Costume designer Marylin Fitoussi says Italy understands the show’s wardrobe is ‘about breaking rules and having fun’
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etflix’s famously frothy romcom Emily in Paris has long divided critics and Parisians alike, but as it returns for its fifth season it seems to have won a presidential seal of approval. On Monday, Emmanuel Macron named the series’ creator, Darren Star (best known for Sex and The City), a knight of the legion of honour for boosting France’s cultural prominence and soft power through the show’s global success.
It is a long way from the initial backlash, which partly centred on the brash wardrobe of Emily Cooper, the American in Paris played by Lily Collins. Brightly coloured, print-heavy and over the top, the outre outfits were received as a personal affront by many Parisians, who even objected to her embrace of archetypal French chic.
A beret caused particular consternation. As the Toulouse-born costume designer Marylin Fitoussi (the Sex and the City legend Patricia Field consulted on the first two seasons) told the Guardian this week: “I was really surprised by the Parisian audience, that they were offended by the beret – please!” But the backlash only spurred her and Collins on: “We didn’t just want to upset the French – we wanted to make them cry,” wrote Fitoussi in a new book, Emily in Paris: The Fashion Guide, published by Assouline.
