Television | “Emily’s style is the praise of freedom”

Marylin Fitoussi is the costume designer who designed all the outfits for the characters in the series. Emily in Paris. Her extravagant and colorful style is part of the success of the Netflix series. Passing through Montreal as part of the MAD festival, we met her.

For the French Marylin Fitoussi, this fourth season of the series Emily in Paris is the most accomplished in terms of costumes. The character of Emily, this American who lives in Paris, is more mature, and even if her look is still as colorful, she now knows the codes of Parisian fashion and she has fun with her deliberately offbeat style.

“Emily’s style is a celebration of freedom, of difference, and it’s a way of telling people: ‘dress how you want’! Who decides what’s good and bad taste? Who says we don’t have the right to like candy pink, sequins and leopard print in a single outfit? It’s a message of freedom!” says Marylin Fitoussi in an interview, herself dressed in a very colorful outfit.

Even at a young age, Marylin Fitoussi loved colors and prints. A graduate of the École du Louvre, she worked as a costume designer in Mexico for 13 years. Back in France, she continued her career on film sets, notably for action films produced or directed by Luc Besson such as Taken 2 And Taken 3And Valerian. It was while working on the film Kaamelott that she gets noticed by creating a medieval army dressed in sequins and fake fur. “Crazy!” she says.

She then receives a phone call, meets Darren Star, creator of the series Emily in Paris and of Sex and the City, and celebrity stylist Patricia Field.

Marylin Fitoussi says that Darren Star wanted, from the first season, that young Emily (Lily Collins) let herself be transformed by her boss Sylvie, played by Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, who embodies French elegance. The stylist rather convinced him of the opposite. “This young woman could not be dressed like a Parisian. She could not abandon the person she is! And 10 episodes in a navy blazer, white t-shirt… What am I going to do!”

There to “break the codes”

She knows that many fashion magazines have criticized Emily’s style and considered it ugly. But in her eyes, it’s a compliment. “I’m a costume designer. Fashion is made to have fun! I didn’t want to be politically correct or ordinary. I’m here to break the codes, I like people to be able to express themselves through clothes.” She prefers people who make mistakes in taste to those who hide behind a logo because it’s chic and expensive. “I hate fashion, but I love clothes. Clothes don’t lie. If they’re well cut, they can last over time. Clothes can be political, social, but they tell the story of the person you are.”

Marylin Fitoussi describes herself as a maximalist and she admits that a plain t-shirt gives her anxiety attacks! “Lily Collins was not afraid, and I will be eternally grateful to her. She carries this character who has been criticized for her garish style on her shoulders and she never gave up! Lily Collins is the complete opposite, she loves the comfort of Birkenstocks, arrives on set in overalls and five minutes later, she is in Louboutin heels and a Balmain dress!”

The other criticism that the stylist often hears: the characters in the series cannot afford to buy the wardrobe they wear. “That’s true, but is that the point of the series? Would you like Emily to only wear fast fashion?” asks Marylin Fitoussi. The stylist has made it her mission to make room for young designers.

I mix vintage pieces, couture, second-hand, young designers and fast fashion because it’s part of our lives, we can’t deny it.

Marylin Fitoussi, costume designer of the series Emily in Paris

What she learned from legendary stylist Patricia Field Sex and the City with whom she collaborated for the first two seasons ofEmily in Paris ? “Never follow trends, favor timeless pieces, that’s what makes a piece iconic.”

In this fourth season, she pays tribute to Audrey Hepburn, an actress who touches Lily Collins a lot. “She looks like her and it’s an honor to refer to this very beautiful woman with a rare elegance.” In one of the episodes of the second part of the series, available from September 12, Emily is dressed like Audrey Hepburn in the film Charade (1956). “The real sunglasses were designed by Pierre Marly in 1953, and Lily Collins was able to try on the original glasses and the Pierre Marly house made a copy of the glasses for the shoot,” she explains.

She doesn’t know if there will be a fifth season, or if Parisians have adopted the color, but she confides that the red beret, which is now worn, has become a mark of recognition, the symbolism of the character of Emily.

As part of the MAD (Fashion, Arts, Entertainment) festival, journalist Peggy Frey meets Marylin Fitoussi this Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Emily in Paris is available on Netflix.

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