Emmy-nominated “Westworld” costume designer Shay Cunliffe had an exciting task when she joined HBO’s team for the series’ third season. For the first time, the show was leaving the confines of the themed, host-filled parks and heading out into the real world. Or at least, the world as cocreators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy imagined it in the year 2053.

Cunliffe was tasked with transitioning the established characters – most of whom had been dressed in western-style clothing for two seasons – into new sleek and modern settings.

“I was really starting from scratch, which I appreciated because it really felt like my show,” Cunliffe told Insider over the phone in a recent interview. “It didn’t feel I was slotting in.”

Those designs came together to help inform the stories of Dolores, Maeve, and other characters. Let’s dive into the costumes of “Westworld” season three and Cunliffe’s planning behind them.

The transforming dress Dolores wore to a gala was one of the first looks Cunliffe discussed with the 'Westworld' creators

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Foto: Dolores' sneaky transforming dress was revealed in this scene. Source: HBO

The most dramatic gown in "Westworld" history was one of the very first outfits costume designer Shay Cunliffe began working on when she was brought on for season three. She and cocreator Jonathan Nolan spoke about the bigger ideas they wanted to bring to "Westworld" even before the first script for season three was written.

"We were kicking around ideas about the future - what clothes could do, clothes getting smarter, clothes working harder for us," Cunliffe said. "And [Nolan] mentioned that he loved things that had multiple functions."

"And although [Nolan] adores super high-tech, state-of-the-art new thinking, he also loves really old-fashioned stagecraft, too," Cunliffe continued. "We talked about how great it'd be to find a home for something that transforms through great mechanical planning, not visual effects."

Cunliffe first started costume designing for the theater, where transforming clothes are much more common.

"It's a very old fashioned [idea]," Cunliffe said. "It's used in drag shows and in theater for quick-changes all the time or pantomimes. "

So Nolan and his team went off to begin writing season three, and Cunliffe set to working on the piece. Dolores' grand entrance to the gala with a transforming dress was scripted into the opening episode of season three. Cunliffe was proud of the dress she and her lead seamstress created - a sleek black mini-dress that unsnaps and instantly flows into a gold, floor-length evening gown.

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The day of filming, Cunliffe says the rest of the crew was under the impression that the transforming dress they'd seen referenced in the script would be a visual effect added in post-production. But Evan Rachel Wood (who stars as Dolores) wowed everyone when she pulled down the front of her gown in the first take, unveiling the dress below.

"They thought she was just wearing something just to mark it, like a placeholder, and then [the transformation] happened," Cunliffe said. "I got a complete round of applause. It was the most wonderful thing. In 30 years of working, I'd never had that happen before."

Once the episode had aired, on March 15, the COVID-19 pandemic had already spread to U.S. states and triggered many city-wide shutdowns. Cunliffe decided to post something work-related to her Instagram account (where she has 559 followers) for the very first time. She uploaded a video of Evan Rachel Wood trying on the dress for a final fitting.

"It was a total lockdown time and I thought everyone needs to have a smile right now," Cunliffe said. "Normally [my Instagram posts] are just what I'm cooking and my cat."

The post racked up tens of thousands of views on Instagram, and was then reshared to the "Westworld" subreddit, where another 800,000 fans were able to watch the fitting.

Cunliffe discovered the 'Westworld' subreddit this year and was impressed by the fandom's deep analysis

"I was amazed," Cunliffe said of the "Westworld" subreddit. "I thought, 'I should have been following this as we were shooting.' I was all alone just figuring it out. I should have checked in with the fans."

Many of the top-viewed posts on the "Westworld" subreddit feature smaller details or connections between characters and seasons. For example, one eagle-eyed fan on Reddit realized that the character Jean Mi Serac wore clothing that matched the AI's designs, seemingly mirroring his own journey in the supercomputer's creation.

"Sometimes the stuff they've come up with is completely nuts," Cunliffe said. "But it's thrillingly nuts."

