Cookie’s Gorilla Costume on Empire Was Inspired by Marlene Dietrich

With her jaw-dropping fashion sense and bold outfits in the first season of Empire, few could have predicted that Cookie Lyon would make her first appearance on the second season of Empire in a gorilla suit. According to the Fox show’s costume designer, Paolo Nieddu, that was not always the plan.


Vulture needed more details. Below, Nieddu outlines how the Cookie gorilla outfit at the Free Lucious rally scene came to be, and where he drew inspiration for the stunning, feathery outfit she donned beneath the gorilla getup — a 2013 heaven's bird Gucci dress.