure.' And I brought it home, and I wanted it to have a bare midriff and so—what we do in dressmaking is buy very sheer stretch fabric, and I dyed it to match her skin tone, so it kind of looks naked in the center. So I created it, and I designed that jewelry. The jewelry has the look of the Watusi, so it looks like these Watusi neck bands. Her bracelets and her hair were also all very coordinated."

"His hat, I took directly from Jomo Kenyatta—that was essentially Kenyatta’s hat—and then I just made up that he would be wearing an ocelot. With the ocelot, they showed me the ocelot and I said, 'Wait a minute, how did this ocelot die?' And they told me, 'This ocelot lived to a ripe old age.' [Laughs] He died of natural causes in a zoo. So I was like, 'Okay, if anyone asks, I have that disclaimer.'

"No animals died in the making of this film."

"The only thing that I didn’t design was Eddie Murphy's ties. Other than that—and I very often design and make the ties—I designed and constructed. I manufactured every single costume in that film. In terms of Eddie Murphy’s and Arsenio's suits, there was a background to the design and construction of them...."

"I had to think about where young Akeem would have gone to school. And I decided, because I really needed a direction for the shape of the suits, that he would have gone to a boarding school from Africa. He would have gone to somewhere like Eton or Harrow in England. And I was really inspired by the young Maharajas of India, all of whom went to England for school. And princes from around the world in the 19th century went to England to be educated. So in my imagination, I made this up. [Laughs] I totally made this story up. This was not a line in the screenplay; I was not directed to do this."

"But I thought, 'Okay, so his suits would have been made on Savile Row. They all would have been double vented, they all would have been made from English wool, his shirts would have been made on Jermyn Street in London, his collars would have been this shape, his cuffs would have looked like this, these are the kind of cufflinks he would have worn, and his ties would have come from Turnbull and Asser.' Which is where I bought his ties all of Eddie’s ties, in Turnbull and Asser. So I copied the look and feel of all of the suits from Savile Row and all the shirts from Jermyn Street, and his ties came from London. So he was dressed in completely English suiting and tailoring, and so was Arsenio.

"Oh, and their coats are so random. The coats that they wear to New York with those long sleeves that kind of flap behind them—those are actually inspired by coats from Afghanistan. So that’s from a completely different country and continent.​ I needed a coat that looked elegant and original to the place. But they’re Afghani coats. And I made them. [Laughs]"​

"When John and I have worked on screenplays, whether it’s Animal House or Three Amigos or whatever the movie is, I come to him with ideas. Sometimes he likes the ideas, like when I brought him the 'College' sweatshirt—I had gone to Oregon and I went to the local t-shirt place and had 'College' stamped on a shirt—and I said, 'You think this is funny, right?' And he said, 'Oh yeah. It’s good, let’s use it.'"

"...And there are other times where he doesn’t like things and they don’t appear in the movie, or he thinks I’ve gone too far. Or it’s too early in the film for that kind of joke, or it doesn’t work, or it’s gonna sabotage the comedy of the scene."

"...So only the director really knows what the whole movie is. I mean, it’s very good that I can’t read my husband’s mind. That would be scary. I think every wife would say that, right?"

"You can see my work throughout John’s films, you can see my sense of humor throughout John’s films. You can see what I have contributed, not only to John’s films, but also Steve Spielberg’s films."

"I think John and I work really well together, and when I worked with Steven on his two movies, I really worked well with Steven. You’re working with the director to realize their vision."

"And the horrible truth is, if the director—John, Steve, whoever—doesn’t like the costume and really doesn’t want it there, they'll just cut it out of the movie."

"Lisa's character was helping her dad. But I really wanted to portray her as kind of a next generation leader. She gets up at the podium, she could be your state senator. That’s the wonderful thing also, not only how it’s written, but the actress’s performance. She brought to it intelligence. What’s better than that? She’s a double threat. She’s beautiful and she’s so brilliant."

"When I made [the Lisa McDowell] suit, it was meant to be a power suit. It was also meant to contrast her with those ridiculous bikinis. Because what was happening on stage was a joke. And those bikinis...how small can you go? So these hilarious bikinis, these hilarious performances by Eddie and Arsenio—she was meant to play it straight."

"When you have such outrageous comedy and sex on stage—you have kind of an exploitation of women up there—and then you have a woman stand up like Shari, her and her dad sitting in the audience, and you see her—she could run for office. And that suit was meant to be, 'I’m so pretty, but I’m so brilliant, take me seriously, and thank you for coming.'"

"I think 'Soul Glo' says it all."

"If a director finds [a costume] distracting, if it’s not forwarding the storytelling, then [they] get rid of it. Now, the idea is, you create a movie together as a team, as a crew, as a creative collaboration. And you just try to get out of the way."

