The Gist
Costume designer Arielle Cooper-Lethem breaks down the brain-rot-meets-rom-com dressing in Lena Dunham’s new Netflix series ‘Too Much’ starring Megan Stalter as Jessica.
Jessica’s style in ‘Too Much’ was inspired by Bridget Jones, Jane Austen, and Betsey Johnson.
The character wears a mix of indie Instagram brands and vintage, like a Foundry Mews sailor dress, a floral Celia B coat, and her secondhand pilgrim nightgown.
In terms of fashion, no pop culture figure looms larger than the rom-com heroine. Even today, when everyone lives in their own internet bubble, the fictional single ladies of eras past break through the fashion algorithm with alarming regularity.
For the past four summers, Carrie Bradshaw’s athletic shorts and kitten heels combo have inspired countless imitators on TikTok. And then the calendars tell us it’s autumn and the Frazzled English Woman aesthetic of Bridget Jones takes over. More than 20 years on, women are still searching for the perfect dupe for Andie Anderson’s iconic yellow dress from How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (apparently, Sabrina Carpenter found it). Even the Instagram Explore Page loves a Cher Horowitz-inspired matching set or a chunky When Harry Met Sally sweater.
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A Foundry Mews sailor dress worn in ‘Too Much.’
Good rom-coms capture a moment in fashion, but the best rom-coms encapsulate how an entire generation of stylish women dress (or want to dress). It’s more a vibe, if you will, than a formula and therefore hard to predict, but Lena Dunham’s new series Too Much has all the makings of pop culture fashion legend. And its heroine, Jessica, might just be the TikTok era’s archetypal single girl in the city.
A recently dumped New Yorker who moves to London, Jessica (played by Megan Stalter) suffers from internet brain rot, delulus of grandeur, and a charmingly chaotic sense of style recognizable to anyone who spends their free time scrolling. Much like how Girls nailed the bourgeois style of many a millennial Brooklyn hipster, Dunham’s second act captures the kitchen sink dressing of the iPhone generation.
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Jessica wears an ’80s-style party dress that evokes vintage Betsey Johnson.
“She’s putting things together in a way where you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s crazy…but I like it. And I like her,” says Too Much costume designer Arielle Cooper-Lethem about Jessica’s main character stylings. “She’s a little unhinged.”
That “unhinged” fashion might look like a pilgrim nightgown one episode (a piece Dunham wrote into the original script) and a sexy lace set with a matching crochet raver hood (weird! fun! completely unhinged!) the next. “We wanted it to feel like the real world, but we also wanted to turn up the volume on that world,” the costume designer explains.
Wearing a mix of vintage gems, indie designers who rely on social media word of mouth for sales, and the extreme maximalism favored by the TikTok algorithm, Jessica’s style feels both deeply relatable and deeply personal. She’d fit right in with the wildly dressed 20-somethings I pass every morning on the Brooklyn L Train platform (just me?). And yet the character also has that magic sense of personal style everyone’s chasing online. As Cooper-Lethem puts it, “she’s finding stuff on her Instagram Explore Page; she’s on Etsy. She’s, you know, shopping.”
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One of the many Jane Austen-inspired nighties in ‘Too Much.’
Make no mistake: Jessica doesn’t wear an amalgam of microtrends a la The White Lotus‘s Portia—there’s not a heeled flip flop or moto-boot in sight. Instead, she’s more in the Lady Gaga school of “unafraid to reference or not reference” fantasy dressing that belies a rich inner world and a saved Instagram folder of outfit inspiration. “I wanted her to feel really referential, like she has a big world to pull from,” explains Cooper-Lethem.
Jane Austen novels, particularly the 1995 film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, are referenced throughout the show, both in scenes with Jessica’s family and in her penchant for Regency-inspired nightgowns. Of course, fellow unlucky-in-love Londoner Bridget Jones served as a fashion inspo for the character. So too did pop stars like Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus. (Jessica is best friends with “all the pop girlies” in her head, says the costume designer.) In terms of runway, Betsey Johnson’s “messy and fun” Spring 2006 show laid the foundation for the character’s exuberant, bow-covered sartorial universe. And if the show’s iconic Jennifer Saunders cameo is any indication, Absolutely Fabulous must have also been top of mind.
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Another Austen-esque nightgown featured in ‘Too Much.’
When it comes generational stereotypes, Jessica’s not doing much to beat the “Gen Z can’t dress for the office” allegations: “She’s not quite appropriate in most situations. She’s either too formal or she’s just put something together in a way where you’re like, Okay, that’s a choice,” says Cooper-Lethem. She packs beat-up French Sole ballet flats in her backpack (a move that earns her a talking-to from her boss because of the smell) and walks around in frayed nightgowns in public. She paints her face with magenta stars and wears an iridescent ’80s prom dress to a country estate wedding replete with rich freaks. She owns a tank top that spells “soup” in rhinestones.
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Jessica mixes shearling and purple tights with rain boots and a fanny pack… a choice!
Most, if not all, of the non-vintage fashion came from size-inclusive independent labels—a cohort the costume team came to rely upon. “For some reason, [established fashion brands] don’t want extended size girlies to have fun,” says Cooper-Lethem. “All the high street stuff is really kind of like…serious. But we ended up finding all these smaller brands that know how to have fun for everyone.” The list includes Fashion Brand Company (the line behind, among other things, the corset top in episode 1), It-girl favorite Bye Bambi, Chicago-based designer Veronica Sheaffer, and the Australian jewelry line Millie Savage. Oh, and there’s a bit of fast fashion in there as well via Shop Cider, which, in the spirit of realism, represents a fairly true-to-life choice considering the dearth of cute clothes available in extended sizes.
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The patterned coat by Celia B, worn by Megan Stalter in ‘Too Much.’
Too Much showcases the closet of a beautiful weirdo, and as such, Cooper-Lethem is bound to get some DMs from fans looking to cop the TV heroine’s looks. Standouts from the costume designer include the psychedelic fur-trimmed coat Jessica wears to a dinner party (created by Spanish Designer Celia B) and an adorable sailor dress that makes two symbolic appearances on the show. (Only fashion spoilers here: You can shop it at Foundry Mews).
Though it’s a rom-com through and through, Too Much is, in some ways, a little too real. Escapism is not just Jessica’s favorite coping mechanism; it’s everyone’s. Whether it’s through a burgeoning crush, a new city to fall in love with, or a pair of bejeweled heart earrings, dopamine-seeking behavior is a part of daily life.
In the age of overstimulation, the sparkly, sweet, and slightly unhinged Jessica is the heroine we want—or at least, the main character we deserve.
Read the original article on InStyle
