But Mabel isn't the only one speaking volumes through outerwear.
"Really?! Do you not see this coat?" Oliver, played by Martin Short, shouts at a driver who stops just short of hitting him in a crosswalk, gesturing to his purple overcoat.
And after reading that line, Covarrubias was off to the races.
"The coats play such an integral role to each person's character development—in my mind at least," Covarrubias said with a laugh. "To me it was like a tool that each of our main three characters were able to use to physically show who they are on the inside."
Cash-strapped theater director Oliver—responsible for classics such as the Macbeth adaptation "Macbeats" starring Vanilla Ice—has a penchant for overcoats and bright scarves. "I always thought of the scarf as being like a theater curtain," the designer explained, "and his body is the scene and it's moving and flowing with him." But they stop short of making the scarves clownish or too flamboyantly patterned. "We don't want it to come off as too comical," Covarrubias said. "We want it to look grounded from every angle."
And, she added, the long coats complement his 5-foot-8 frame. "You might think it would look strange on his body," she said, "but it just adds a theatricality to his already great physicality."