Spy: Westside goes 80s in leather, lace and leopard print

The stars of Westside have been treated to an 80s transformation.

In the second season of Westside, the Wests can finally get down to some 80s Iron Maiden. The Outrageous Fortune prequel started filming its second season on Sunday and, as speculated by Spy, the 70s have moved up a decade to 1981, the year Charles and Di got married and the true NZ Westie identity began to take shape.

Costume designer Jaindra Watson and hair and makeup designer Maya Bailey are the maestros behind updating the characters looks from the 1970s to the early 80s.

But they've passed over power suits and the new romantic look as they are dealing with, well, Westies. Instead, the Wests' look is faded denim and 80s bad taste chic with big earrings. The girls have big, back-combed hair and there is bound to be a mullet trend coming for the guys.

Spy was given a behind-the-scenes look at the set of Westside at South Pacific Pictures and spotted wigs made for heavy teasing, a cement mixer for stonewashing jeans, a cassette player and VHS porn.

Westside's first season was set in the 70s.

All season one members are back, lead by 32-year-old David de Lautour, freshly back from Los Angeles, reprising his role as Ted West.

Antonia Prebble is back as wife Rita, who was last seen going to prison after taking the blame for son Wolf shooting a gang member. Prebble told Spy she's really excited to be back shooting the new season of Westside and she is loving the 1980s vibe.

"I am a child of the 80s and I absolutely LOVE the aesthetic of that era. As you can imagine with the Wests, there's loads of leather, lace and leopard print!"

The 80s are the place where Robyn Malcolm's Outrageous Fortune character, Cheryl West got her fashion sense and kept the look going well into the next millennium.

Prebble might have been a child of the 80s, but Spy hears the cast is not that clued up on the decade.

Antonia Prebble and David de Lautour will return as Rita and Ted West in Westside.

In 1981, most were not born or were very young. Prebble was three years away from being born and co-star Will Hall was a 1-year-old, so the scripts are proving educational.

Whereas last season each episode was set in a different year (from 1974 to 1979), this season, the 10-episode series is all set in a single year, which had major social and political upheaval in New Zealand.

Outrageous Fortune and Westside co-creator James Griffin says he and fellow series creator Rachel Lang drew on some of their own experiences as anti-tour protestors when writing the current season of Westside.

And Griffin is quick to admit that the 1981 tour brought him a brush with the law: "I did my time in a police van and I spent time in a holding cell during that period."

- nzherald.co.nz