The patterns on Jean Mi's shirts change as the patterns on Solomonand Rehoboam change from r/westworld

Jean Mi's sweater matched the AI designs because Cunliffe was choosing costumes that fit in with the overall aesthetic of season 3

For this season of "Westworld," Cunliffe says the costume department wasn't making very many pieces from scratch. Instead, they were sourcing all the tops, suits, and dresses and making sure it all fit into the primary aesthetic that had been built out by the art department and production design team a couple of months before Cunliffe had started working.

So Jean Mi's sweater matching the Solomon AI build wasn't a conscious choice on Cunliffe's part, but instead was the result of her choosing pieces based on patterns and designs she knew would be embedded in the show.

"My inspiration in the beginning starts with everything that the art department is working on," Cunliffe said. "I just immersed myself aesthetically in their images, because I think the costumes are almost like interior decoration for the sets, if you will. Wherever I could reinforce their design elements, I did."

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Foto: Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores in "Westworld" season three. Source: John P. Johnson/HBO

Cunliffe says there was a lot of "kismet" involved when it came to finding certain outfits that could speak to the larger look and feel of season three. It's great when the piece winds up serving a larger meaning, but Cunliffe says that the costuming process is often much more straightforward.

"The truth usually was that it was available, it fit, it was comfortable enough for the actor, there were three of them, and they were in the budget," Cunliffe said. "I always felt embarrassed at how prosaic my explanation is, but I do believe it's that we are picking up on some unconscious thing with a lot of choices. It happens so often that a choice that has been made for very practical reasons turns out really fits in ways one had not consciously known."

One time that Cunliffe did intentionally seed an extra layer of meaning came when Dolores' copies were revealed, and they each were wearing blue

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Foto: Sato and Connells in episode four of "Westworld" season three. Source: HBO

Cunliffe was aware she was inheriting "dearly beloved, very strong characters," and made sure to binge the first two seasons just before starting on her own designs. She was drawn to the western-style clothes and was "disappointed" when she first realized that season three would take place almost entirely outside of Westworld itself.

But they were able to bring a little bit of Dolores' iconic blue dress from season one into season three.

At first, the plan was to reintroduce Dolores in the cold open with her wearing something grand-looking in the "Dolores blue" shade from season one.

Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores Westworld HBO season three finale

Foto: Dolores in the season three finale of "Westworld." Source: HBO

By the time the first episode was filmed, though, that scene had been rewritten.

"So we thought we were introducing her in a way that didn't end up happening," Cunliffe said. "And we had all kinds of Dolores-blue dresses ready to remeet her. But that fell by the wayside."

Instead, they were able to bring back the idea of "Dolores-blue" for episode four, when we learn that Dolores had copied her own host-mind and placed it into four other manufactured bodies.

Each of the copies (Sato, Hale, and Connells) was wearing blue as part of their costume for that episode. Both Sato and Hale are wearing blue suits in the episode, while Connells has on a blue shirt and tie. "Dolores herself was wearing little blue earrings," Cunliffe said.

If you had paid extra-close attention to the blue theme between all four characters, you might have been able to guess that Dolores was hiding in each of them before Maeve figured it out.

Dolores wasn't the only character whose updated look was a callback to her time in the Westworld park

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Foto: Clementine in season three vs. season one of "Westworld." Source: John P. Johnson/HBO

"That was totally intentional, yes," Cunliffe said when Insider asked about Clementine's blue dress she wore in season three and how it matched her old Westworld costume.

For both Clementine and Maeve, Cunliffe felt it was important to keep their new costumes in the same "theme-song of color." That's why they both wear the signature blue and red shades we'd seen them with in the first two seasons.

"I felt that with all these ladies I had to plug into that [theme] for the people who have really followed the show," Cunliffe said.

"Westworld" season three is available to watch as part of an HBO Max subscription. You can sign up here for $14.99 per month. (When you subscribe to a service through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners.)

You can tune into the upcoming Emmy Awards, in which Cunliffe is nominated for best costume design, on September 20 on ABC.