Wawa is ‘honored’ its customers helped inspire the costume designs for HBO’s ‘Mare of Easttown’

In the Philly area, few places offer more of consistent and eclectic mix of the sartorial splendor of the region than Wawa.

In a single Wawa run, you might see a woman proudly walk in dressed in pajamas and flip-flops at 3 p.m. in line behind a dude rocking a matching track suit and Adidas sandals with socks.

And if you don’t see someone dressed head-to-toe in Eagles gear, did you really even go to a Wawa?

So it comes as no surprise that the costume designer for HBO’s locally-based Mare of Easttown got her inspiration from scoping out Wawa customers, according to a featurette released Wednesday by HBO, which was first highlighted by Philly Voice.

In the 3-minute behind-the-scenes clip, which begins with somber music playing (which you will never hear at Wawa, where ragers like 100% Pure Love and Hips Don’t Lie are pumped through the speakers), director Craig Zobel talks about wanting to make the vibe and feeling of the show authentic through location and costume.

“Our costume designer would constantly be texting me pictures from the Wawa convenience store, just of people in the line,” Zobel said.

An actress on the show, Julianne Nicholson, is then quoted as saying: “The clothes really all felt lived in to me.”

Girl, if the outfit you wear to Wawa hasn’t been lived in for three or more days, then you must be headed to a job interview. Or a society ball.

» READ MORE: Kate Winslet on HBO’s ‘Mare of Easttown’ and that Delco accent: ‘I’m an actor who doesn’t like to get things wrong’

In an emailed statement, Wawa spokesperson Jennifer Wolf said the convenience store chain was honored to help provide inspiration for the show.

“With deep roots in Philadelphia and Delco areas, we’re honored that ‘Mare of Easttown’ producers turned to Wawa and its customers as inspiration for the cast’s wardrobe,” she said. “We’re proud that our customers and associates are a true reflection of the people in the region who passionately wear apparel that support their hometown teams, universities, brands, etc.”

In an Instagram post, the show’s costume designer, Meghan Kasperlik, who also designed costumes for HBO’s Watchmen, said she used a number of local vendors’ T-shirts, logos, and shops to show “where the locals would hang out and promote their favorite sandwich” (ahem, we call those hoagies here).

“The entire cast blends into the environment of Delco and my proudest moment on the show was when an additional costumer could not tell the cast from local background,” she wrote.

So you’re saying the local background actors convinced the cast to all get Super Bowl LII tattoos, too?

Wawa coffee cups appear in more than one scene of the show and in an interview with the Inquirer’s Ellen Gray, the show’s star, Kate Winslet, revealed she drank Wawa coffee while studying the Delco accent.

But unless she ate a Wawa hoagie on top of a trash can, we can’t call that method acting around here.

Still we hope that Kasperlik gets nominated and wins an Emmy for costume design for Mare of Easttown, so everyone who ever went to a Wawa in Southeast Pennsylvania can claim a part in the victory, too.

And, of course, so we can rub it in the face of Sheetz fans.

Join us at 4:15 p.m. today to Inquirer Live for Gray’s interview with Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby to hear more about the show and, possibly, more about Wawa’s influence on it.