Meet the Costume Designer Behind Hundreds of Millions of Views—But Few Red Carpets

NATIONWIDE - SEPTEMBER 2025 - (USAnews.com) — With an estimated 250 to 300 million viewers having seen his costume and styling contributions across film, television, and digital formats, Spencer has quietly built a wide-ranging career behind the seams. His credits stretch from made-for-TV holiday films and streaming documentaries to reality series, children’s content, and festival-circuit indies—spanning multiple platforms and audience demographics.

Among his recent high-profile projects: Netflix’s How to Rob a Bank, a slickly stylized true crime documentary that charted in the platform’s global Top 10. Spencer’s wardrobe choices helped visually ground the early-1990s setting and the story’s blend of dark humor and cultural nostalgia.

He also served as breakdown artist on Disney’s Descendants 3, contributing to the highly stylized look of the film’s punk-royalty aesthetic—a franchise with a massive global fanbase and millions of views across Disney Channel and streaming platforms.

In the realm of seasonal TV, Spencer has become a reliable hand on Hallmark and Lifetime-style holiday productions including Christmas by Starlight, Cranberry Christmas, The Bad Seed Returns, and The Christmas Doctor. These films, which continue to re-air annually, routinely draw multi-million viewership totals and remain a staple of winter programming in North America and abroad.

One of his more intimate projects, Therapeutic Fibbing, is a short drama that sensitively explores the challenges of dementia care, a topic close to many families. This film found a niche following on YouTube and within caregiving communities, demonstrating Spencer’s ability to tackle both polished network productions and impactful, independent storytelling.

Spencer’s early career in the UK saw him working on unscripted formats for ITV, dressing contestants, presenters, and celebrity guests for daytime game shows and entertainment specials. “There’s a quiet skill in making people look like themselves on camera,” he says. “That’s where I learned speed, instinct, and how to design for the person first—not just the character.”

More recently, Spencer contributed to a range of streaming series including Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (NBC), Titans (Max), The Man in the High Castle (Prime Video), and Wu Assassins (Netflix), where he styled actress Katheryn Winnick in her role as the enigmatic cop Christine Gavin.

“I’m here to use fashion, meld it to help tell the story. Good costume disappears into performance—it’s not about who designed it, it’s about how it feels.” Spencer said. 

Spencer now splits his time between Vancouver and London and continues to design for both film and television, often moving between period dramas, modern docuseries, and high-volume TV at a pace only seasoned customers understand.

And while he is not often front and center, when he is, he shines - his work is an attest to that; seen by hundreds of millions and stitched into the stories that stick with us.