Synonymous with luxury and lifestyle publishing, Parisian publishing house Assouline has entered the Emily in Paris franchise with a book of 200 looks exploring the fashion of the young and elegant American marketing expert who lives between Paris and Rome in the popular Netflix series, which premieres its fifth season on December 18.
Emily in Paris: The Fashion Guide is the title of the volume edited and written by Marylin Fitoussi, the show's costume designer, who, by her own admission, was taken aback by the idea for the book after the initial indignation of French viewers over the clichés with which they had seen their capital represented, especially in the first episodes of the series.
"It was a trophy, finally," said Fitoussi, who has been part of the Emily in Paris team since the first season and has been head costume designer for three seasons following the departure of the legendary Patricia Field (whose credits include Sex and the City and The Devil Wears Prada, for which she was nominated for an Oscar). Over 200 pages, The Fashion Guide chronicles the evolution of Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) and her circle of friends, lovers, and colleagues through the iconic wardrobe created by Marilyn, playing on explosions of contrasting colors, layered prints, and a sartorial maximalism that, after the doubts of the first season, sparked viral debates online. The book includes original sketches, moodboards, behind-the-scenes images from the costume designer’s Parisian atelier, Fitoussi’s handwritten margin notes, and a foreword by creator Darren Star, who credits Marilyn with creating “a design language all her own,” which quickly migrated from television screens to TikTok feeds and tourist photos around Paris—the most famous example being Emily’s red beret that became ubiquitous in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
Fashion, driven by bold patterns and colors, is a co-star of the series, a key element of every episode. Judging by the trailers for season five, Emily in Paris won't disappoint this time either, with runway looks hitting the streets of Rome and Paris featuring bandana and Sicilian-inspired prints, floral patterns, and plenty of black and white polka dots inspired by 1950s Italian divas like Anna Magnani and Sophia Loren.
Style begins when fear disappears, Fitoussi explains: "You can use clothes as armor. You can decide you don't care what people think. The show's message is freedom: break the rules, invent your own."
The book offers a behind-the-scenes look at the costume designer's work. In the series' costume showroom, an area of about 500 square meters, there are approximately 15,000 items from which to select the perfect outfit in an extremely short time: "We only have six weeks to prepare the series. We work nonstop—15, 17 hours a day—going through 450 lookbooks, messaging showrooms, sourcing vintage pieces, and creating custom pieces. People don't realize that for one outfit, we're talking about 100 pairs of shoes."
(Unioneonline/D)
