Costume designer Olga Mill knows that sometimes the clothes tell you everything you need to know about a person, especially when that person is desperately trying to prove they belong. In Season 2 of Beef, Mill creates a sharply observed world of aspirational Millennials, effortlessly individualistic Gen Zers, impossibly wealthy Korean power players, and, of course, one very fashionable dachshund. From Joshua and Lindsay Martín’s carefully curated country club aesthetic to Ashley and Austin’s evolving identities, every costume becomes another piece of the season’s generational tug of war. In this excerpt from The Art of Costume Live at Netflix FYSEE 2026, Spencer Williams sits down with Mill to talk about the research, character psychology, and playful details that brought Beef’s unforgettable cast of characters to life, and why Burberry the dog might just be the best-dressed member of the club.
Spencer Williams:Let’s start by talking about our two couples, specifically our Millennial couple, Joshua Martín, played by Oscar Isaac, and Lindsay Crane-Martín, played by Carey Mulligan. Josh is the general manager, while Lindsay’s just trying to make the best of things.
When I look at their costumes, I think of them as aspirational. But then, at the same time, there’s also something a little bit off, too, especially with Josh. He’s always just trying a little too hard.
Olga Mill: That was totally intended. So everything went according to plan.
There’s a try-hardness to him. Or, I guess, zooming out more, a Millennial thing in general that we tried to pinpoint, which was painful because I’m a Millennial. It was very close to home. But a kind of hyper-optimization and really trying to fit in really hard.
They wanna be a cool LA couple in all of these spaces that they get access to through the club.
Spencer Williams: The awkward moment getting dressed this morning was trying to emulate Josh, and then putting all this research together and finding this out.
Olga Mill: It was funny. Oscar and I would joke on set about sometimes seeing people on set in a very Josh-like outfit.
A contrasting white sneaker… a slightly fitted suit, a slightly higher pant leg.
Spencer Williams: I’m going to think about this now for the next couple of weeks.
Lindsay, by comparison, feels like she has nothing to prove. She moves around a club like a monarch, just curating spaces and people, and seemingly dressing the part.
Olga Mill: I think Lindsay’s anchoring concept was that her biggest fear in life would be to be called basic. She knows how to fit into this world, but very much wants to consistently remind everybody that she’s a little bit above it.
Her whole identity as “I’m a designer, I have really good taste,” was at the forefront. And so Grace Yun, who’s the production designer, and I really wanted her to feel swallowed up or overwhelmed by patterns. Her own taste is choking her a little bit.
So there is a kind of heavy-handed use of pattern, for sure. I would say Marie Antoinette in her shepherd’s garden was another big concept. Because Montecito and Ojai, in general, are just an escape from an urban center, and really rich people playing in a pastoral fantasy.
Spencer Williams: She is just sort of playing house!
Then we meet Ashley Miller, played by Cailee Spaeny, and Austin Davis, played by Charles Melton, our Gen Z couple, who essentially kick off the season’s beef, and they could not feel any more different from Lindsay and Josh.
Can you talk about the research you did on generational styles, the differences between Millennials and Gen Z, and how that informed the costume storytelling for these younger characters? I am also a cusp Millennial, so I also take the Millennial side by two months.
Olga Mill: It’s interesting because I think in the Millennial trajectory, it’s just about the time where you can look back enough to assess and really see trends. But for Gen Z, really for both of them, we approached it like anthropological research-wise. So I interviewed some Gen Z folks and some Millennial folks, just to be like, “Where do you go?” And for Gen Z, it was really prioritizing thrifted things.
It’s not about optimization. It was more about individuality and authenticity, and how do you show that, and how do you show that you don’t care about the Millennial artisanal-ness of their aesthetic.
Spencer Williams: So let’s talk about Charles Melton’s character, Austin. He feels so authentically him.
He does not change in the first couple of episodes. He even… There’s a moment where he’s supposed to go get some new clothes for Ashley, and he just completely almost blows it off. He goes and just grabs some clothes for her from the thrift store, and he’s like, “This will work for you, right?”
Talk about his costume story at the beginning of this series, and what your collaboration was like with him.
Olga Mill: In the beginning of the series, he’s supposed to be—I actually found a guy on Instagram who was a real model for…
I won’t reveal names. But it was just a random person that I found. But they had a beachy quality, and we infused that into his workout silhouette. But it should look like he’s going from the beach to the barbecue to the gym, and it’s all a little sun-washed and cozy.
And then, as the season goes on, all his fabrics kind of transition into a more workout, sweat-wicking side of life. But yeah, he’s just supposed to be a kind of not schlubby, but beach bum cozy, I would say.
Spencer Williams: And Ashley, though, she feels like someone who maybe is a little lost at the beginning, and she’s trying to find her identity, but then, I guess—spoiler alert, I won’t say too much—but by the end of the show, almost feels like she almost becomes the very thing she’s beefing with, I would say, throughout the series.
Olga Mill: For sure. She’s somebody who we talked a lot about not being grounded, having a really anxious attachment style. So she’s going to mirror whoever she is intimidated by.
When Eunice, played by Seoyeon Jang, is the person that’s causing her grief, she starts dressing like Eunice, and then as she gets closer to Lindsay, by the end when they’re in Korea, and she’s in that big paisley dress, she’s very much emulating Lindsay, and then she’s in a green suit mimicking Josh in the very beginning.
Just a very ungrounded person, which I think is like, Sonny and I talked about that being a youthful experience of trying to find yourself.
Spencer Williams: So now we need to talk about Chairwoman Park, played by Youn Yuh-jung. I know that she’s considered the villain of the story to some, but…
Olga Mill: I’m Team Chairwoman.
Spencer Williams: Yeah. I kinda am, too. Yeah, she’s hurt some people, maybe some murders here and there, but whatever. Incredible style, though. Unimaginable wealth. And she looks good doing it.
She has a younger husband, and then I feel like she’s trying to relate to everyone at the country club. She has this leather jacket-over-the-shoulder
Olga Mill: She was so fun to dress. I think Sonny and I had an idea for Chairwoman Park that was originally based on research into super-wealthy Korean businesswomen, which was much more of a neutral cashmere space.
She has such a great personal style, too, and we started talking about it more: “Yeah, this woman married a younger husband. She bought this club. There’s something really sexy about her.” And really worldly and a little badass, and hence putting in pieces like the leather jacket and things like that felt kind of unexpected.
Spencer Williams: Yeah, we support her rights, and we also support her wrongs.
Olga Mill: If I had to hang out with any of them…
Spencer Williams: I’m not going to let you go before we talk about the real star of the show.
We talked about a lot of glamorous people on the show, but there’s no one I wanna talk about more than our beloved Burberry … I’m so lucky to have seen some fitting photos you sent me of you and Burberry.
Was Burberry a diva in those fittings? What was it like working with the dachshund?
Olga Mill: An inspiration. An icon. A model. Number one on the call sheet.
That was so fun. I think, actually, the photo you saw, we made… it ended up not being in the show, which was hard. But we made him a matching—when Lindsay sees herself as one of the other women in the pastel matching yoga outfits. Anyway, Burberry had one of those, which our tailor made.
It was so fun. I love dogs. It was an extension of Lindsay. There actually was quite a bit of thought that went into it. And Sonny and I would joke, we’re like, “We’re spending a lot of time on Burberry.”
But it’s important. Like, it’s what Lindsay would pay so much attention to. So we did, for sure.
Spencer Williams: Worth it. I loved it. You should consider maybe a dachshund line at some point, or just a dog line in general, but we’ll talk about that after.
