about allison
Costume Designer Allison Pearce is born and raised in Flourtown, Pennsylvania, a small suburb of Philadelphia. Growing up, she took many art classes and workshops, nurturing her interest in crafting and sourcing unique materials. Her mother taught her to thrift at a young age. She attended a Quaker friends school, William Penn Charter, and there was taught about the importance of community and meditation.
At the age of nineteen she moved to New York City to pursue a career in fashion and business at Parsons the New School for Design. After completing a few internships with fashion labels, she was asked to work on an NYU Tisch film school thesis project. Her friends were making an experimental black and white film using 16mm cameras previously mounted on planes in WW2. Allison was asked to be the costume designer, as well as act in the film. She fell in love with costume design. In 2009, she graduated from Parsons the New School for Design with a BBA in Design + Management. This program gave Allison the foundation of a business degree plus design skills.
As Allison began to pursue a career in film, she met and began working for costume designer Megan Kasperlik.
Her first costume design credit was American Milkshake, directed by David Andalman, which premiered at Sundance in 2013. There she met director and choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall. Allison collaborated with Celia on MA, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and Venice Film Festival in 2015. She continues to work with Celia and recently designed her dance film, TAXI!
Through her relationship with Celia, Allison met and collaborated with Mia Lidofsky on Strangers Season 1, produced by Jesse Peretz, starring Zoe Chao and Meredith Hagner. In the fall of 2015, Allison began work as an ACD on Saturday Night Live film unit. After 2 short seasons, Allison was able to step up and begin designing on her own each week with film unit directors Rhys Thomas, Oz Rodriguez, Paul Briganti, Adriana Robles and Hannah Levy.
After moving on from SNL in 2019, Allison has gone on to work with director and writer Lawrence Michael Levine for his project Black Bear, starring Aubrey Plaza, Sarah Gadon, and Christopher Abbott, produced by Sophia Takal, Rick Bosner, and Tandem Pictures. Black Bear is now out on Prime.
Allison’s most recent project, Paint, was released in April 2023 from IFC. Directed by Brit McAdams, Paint stars Owen Wilson, Wendi McClendon-Covey, Michaela Watkins, and Stephen Root.
Allison graduated from Parsons the New School for Design with a BBA in Design + Management. Focusing on technical design & business, she has applied her studies to narrative costume design. Allison’s work as a costume designer for the film unit at Saturday Night Live gave her the tools to tackle any decade, genre, production timeline, & budget level. Her unique experience taught her to trust her intuition & to roll with the punches.
Allison’s work at SNL gave her the knowledge & tranquility she continues to apply throughout her career. She has a passion for the uncanny & unique, as shown visually through color, fit & texture. Allison relishes in artistically creating costumes that support the character as well as the story. Her work embraces her love of surrealism, Italian neorealism, & New Hollywood. Allison loves Dolly Parton, her cabin in the mountains, & nature.