Considering her penchant for hot pink outerwear, Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) has clothes in his closet that resemble Lieutenant Columbo’s iconic, well-worn beige raincoat. Still, Peter Falk’s formidable cigar-smoking detective serves as a detective. inspiration For Elsbeth, it’s her deliberately disabling wardrobe and how she bests the killer of the week, played by a celebrity guest star.

“We really want Elsbeth’s clothes to be the equivalent of Columbo’s trench coat,” he says Daniel Lawson, “Elsbeth’s” costume designer. From Preston’s first appearance on “The Good Wife” in 2010 to the spinoff “The Good Fight” and now the character’s major return, he designed the lawyer-turned-investigator’s wardrobe. Lawson is attuned to the idiosyncratic character’s maximalist-leaning tastes and how the suspects act. And The cops see him.

It is Columbo’s persistence and continued presence that Lawson takes advantage of. “Even at the police station, he turns the corner and some cops say, ‘Oh, come on.’ Here it is again. Look at that jacket, look at those pants, look at that hat,” Lawson says. “Clothes like that The Columbo trench coat – the idea – is the piece of sand in your bathing suit.

Similar to Columbo, who occasionally dons a tuxedo to trap a suspect, Elsbeth has already dressed up to go to the opera this season and donned her Holly Golightly costume from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” for Halloween.

Thursday’s episode featured a black tie party at an exclusive jewelry store, where Elsbeth came face to face with the stunning Vanessa Williams, who starred in a compelling guest spot about a robbery gone wrong. “It’s so much fun that each episode has its own world and theme. It keeps us on our toes and hopefully makes the audience feel like there’s something new,” Preston says.

Following the success of the first season of “Elsbeth,” which consisted of just 10 episodes, CBS doubled the episode count for Season 2, allowing the costume department to develop more fun fashion moments. Christmas is already here and Valentine’s Day is on the horizon.

Here, Lawson and Preston discuss major costumes in the first four episodes of the second season, culminating in Elsbeth’s lavish gown opposite Williams.