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| Jodie Comer as Villanelle in Killing Eve |
It feels safe to say that at this moment, more people around the world are lusting after the style of a serial killer than ever before. That’s globalisation for you, but that’s also the grip that our favourite TV characters have on our wardrobes.
Anyone who has been watching the second series of Killing Eve cannot fail to have noticed the bold, stylish and often bizarre outfits worn by Jodie Comer’s Russian assassin character, Villanelle. