Channing Tatum Wears Vintage Carhartt and Tom Ford in 'Magic Mike's Last Dance'

Salma Hayek also wears Chanel and a lot of Balenciaga, according to costume designer Christopher Peterson.

"The joke has always been, 'What clothes are there in 'Magic Mike?' You're the costume designer?'" says Christopher Peterson, who's been with the franchise since director Steven Soderbergh's first installment in 2012.

Guess what, naysayers and cynics? There are plenty of clothes to be worn in "Magic Mike's Last Dance," which follows the titular Tampa renaissance man (Channing Tatum), now bartending after the demise of his hard-won furniture business. On the job in Miami, he meets ultra-wealthy socialite Maxandra "Max" Mendoza (Salma Hayek Pinault), who tempts the woodworker and former stripper to go to London for a new career challenge.

In fact, there's a lot of high fashion in the third and final film in the series, some of which might get you more heated than that time you watched a lats-baring Mike dry hump a table to Ginuwine's "Pony." Plus, "without something to take off, you don't have an act," says Peterson. "I mean, that's the whole point."

Peterson has his proven tricks of the trade when it comes to physics-defying quick-changes and removals. (You know, the ones he shared with "Welcome to Chippendales" costume designer Peggy A. Schnitzer.) Ahead, the Oscar nominee (for 2019's "The Irishman," alongside Sandy Powell) discusses Max's first dance jumpsuit, Mike's sort-of wardrobe transformation and, yes, tearaways.

Max's 'Magical Moment' Jumpsuit in Miami

Mike and Max's steamy meet-cute is more of a deliberately drawn-out scenario. Their evening starts with a sexual tension-filled scotch order at the fundraiser bar, as the chiffon cape over Max's matching fuchsia jumpsuit flutters in the ocean breeze. Unfulfilled in her marriage, Max undergoes an awakening of sorts, as Mike revisits his dormant freestyle dance talents for her.

"Not only does [her costume] go through a bit of a journey, it was a bit of a journey to to create it," says Peterson. He considered "21 disparate outfits" (including "an Yves Saint Laurent tuxedo") and a range of hues, from acid green to champagne. But the Miami ocean-side backdrop — and Hayek Pinault herself — informed the end result.

"What's important in all cases with Salma is that she absolutely exudes sensuality," he says.

Max's sartorial arc begins by telegraphing that she's "closed off from love, sensuality and movement," so he designed her outfit in modular components, starting with the high-neck, décolletage-covering capelet. "She wasn't putting herself out there for any kind of encounters for intimacy," says Peterson.

Peterson also coordinated the outfit's components with Tatum's vigorous dancing, and the sophisticated (and near-death-defying) choreography by Allison Faulk: "We decided [that the cape could] be incorporated into the dance."

As part of his sultry acrobatics, Mike slowly peels off the cape to reveal a plunging halter jumpsuit. Max's strappy gold Aquazurra heels also receive some screen-time.

"There was a moment where I thought, 'Wouldn't it be great if Max had a belt or a sash that she could then blindfold Chan with during the dance?,'" says Peterson. "I went to Allison with that idea. She was like, 'Oh, my God. Perfect, perfect, perfect.'"

Max's Designer-Filled London Wardrobe

A silk-PJ-clad Max flies Mike (in his old T-shirt and hoodie) over to London on her private jet. She cycles through a series of full outfits, befitting the spouse of some sort of philandering mogul. But her copious layers of high-end labels also depict her emotional state.

"She doesn't open up quite yet," says Peterson. "But, honestly, for me, there's nothing more intriguing, inviting, intimidating than a very well-dressed woman. It speaks to her standing and her power."

For a shopping trip at Liberty of London, Max wears a split-shoulder Alexander McQueen blazer with a lace train over a silky, ruby-red pussy-bow blouse by Saint Laurent and Balenciaga wide-leg trousers, plus a sharp Stephen Jones fedora.

"We mixed labels, silhouettes, shapes so much," says Peterson. "That's the other sign of an incredibly confident woman — that it's not just color-by-number, all from one place. She can mix an Alaïa dress with a Burberry trench coat." (Later, to audition dancers for a new project, Max combines an '80s-style cropped puffy leather Chanel jacket, parachute-like McQueen pants and a chunky gold chain Bottega Veneta bag.)

"Salma has encyclopedic knowledge about clothing," says Peterson. "She recognizes, 'Oh, this is a Schiaparelli cape,' or, 'This is Balenciaga — and not Balenciaga now, Balenciaga from the '60s.'"

The chic elephant in the room: The actor is married to François Henri Pinault, the chairman and CEO of Kering Group, which owns Balenciaga, Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Saint Laurent. "In certain cases, we utilized those brands when she felt that was appropriate," says Peterson, who emphasizes storytelling and character-building came first. "That was one of the great joys of doing that character: Max is a woman of means, a woman of knowledge about fashion."

Max's Easter Egg-Filled Chanel Dress

With Mike settled into his new gig in London, Max takes him out to dinner with her snooty society friends.

"Holy shit, that suit," she says to him. "You look incredibly expensive," he quips back.

And it's true: She's dressed for the posh night out in a Chanel halter gown in "the most beautiful print ever," per Peterson. But the dress also holds Easter eggs harking back to Mike's Xquisite days, with its tuxedo-shirting pleats on the bodice and its pointy black collar.

On filming day, a "wardrobe malfunction" occurred, thanks to someone accidentally standing on the hem of the dress as Soderbergh called Hayek to set.

"Just as she's about to step out, I hear from her, 'Christopher, I broke my dress,'" says Peterson, who was more than prepared to perform "a little onset triage" to repair the distressed skirting. "But that's the 'Magic Mike' story: Invariably, any given day on set, there's something that's going to catch you by surprise with the costumes. Because all of them — including Salma's — have to do so many tricks."

The Magical 'Mike Magic' Tearaways

Max and Mike recruit an international troupe of eager dancers for a new, women-empowering and -centering show, much like "Magic Mike Live." And without giving away the big reveal (sorry), there's a moment where one outfit seemingly disappears into the air to transform into something else.

"There are all kinds of different tearaway and piston rigs, where it's attached to a cable and it just disappears," says Peterson. "It's a very finely-tuned thing. It's not just that the clothing magically tears away and that anyone can just grab a pair of pants and rip them off."

The mechanics of the breakaways need to be precisely coordinated with the choreographer, director and dancers (then there's some strategic editing, too), he emphasizes: "It's always exciting to see clothing magically disappear for the audience, But it's basically getting everybody to that point where they  understand. It's an engineering feat sometimes."

Mike's Not-so-'Pretty Woman' Transformation

Peterson started Mike's wardrobe evolution based off of where the dancer-turned-small-biz-owner left us at the end of "Magic Mike XXL."

"He's a Florida boy and loves his Carhartts." Peterson shopped Mike's opening-dance vintage cargos off Grailed, and gave him a bit of individualistic energy by forgoing the conventional Kiss and Nirvana vintage T-shirts for the unexpected.

"Both Chan and I felt like you'd seen that before, so we tried to find unique used T-shirts that didn't necessarily have to do with the culture-at-large," says Peterson. (Think: souvenir T-shirts from some hot dog eating contest in Tampa.)

To acclimate Mike into her posh life and push him out of his comfort zone, Max takes him to Liberty of London for what you expect to be a role-reversed "Pretty Woman"-type shopping spree.

"We probably shot 20 outfits going from the absolutely absurd, like foil Balenciaga with Rick Owens platform boots," says Peterson.

Tatum eschewed prior fittings for the scene: "He said, 'Just throw it at me. I'm going to put it on and come what may.' And he was great. I was just standing behind the curtain in the fitting room throwing clothes at him, and he would just start laughing." (Even funnier, Peterson was positioned where a changing room mirror would have been, so Tatum wasn't even looking at his own reflection.) The montage didn't make the final cut.

When Mike exits the luxury department store to Max's chauffeured car — carrying a bounty of shopping bags, mind you — he's essentially wearing a more expensive version of his signature relaxed Tampa style. Instead of his slouchy forest green hoodie and acid-washed denim bomber, he's in a The Row monochrome outfit: black parka, luxe hoodie and trousers. Later on, he'll wear John Elliott, Lemaire and a Tom Ford suit to have dinner with Max's frenemies.

"He resists almost everything that Max does, but there's this certain give-and-take between the two, which is why they have so much chemistry," says Peterson. "What you end up with is just a really, really polished version — a finely grownup version — of Mike."

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