India Jourdain, the cunning fashion designer portrayed by India de Beaufort on ABC Family’s *Jane by Design*, boasts one of the most fabulous and distinctive wardrobes on television. Costume designer Olivia Miles-Payne combines shapes and materials that reflect the character's hard edges. "I want to make India's character really tough through her clothes, so I always look for these really exaggerated shapes," she says. "All the dresses have crazy volume, shoulder pads, and ruffles on the hips. I use textures like leather, vinyl, or feathers just to give it a little harder edge. The way they style her hair gives her this film noir look that I enjoy. She’s a little more streamlined and practiced. While Gray (Andie MacDowell’s character) is wearing Michael Kors, Dior, and Valentino, India is a little slicker and a little meaner. Here are a few great examples of India’s unique style."
"This is a Herve Leger gray dress. That was from the pilot, so we needed to really nail down her character as being intimidating and high fashion. I got it at the Herve Leger boutique in Los Angeles and added those chains on the gray dress to make it a little more hardcore. When I was talking with the creator, April Blair, about the look of each character, Herve Leger was definitely a designer who came up when India was cast. She is so petite, and it looks amazing on her."
"This is a liquid metal top by Nicole Miller, and the leggings are by Helmut Lang. The crazy neon shoes are by Chinese Laundry. You can’t see it in the photo, but she is wearing a little matching neon pink belt. This episode is called the Image Issue, and she’s presenting a neon trend to the company, so I thought it would be fun to add a pop of neon to her. She’s drinking her own Kool-Aid. I like these pants on her because she has an incredibly long inseam and always looks great in pants."
"That’s a black, almost Judy Jetson dress. This is a scene when India comes to Jane’s high school looking for her, so I wanted her to look really out of place in the school. I got it on asos.com, and I think it’s by the designer Aqua. It’s a great website for a modern kind of girl and has been a great resource for TV, things you can’t get in stores. The prices are good, the variety is huge, and designs from this line are exaggerated like this."
"This is a dress by Black Halo. It has a 1940s noir feel. It’s borrowing from that shape with big shoulder pads and kind of a cowl neckline with a pencil skirt bottom. Black Halo’s headquarters is right down the street from my house, and they’ve been very cool about letting me come pull from their warehouse. They are in Nordstrom and tons of boutiques. I have used quite a bit of it on India because they often do some bold designs. They’re always very sexy but ladylike with a great price point."
"Her shoes are aggressive like her personality," Miles-Payne says. "And her clothes have so much shape and personality that you don’t want a lot of jewelry going on. She usually wears one big accessory like big earrings or a big ring. A few lines I’ve used are Lia Sophia, Only Tatiana, which is by a Los Angeles-based designer, and Soho Hearts."