According to Fallon himself, the tradition started when a team member wore an ugly Christmas sweater to a party. “We were just doing it because it was a kind of fun trend,” he tells Vogue. “We were like, ‘This is a pretty fun thing to just play with the audience and give it out to someone as a big prize, but it’s just really an ugly sweater.’” The concept transformed into a full-blown tradition–and signature programming–on the show.
The “Magical Winterland” sweater of Day 10Photo: Courtesy of Todd Owyoung/NBC
The brain behind the sweater construction is the show’s costume designer Mario Martines. He and the costume department begin planning the sweaters almost 10 months in advance, and work on the pieces in between making costumes for the show. Inspiration may strike at any moment, whether Martines is watching an old film or looking at a piece of fabric. “I try to keep my mind as open as possible at the beginning until I really lock in what I want them to look like,” says Martines. Once Martines has an idea, his team trawls fabric retailers, pet stores, and secondhand shops to find materials.
Construction is complex, since these aren’t your standard sweaters. Martines uses the example of the “Victorian Portraits” sweater, for which he combined a green cardigan with leg-of-mutton sleeves fused and a red sweater. In some cases, they have embedded lights that are operated with a battery pack covertly hidden inside of a pocket. The “Oh! Tanenbaum” sweater—a wearable version of a Christmas tree—has garlands of lights sewn into it. “They really are a piece of art,” says Martines.
