For ‘Emily in Paris’ costume designer Marylin Fitoussi and hair department head Carole Nicolas, the only real limit when creating the series’ signature looks is how far they can push their imaginations.
“We want to push our boundaries,” says Fitoussi. “We want to push our limits. We want to have fun.”
“We always want to go further and further,” says Nicola.
In season 5, Emily (Lily Collins), now leading Agence Grateau’s Rome office, finds herself navigating new professional and romantic complications as she settles into life in Italy. When a risky work decision sets off a chain reaction of heartbreak and career trouble, she turns to the French lifestyle she has come to embrace for some stability. But a major secret puts one of her closest relationships at risk, forcing Emily to confront the situation honestly. In the process, she gains a clearer sense of what she wants and opens herself to new possibilities.
Created by Darren Star, ‘Emily in Paris’ stars Lily Collins, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, Ashley Park, Lucas Bravo, Samuel Arnold, Bruno Gouery, William Abadie, and Lucien Laviscount. Season 5 guest stars include Eugenio Franceschini, Thalia Besson, Paul Forman, Arnaud Binard, Minnie Driver, Bryan Greenberg, and Michèle Laroque.
All episodes of ‘Emily in Paris’ are streaming on Netflix.
Awards Focus: It’s so nice to meet you. How are you doing?
Marylin Fitoussi: We are thrilled to talk to you. I love your ‘Kenobi’ poster behind you. Yes, we are in the middle of some fitting for the next runway that we will have on the show. We are super thrilled and happy to be Emmy-nominated, also. It was unexpected and expected, and we are very grateful for that too.
AF: What was the starting point for developing the visual identity of the characters this season?
Marylin Fitoussi: Because we have heard rumors that it will be the last season, or because we never knew if the show would be renewed, I think we have treated every season like a firework—thinking maybe it will be the last one. So, we want to push our boundaries. We want to push our limits. We want to have fun. We want to present some unexpected silhouette combinations with hair and makeup. We want to please the audience with things that they have never seen before. We are our first writers of the script, our first customer, our first client, our first viewers. We need to have fun and to enjoy doing this show and styling this show. We are working to please ourselves first and to offer to Darren and the cast something to dream of, to fuel their imagination. And voila!
Carole Nicolas: No, it’s exactly what Marilyn said.
Marylin Fitoussi: Even if it’s the last season, we want to give the maximum that we can to the audience. I hope that in 10 years, this show will be seen by a younger audience as a really cool, innovative show–which is exactly how I see ‘Sex and the City,’ one of my all-time favorite shows. And I hope that what we’ve created together continues to resonate with people of all ages, from all walks of life, all around the world–that they find the show funny, entertaining, refreshing, and outrageous. Sometimes, it’s not reality–but who cares about reality? Maybe everything is embellished, but it’s entertaining, unapologetic, and fun to watch. Big challenge, right?
AF: ‘Emily in Paris’ is known for its heightened visual style. How do you keep that style feeling fresh from season to season?
Marylin Fitoussi: Because it’s my job and my passion. I’m very passionate about what I’m doing. And as I always say, I need to entertain myself. If I love the silhouettes that I’m designing for all our cast and characters, they will receive this feeling. Of course, they are going to be interested, they are going to be curious. I also need to create desire in the eyes of my beautiful colleagues to design the best makeup and hairstyles for all the characters. So we have conversations and we work together to make and present wonderful and strong images.
Carole Nicolas: Yes, it’s a joy and it’s exciting. As soon as we read the script, we call each other and we’re like, oh, can you imagine this and this? We always want to go further and further.
Marylin Fitoussi: Push our limits and present things that we never did before.
Carole Nicolas: Exactly.
Marylin Fitoussi: Because we have a challenge in Darren Star and we have a challenge (inaudible) who have also their expectations so we can’t deceive them at all. It’s not a possibility.
AF: How do you balance the demands of the story with the expectation that the series will continue to deliver memorable looks?
Marylin Fitoussi: I don’t balance—never. Balance for me means that you can’t sell yourself. I need to go wild. If I need to go wild, I’m going wild. I’m here to break the rules. I absolutely want, with all my hair and beauty team, to break the rules and to push our boundaries.
Carole Nicolas: Yeah, particularly on ‘Emily in Paris.’
Marylin Fitoussi: This kind of show allows you the freedom to experiment many things. It’s only actors who can say, “Oh, it’s too much. I don’t feel comfortable with that.” But as soon as they totally agree with you, we can go further and further. There was only one day where Lily very politely declined a look. She said, “Oh, Marylin, I think we need to keep this look for next season.” So, meaning I don’t like it, but she was very delicate saying that. Or, “Maybe this look, you can offer it to Mindy. I think it’s more Mindy than me.” So, I think it was a very nice and cute way to say “No, it’s too strong,” or “I don’t feel comfortable,” or “it’s ugly.” But, otherwise, we have no limits. That’s why we’re super happy, like kids who can put their finger in a jar of chocolate or peanut butter. Yeah, it’s having fun with this show, having fun in front of the camera, but backstage with us, creating those unexpected and eclectic characters. Or with Ashley, because Carole is specialized in Ashley’s looks, hair, and makeup. She has a wonderful character to design, so we can have a Mindy, with all feathers and glitter at 8 AM buying the bread in a French boulangerie, and that it’s not a problem for us.
AF: Was there a particular character whose appearance evolved significantly this season and what drove those changes?
