The Masked Singer

Meet Marina Toybina: The Unsung Hero Of ‘The Masked Singer’s Crazy Costumes

The Masked Singer has dug its heels into the competition world and has some of the best visuals in the game. Meet the woman behind the masks–Marina Toybina.

Let’s be honest, The Masked Singer is everyones guilty pleasure. In the same way we love guessing the artists, we also can’t get enough of the crazy costumes.

Who is the designer behind those costumes?

Meet Marina Tybina. Marina has been styling and profiling for some time now, creating some of the most bizarre costumes out there. Remember Katy Perry’s dancing sharks at the Super Bowl  halftime show? All credit goes to the queen of costumes…Marina Toybina.

The Emmy winning costume designer has created a household name for herself, styling artists like Carrie Underwood and Britney Spears. Marina even styled costumes for So You Think You Can Dance…is there anything she can’t do?

‘The Masked Singer’ – The perfect fit for Marina Toybina

Speaking of America’s new hit series Toybina told ET, “This is right up my alley and everything I’ve been doing for the past 15-20 years, so when the opportunity came around and I saw the link to the original shows I was like, ‘This is something that I have to take a shot at,” the visual mastermind continued. “One of my biggest dreams is to do film and features, and I figured this would be the way to kinda combine all of my knowledge from fashion to costuming to all the tours and big events I’ve done. You don’t really see anything this cinematic for TV. So, it’s great to bring it to the viewers.”

The process of designing The Masked Singer costumes

Let’s talk about the costumes. Marina reported that it took her about 3 weeks to sketch out costume ideas. After 20 sketch ideas Marina and The Masked Singer producers narrowed down the list to 12 outrageous looks.

Marina then banded together her very own team and pulled fabrics and necessary tools to create the masterpieces we see on the show today. Not to mention Marina pulled everything off in just two short months! Sis must have been sewing in her sleep.

Furthermore, Toybina revealed to ET, “We were kind of choosing the costumes that were appropriate for the casting. Some of the celebrities had a choice as far as who they wanted to be or who they related to.”

Toybina pulled from real life influences to inspire her designs. “The Rabbit was very much influenced by a combination of Donnie Darko and Edward Scissorhands,”she told ET.

Similarly to The Rabbit, the lion and unicorn were pulled from film influences. Gushing to ET about her personal favorites Marina said, “I’d probably say it’s a tie between The Lion and The Monster for me.”

Additionally, Toybina reveals that the poodle was inspired by the stereotypical Beverly Hills pup. Finally concluding that, “Conceptually I wanted to create some sort of a poodle-type character that had a little bit of an attitude, that was a little more diva-esque.” The poodle is definitely coming through with all of the sass!

A lot of viewers confess, that they are only tuning into The Masked Singer to see the amazing costumes. Toybina has sort of created a costume movement…making the designs the stars of the show.