The Bridge is a new gripping crime drama on the FX network. Adapted from the Swedish television series, Bron, it's a present-day crime thriller exploring the tensions on the U.S. - Mexico border.
Sonya Cross, played by cool blonde actress Diane Kruger, is an El Paso,TX homicide detective with Asperger's Syndrome who teams up with Mexican counterpart from Chihuahua State Police, Marco Ruiz (played by the sexy Demian Bichir) to catch a serial killer operating on both sides of the border.
From the very first episode I noticed the distressed leather jacket worn by Sonya Cross. With a faint image of a horse image on the back, two tigers (one patch and one illustrated), leopard print shoulder insets, a fading red star on the right sleeve and embellished with such personal items as a row of safety pins on the shoulder and duct tape on the cuff, she rarely takes it off. By the 7th episode I was both obsessed with the show - and the leather jacket.
I did a bit of research and found, via the Costume Designer's Guild, that the jacket was custom made by costume designer Anna Terrazas and her team.
According to Terrazas, Kruger's character is a “very uniform person and does the same routine every day.” As such, Sonya doesn’t have a real sense of style. One piece that will potentially stand out to viewers, however, is a vintage leather jacket that Sonya wears all the time. Viewers eventually come to find out that the jacket once belonged to Sonya’s sister.
“[The jacket] doesn’t make sense for what she does as a detective or who she is, but the whole idea is that it has sentimental value and is worn in memory of her sister,” says Terrazas.
Terrazas says it took a very long time to find the right jacket, but eventually they came across the staple piece in a vintage store in Los Angeles. Terrazas and her team worked to age and distress the leather so that it would appear to be as old and special as the story intended.
“I like to work in teams, everything is very collaborative,” says Terrazas, adding that each team member was allowed to give suggestions for the jacket or add their own personal touch. For example, she says, they painted a horse onto the back of the jacket because Sonya’s sister had a love for horses. The jacket also has hidden studs on the back under the collar and inside the jacket, as well as two “piercings,” which were popular in the 90s – one for Sonya and one for her sister.
“The studs and hidden details are more for Diane than they are for the audience,” she says. “They make the character and story more real.”
Don't miss The Bridge and this fabulous leather jacket. It's on The FX Network Wednesdays at 10pm.
images courtesy of the FX network and Anna Terrazas.