East of Eden (2026)

Peeps, I have FEELINGS about the recent adaptation of the Steinbeck novel East of Eden (2026) on Netflix. Now, I haven’t ever read the novel (wasn’t forced to in school, unlike The Grapes of Wrath!), so many of them are plot/character-related… but some are also hair-related? So, spoilers abound, you have been warned.

The novel, published in 1952, tells the story of two interrelated families living in California’s Salinas Valley (south of San Francisco) between the 1860s and 1910s and mirrors the biblical story of Cain and Abel; the miniseries mostly focuses on the one family, the Trasks. In the first half, we focus on Adam Trask, who vies with his brother for their abusive father’s love and approval, then gets intertwined with a Bad Woman. In the second half, Adam moves to California, and there’s emphasis on a few more characters, most especially Lee, a Chinese-American man who works for the family, and Adam’s twin sons.

Now, some SUPER spoilery plot ranting: again, haven’t read the novel, but really, Steinbeck? The only way a woman can self-actualize and look out for herself and only herself is to become a WHORE? That’s it? She couldn’t launch a business empire? Run a criminal gang? SOMETHING else?? But then, she’s supposed to be the Ultimate of All Evil, but taking over a podunk brothel in SALINAS is the pinnacle of all her ambitions? She doesn’t at least want to franchise, or branch out to San Francisco, or SOMETHING else? While the character of Cathy was fascinating, the rampant sexism underpinning Steinbeck’s take on a self-actualized woman was infuriating.

And then Adam. Oh, Adam. I just couldn’t with how much he internalized his father’s abuse and then TURNED AROUND AND ABUSED HIS OWN CHILDREN (not physically, but emotionally). A friend said “Adam is the epitome of #notallmen” and she’s so right. He’s a self-indulgent whiner, who I will grant all kinds of leeway for his fucked-up childhood, but his inability to LITERALLY HEAR when a woman tells him what she wants, and to completely screw up his own children totally replicating patterns from his own abuse, was so fucking infuriating. GAH.

The main redeeming quality of the series was again, Cathy’s character [despite her life choices] and actress Florence Pugh‘s take on her; as well as Lee, whose character is a badass in both directly confronting the racism of the period AND being a really good guy AND being smart AF AND being played by actor Hoon Lee, on whom I’ve been developing a serious crush since seeing him in modern-set Your Friends & Neighbors (he’s also been in Mulan and Warrior).

Now, let’s discuss the costumes (and hair) in East of Eden, since technically we’re here to discuss those. These were designed by Kirsty Cameron, whose previous historical credits include Bliss, Slow West, The Power of the Dog, and Tenzing. And in general, I liked what she did with some questions about Cathy’s end-of-life wardrobe. She was particularly inspired by the photography of cartoonist/illustrator Edward Linley Sambourne, who took a lot of what we’d call “street style” photos as bases for his cartoons in Punch:

That “real life” take on how clothes were worn is definitely evident given how naturalistic so many of the clothes were. And according to an interview in Esquire, there’s a clear color story; Cameron said,

“There’s very definitively a different palette as you go through all of Cathy slash Kate’s worlds, from the blues and more fresh cottons of her childhood and teenage years, into the more brocaded, elaborate world of Thomas Edwards. Then there’s the faded world of Alice Trask that Cathy wears at the farm, into the world of the brothel, which is pastels and rich, lolly pastels, and then into the blacks of Kate.”

Cathy stays surprisingly girlish when she relaunches her prostitution career. Cameron said,

“We really needed to create a kind of innocence there. There’s that pink checked silk dress she wears, and then the first ruffly dress she wears into the brothel at night. We still wanted there to be a sort of feigned innocence before she moves into the velvet gowns.”

Although she does indeed transition to some mid-tones and richer fabrics, I liked that all the women at Faye’s brothel were dressed in actual fashionable wear (as opposed to slutty corsets and chemises):

Given that most period images of brothels show exactly that!

However, Cathy-now-Kate goes back to very innocent, demure looks when she’s NOT at work, as part of her plan to convince Faye that she’s a good girl on several levels.

Oldest Kate, now running the brothel, goes to all black, which sometimes worked, like in this street look:

But when inside, she goes Full Goth in a way that just seemed very modern. Okay, so Cameron told Vogue,

“She exercises a kind of self-branding. [Writer/producer/showrunner] Zoe [Kazan] even talked a little bit about Patti Smith—this sense of someone who’s created their own image which is so recognizable… Florence wanted it to be really sexy. She also loved the idea that Kate collected all of these mementos from men, so those are on her body as well as being next to her bed and on her desk.”

But between the strong makeup, Ottoman-style belt buckle, and ALL THE JEWELRY, it just felt like Too Much:

Especially in the final scenes, but hey, if anyone is casting for a Stevie Nicks biopic we have found your girl:

Next, let’s talk hair, which was co-designed by Nancy Hennah (Our Flag Means Death, Time Bandits) and Sarah Rubano (Pearl, Time Bandits; also lead makeup FX artist on Wicker), but Pugh’s hair was designed by her personal stylist, Jaime Leigh McIntosh. All were interviewed by Allure, which emphasized how,

“Pugh’s personal on-set hair and makeup team—who worked alongside Hennah and Rubano—also challenged themselves to work as historically accurately as possible. For example, hairstylist Jaime Leigh McIntosh avoided using hot tools when styling Pugh’s wigs. Instead, she ‘wet set the hair to create texture.'”

Which, okay, but y’know, you can get an actual curl from a wet set, not the limp barely-waves they constantly went with. But what annoyed me the most was the sort-of-Victory rolls that seem to have been styled in the dark:

According to that same interview,

“’I did a style one morning, which featured two peaks at the top of her head, that Florence was very drawn to,’ McIntosh explains. ‘We ended up nicknaming [the look] ‘kitten ears,’ and throughout the rest of the series you see [the ears] continue and grow with Kate.'”

One of the few times I actually liked Kate’s hair was the one time she finally got it ALL UP:

One hair journey that doesn’t get mentioned in that interview that I liked was Lee’s transition from a traditional Chinese queue:

To fully shaved:

I can’t even talk about the costumes on Adam and the sons, because those episodes were a total fork-in-the-eye slog!

What was your take on East of Eden, its plot/adaptation and costumes?

 

 

 

Find this frock flick at: