Hallmark movies costume designer Keith Nielsen reveals challenging, rewarding moments from favourite films

Nothing says Christmas like a great Hallmark movie, but someone who really makes these films pop from the screen and into our hearts is costume designer Keith Nielsen, or Keith Costumes. Having just finished his eleventh Hallmark movie, including working on Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, The Finnish Line and The Christmas Quest (all released this year), Nielsen's impressive skills keep us coming back to watch this popular movies.

If you look at Nielsen's experience with Hallmark, his work has been inspired by not just different stories, but different countries as well. From beautiful ballgowns to a Kansas City Chiefs letterman coat, he's tackled it all. Nielsen told Yahoo Canada he likes a "challenge," which also includes challenging the audience to present things that may go against what many assume is the "standard" Hallmark movie look.

"When I started with them, a lot of people still thought they were made for like less than a million dollars," Nielsen said. "I like to challenge that kind of thought."

"There's diversity of different stories, like time traveling, that gives me period stuff, which personally speaks to my experience and love of theatre. Normally you design something and you have to wait a year plus to see it on screen, it's really cool to see it with a quick turnaround, and then see people's reactions. ... I just finished my eleventh Hallmark movie, so now the challenge is diversifying myself so they all don't look the same."

'If you want to make something fit, you can make it fit'

Nielsen also loves a gown moment with a favourite in the Hallmark movie catalogue being the one worn by Lacey Chabert in A Merry Scottish Christmas, and then working with her again in this year's The Christmas Quest.

"I always ... like to creatively focus on, if it's in the same genre, what's different about it, and Lacey's very similar in that way too," Nielsen said. "She always wants to be like, 'How can we make it better? What's different about it? What can we focus on?'"

"I like to incorporate things that are from that country that we're in, or wherever that story is. ... But she's an awesome collaborator. I especially like that she's a great example of, even though I think she's like five-foot-two, you can pull off a huge gown if you want to. ... Especially since she's so petite, proportion and tailoring are very important to me, because that's the way the eye cuts up the body and things, and then also, texture is very important on camera too. ... I love when you can get into the details of the thickness of a knit."

But Nielsen is particularly savvy, sometimes buying items before an actor's been cast, thrifting for vintage clothes, and working on last-minute custom pieces.

"If you want to make something fit, you can make it fit," Nielsen said. "It might not be easy, but you can completely recut it and things, which I have done."

"The Scotland dress was done in like 36 hours in New York, and then I flew to Scotland with it. Lacey's dress we kind of had a minute on in Quest, but again, I had to find a dress that had the beading I liked, so then I could build around that. Because you don't have time to fully build the internal structure of a garment."

Nielsen's made such an impact on how Hallmark movies have evolved, now there are personal references to him in the films.

"Right before I filmed Touchdown, I unfortunately lost my grandmother, but there's a little easter egg to her," Nielsen shared. "Mary McDonough plays Carol, the coffee lady, and my grandmother's name was Carole with an E, so everybody added the E, which I think is cool, ... because they get to live on visually forever."

The Letterman Coat (KC Edition): 'First foray of betting on oneself'

Nielsen has now made his first step forward to "betting" on himself with the limited release of "The Letterman Coat (KC Edition)" to the public, made in Kansas City and inspired by the coat featured in Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story (there's currently a raffle going on where you could win the coat with a $25 raffle entry).

"When you get a Chiefs movie, you know it's the sea of red," Nielsen said. "The first thing I actually designed for the movie was that jacket and I found multiple pieces that were in existence that I could, I call it 'frankensteining,' where I take a sleeve or take a skirt, or whatever."

"That jacket, it was just instantaneously popular in the office. And then my tailor had brought it home to do something on one of her industrial machines and she was like, 'I'm getting so many compliments on this. You have to sell them.' And honestly, I probably wouldn't have done it unless she pushed me to do it. This is like my first foray of betting on oneself, so that's really special. And it's also really cool because it visually takes two really classic things, a classic wool coat and a classic letterman jacket, keeps the bones of it, but introduces something that's new and interesting."

Nielsen is eying the possibility of creating a men's version, mostly for his own wardrobe, but we're hoping that maybe one will get in Taylor Swift's hands to wear.

Looking back at his career, Nielsen has also working on a number of TV shows, including starting as an intern on the show Mozart in the Jungle, the famed Prime Video series created by Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Alex Timbers.

"We did three seasons together. ... I'm really lucky that they brought me back, ... and it got me into the Union, and I learned the whole structure of the department," Nielsen said. "Series is totally different. ... In series, you're always prepping an episode while you're filming an episode. ... It totally taught me multitasking, thinking ahead and also just generally prioritizing."

But one of Nielsen's ultimate goals is to work on costumes for a music artist's tour, ideally Madonna or Lady Gaga.

"My dream is to do a concert tour, but I want to do it old school where one designer really, visually, encapsulates the whole thing," Nielsen said.

We're certainly hoping that Madonna or Gaga gives Nielsen a call so we can see the more of the talented costume designer's work.