"I really had to draw a line between the two sisters, and of course they were cast differently, [because] they were meant to be so different."

"Patrice was the younger sister, and meant to be a wiseacre and, yeah, she makes fun of Lisa for being so square."

"Lisa is so square, and she looks square."

"So [Lisa] is totally, totally square. And you have [her] young fun sister."​

"I love [costume design], because I love being an audience."

"I’m always astounded that we can believe. And that’s where the enjoyment comes, is when an audience embraces these people in the movie."

"Of course, growing up in New York City gave me an edge over just about anybody in the world."

"[For Darryl] they were going for Soul Glo, so he was always dressed to be that guy."​

"There’s a big misunderstanding that costume design really has to do with clothes. Costume design does not have to do with clothes. Costume design has to do with identity. Who are they? What should they be wearing at any certain point? It’s always going to be their story."

"...And it’s essential that the audience has a connection with the people in the movie and care about the people in the movie. So that’s the costume designer’s realm, and clothes are just kind of the second part of it."

"Costume designers, including me, we always design from the inside out. It’s not a superficial endeavor."

"Eddie—Eddie inhabited those people on screen. Really, there was no one comparable to him, you know?"

"Part of what my job is as a costume designer is to really make it clear to the audience, even before one word of dialogue is spoken..."

"...Who [these characters] are and how they’re different." ​

"Teal and burgundy were the colors of the '80s."

"Hey, you don’t like that yellow shirt, get rid of it. Cut the scene."

"The stones and the jewels had to read light in every close-up."

"And so I just felt, 'I’m gonna throw money at this; I’m gonna work with a real jeweler.'"

"I’m not working with a prop department. Over my dead, bleeding, and broken body. This is going to resonate and be completely believable."

"And I just wanna say—and it’s not false modesty—I don’t create the icon, and neither does Steve Spielberg or John Landis or even Michael Jackson."

"It’s the audience who creates the icon."

"It’s amazing—it’s some kind of hypnosis where an audience can know that it’s an actor, and yet, with suspension of belief, that we believe that the actor is the person in the movie."

"Because when an audience falls in love with Michael, or with Indiana Jones, or with 'Thriller', or with Coming to America..."

"...When an audience falls in love..."

"...That’s powerful."

"...And it’s forever."

"I [draw a line between the sisters] with the lime green boots and the French."

"You are reading a narrative when you’re looking at costumes."

"The jewelry in Coming to America—just the crown—cost $80,000. They were not brass. These were sterling silver-plated, 14 karat gold."

"...And all of those jewels—well, not the diamonds, certainly—the diamonds are not even glass, the diamonds were CZs. I had a 45 karat CZ in James’s crown. So, they’re CZs, they’re real turquoise, they’re real pearls, they’re real hematites, they’re real coral, they’re real citrines. They had real jewels. Because I was not gonna play around."

"The wedding dress was tricky, because Shari Headley, who must have been, and still is, one of the most beautiful women on the planet...it was left to me to figure it all out. And again, sleepless nights. 'What am I gonna do?' Eddie’s so dark—I can’t put her in a white dress. She’ll look like a marshmallow, you know? And what’s gonna happen to Eddie?

"Then I thought, 'God. Fuck. [She'd be] beautiful in pink. If I could just make it pink, it’s gonna be a fairytale. I’m gonna make it pink.'"

"She’s naturally such an elegant creature. I’ll just put her in pink, and I’m gonna make the top really tight and small like a ballerina. See, Shari’s the kind of actress where she can carry all of that. I mean, some actresses, you dress them, and you just think, 'Oh, honey, I’m just gonna take that hat off,' or 'Take off those gloves' or 'Can I please remove the cape?' But this is an actress where—I mean, when I put those diamonds on her, and those earrings, and that veil—she just...she was amazing."

"She is every designer’s dream, because the more I put on her, the more she could take it. She could carry it. She had that kind of natural elegance. Very much like Audrey Hepburn.

"As for the dress, ironically it was made with very inexpensive fabrics—nylon tulle—but again Shari could wear it. And she had dignity and elegance. She wore it as if it was the most expensive dress on the planet. So a lot of it has to do with the romance and the magic of the scene."

"Really inexpensive fabric. I mean, truthfully, every year—every year—I have this wonderful [assistant] named Natasha—and she says, 'Oh, here’s your Coming to America email.' Because every year, I get at least one, if not two, sometimes three, requests for the gown, to design the gown."

"And what I have done all of these many, many years is I always send these young and engaged [women]—I always send them a copy of the original sketch of the dress and that gorgeous portrait of Shari in the dress. And I just say, 'Good luck and God bless.'"

"So, you know, we make movies—I make movies, John and I—even Steven—and some of the movies work, some of them don’t. The movies that don’t work fade away..."

"...But a movie like Coming to America—I guess it’ll be around for generations."