Marylin Fitoussi: Emily is always evolving. She evolved because now she has been in Paris for six years. She’s much more mature, much more in control. We succeeded to create a particular style, and now she’s much more Parisian. But it’s because really Lily and I are really willing to do that with the Cooper twist. We call that the Cooper twist, with this spicy, little touch of tackiness with a respectful twist that we love to add to a character. But she knows and learns the French rules and twists them in a special way that makes her character interesting. I think we achieved in season six the ability to go as far as we wanted to go with this character. I think she is, if we can talk about balance, she is in balance with what we wanted to achieve. And you for Ashley (inaudible) Beautiful looks, too.
Carole Nicolas: Yeah, and Ashley, yes. I mean, Mindy. Yeah, Mindy, when she arrived in Paris, I think she didn’t know exactly what she was doing here, and she was very American in the way she puts everything together with all clothes. And now, she’s more mature, she’s wild, she doesn’t care about the people.
Marylin Fitoussi: She doesn’t care about the other one. She’s not dressed to please the other one.
Carole Nicolas: Yes, exactly. So, she evolved a lot. She’s also, I think, more woman.
Marylin Fitoussi: She’s more elevated, more refined in a way. In season one, it was one of my first failures with Darren because the script was Mindy, a nanny in a park with two kids. It’s the famous bench scene when she meets Emily for the first time. As a French designer, a little bit outside of the American aesthetic, I said, okay, she’s a nanny, she’s in a park with stones and she needs to be able to run after the kids. She needs to have comfortable shoes. Let’s talk about a very fashionable pair of sneakers. I made a first look with sneakers, and I will always remember Darren’s face looking at Mindy’s picture in the fitting.
He looked at the picture and then at me and said, “What’s that?” I said, “But Darren, she needed to have comfortable shoes to run after the kids.” He had these magical sentences that opened my cage forever. “Marylin, I don’t care about reality.” When you have someone, the big boss, in front of you, who is creator, showrunner, who has had a successful career and who says to you, “Be free, my friend, be out of the water, let’s do crazy things together.” I promise you, Danielle, for me, it was the most beautiful day of all the seasons because he allowed us to offer him our crazy vision for the cast with costumes, hair and makeup. He offered us on a silver platter the opportunity to be creative, to challenge and to be eclectic, so it was great. That’s why Carole is the lucky one who can do a crazy hairdo for Ashley when she has a scene in pajamas.
AF: What is something about your work on the series that audiences may not realize requires as much thought or preparation as it does?
Marylin Fitoussi: Every look. It takes a village. What you see on screen, it seems okay. Only people who come to our office at base camp to prep can imagine the amount of time that it takes for all of us. It’s fittings, it’s seamstresses, it’s tailoring, it’s finding accessories, the precise pair of shoes. It really takes a village for both of us to create. Some looks take time and some looks are easy to do.
Sometimes you succeed to design and to style a look in five minutes and sometimes you need the help of the entire department. That’s why we are really a unit as hair and makeup—a family and really as a crew—because I want Carole and her team to have their hair moment, the makeup moment and sometimes costumes. Because the dress is so outrageous, it needs to have a subtle hairdo or subtle makeup. We try to be in balance because everybody needs to look good. Every department needs to have its moment of fame and be the main point of the look. But everything is challenging.
Many people think that the couture houses are just sending me the total look. I don’t do total looks. Carole doesn’t just put on wigs. She needs to work with Julien to do this crazy, crazy look. Everything has a meaning, and everything takes time. If it doesn’t show on the screen that it was difficult for everybody, that is beautiful, we are happy with that. It needs to look effortless, even if we were sweating, because we are sometimes, and it’s challenging and difficult, but it shouldn’t show on screen—only that it’s very rich, and every detail is where it should be.
AF: For a hairstyling-focused question, was there a particular hairstyle this season that was especially challenging to execute or maintain?
Carole Nicolas: Yeah, I’m thinking about the pride, as we did both wigs for Ashley and Lily. So, for Emily, it was a really the first time on the show to do this. So yeah, it was a bit challenging. She was wearing a wig for the pride, so the blonde wolf cut—it took me a bit of time to do it because we needed to find the right things. We did a lot of tests on Lily, but she really loved it.
Marylin Fitoussi: And we need to do that. The prep, we have a very short prep. You need to think, you need to prep, you need to fit, you need to try, and you need to shoot at the same time.
Carole Nicolas: And also, with both characters on screen, they need to be—
Marylin Fitoussi: Strong and powerful.
Carole Nicolas: Yes, and together, like you can’t do something on one and not be thinking of the combination of both characters.
Marylin Fitoussi: Everybody needs to look beautiful and interesting and powerful.
Carole Nicolas: Yeah. So yeah, the pride, I think for me was the most challenging.
AF: On the costume side of things, was there a particular costume this season that presented an especially interesting creative or logistical challenge?
Marylin Fitoussi: I hope, Danielle. I hope I started to do something. I hope so. All of them are challenging. I love to dress all the cast. Sometimes, people ask me if I have a favorite.
I think the most difficult of them is Gabrielle. To be crazy with a Mindy character, to be eclectic and create a different and a particular style on Emily or an outrageous and very versatile Julien—it’s easy. To design or style the guy next door on a Gabrielle, who can be a supermodel in two minutes, yes, that is the most challenging part. It’s making Gabrielle look normal. Look as if you can open the door and it’s your neighbor. That doesn’t normally happen—having a neighbor as beautiful as him. He is the character who takes a lot of concentration because with just one white shirt, he can be too beautiful. I needed to keep him down to earth. Maybe not this earth, but to an earth. So yes, it’s him.
AF: Thank you so much, and I cannot wait to have the next season in my eyeballs.
Marylin Fitoussi: You will see.
Carole Nicolas: Thank you so much. Thank you, Danielle.
Marylin Fitoussi: Thank you, Danielle. Have a nice evening. Bye-bye.