There is one fashion moment in particular that stands out in the new season of Emily in Paris. Arriving at a masquerade ball in a black and white striped catsuit featuring a voluminous overskirt, accessorised with a wide-brimmed hat (and mask, naturally), Lily Collins’ leading lady Emily Cooper looks like a sartorial super hero: Fashion Zorro, if you will.
The designer behind the look is Emily in Paris fan and friend of Lily Collins, Harris Reed, whose arrival in Paris to take the helm at Nina Ricci coincided serendipitously with the second season of the Netflix hit. “I found a lot of myself in Emily Cooper, kind of in the more comical sense, as this American-Brit foreign individual in Paris trying to be very headstrong and do things their way and going against the grain,” he explains. “When I met Lily Collins we just clicked. The collaboration really came about because of that incredible connection we had.”
Despite meeting over a year ago, it took until this season for them to work on a look for the show together, when it finally felt like the right time. “She really understood everything that I do is about larger-than-life silhouettes and adding drama,” shares Reed. “At Nina Ricci, the codes that were speaking to me deeply were these black and white stripes, and bows, and the use of taffeta – we knew we could create a moment that would fit so well within the Emily in Paris world.” So when it came to finding a designer for the masquerade ball scene, Reed was a clear choice (“I knew from the moment I first read the script that it could only be made by Harris,” Collins explained on Instagram).
The look itself had dual inspirations. On the one hand, it references the author Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball, a famous high-society soirée that took place in New York in 1966, and which was attended by his coterie of “swans”. The striped dress worn by Amanda Carter Burden – the daughter of Capote’s favourite, Babe Paley – was a specific reference on Reed’s moodboard.
Meanwhile, the other inspiration was more cinematic. “I felt like the look could really take a hat,” he shares. “So I looked at my favourite scene in one of my favourite films, the racing day in My Fair Lady starring Audrey Hepburn. For me, Lily is very much our generation’s Audrey. I think there’s incredible old-Hollywood nature to her that is very intriguing.”
Designing for a televised character proved to be very different to designing a bespoke piece for a person in real life. “It’s about the cinematic impact, and how it’s going to look on screen,” he explains. “It was kind of like creating a second skin for a chameleon – it was really about making her have this couture armour. I had to think about how Emily would wear it, how she would hold her hands, what her posture would be like, how she would move in it. It was really unique to create a look not for a friend, but a friend’s alter ego!”
Audrey Hepburn in ’My Fair Lady’
Reed’s original costume sketches
The design itself reflects this drama, with super exaggerated hips and trompe l’oeil stripes. “I loved that in designing for television you could really go for it unapologetically,” says Reed. “It only gets shown for a couple of minutes, so it was more about high impact than the little details. Grabbing your eye and being memorable in that short amount of time.”
Seeing the look on screen – specifically during a viewing with his husband on his laptop – was surreal. “Seeing her go up those stairs, seeing the cape come off and seeing the way she embodied Emily in Nina Ricci was such an incredible feeling,” he remembers. “It reminded me of when I was doing Harry Styles’ clothes for his early tours. Seeing your clothes come to life through a different lens is so extraordinary.”
So, could a future in costume design be on the cards? “Oh yeah, I’d 100 per cent consider doing more,” he shares. “In fact, I’d love to work with Baz Luhrmann on his films – so Baz, if you’re reading this, let’s do something together!”