Billie from 'Accidentally on Purpose'

In CBS' Monday comedy Accidentally on Purpose, Jenna Elfman's character, Billie, has two strikes against her becoming fashionable - she's a newspaper journalist and pregnant.

(Before the e-mails start, please note that having been both simultaneously, I empathize.) Yet Billie has something that trumps all - Elfman. The willowy former ballerina would look gorgeous in anything.

Set in San Francisco, her character reflects the Bay Area's boho chic with flowing tops and scarves.

"I had a definite concept in mind as to how I wanted her to look," Elfman says. "I did it with photos. I wanted it to be a mix of a little timeless and a little classic and edgy and funky mix between vintage and modern. And I wanted one thing on her, in every outfit, to have something a little messed up. I wanted there to be a hole in something she had on. I don't want her to be perfect. I wanted her to be a little messy."

Costume designer Linda Bass is in sync with Elfman but doesn't go so far as to allow the character to be slovenly.

"It's television, so you can't quite do it in a way that's understandable," Bass says. "If I do disheveled on film, it will just look like a mistake."

Bass sees Billie as a "fashion eclectic," she says. Along those lines, she mixes it up for the character. She wears Alberta Ferretti Philosophy blouses. Billie also wears blouses by Temperley and the Olsen twins' company, Elizabeth and James.

Her T-shirts are from Urban Outfitters and a store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, Vintage T-Shirt.

Since Elfman is just shy of 6 feet tall, finding trousers with a long enough leg is a challenge. Bass favors Elizabeth and James and Diane von Furstenberg pants.

Jeans, "because they come the longest, are J Brand, slightly flared and skinny leg," Bass says.

Billie wears dresses and in the pilot wore a Dolce & Gabbana dress; in other episodes, she wears Catherine Malandrino dresses.

"Jackets look real San Francisco to me," Bass says, logical considering the breezes from the Pacific. Billie wears a Lam gray and maroon striped jacket and a Vince leather jacket.

Her shoes tend to be flats "because of the guy factor," Bass says. She's already so tall that if she wore the stilettos now in vogue, Elfman would tower over male co-stars. The shoes are from Nine West and Nina.

Billie carries a Marc Jacobs purse, and the wardrobe department converted a Tory Burch shoulder tote into her computer bag.

"Anyone can have that look," Bass says. "Jenna wears it like someone 6 feet tall wears it. If you have an eye and like to shop, then anyone can do it."

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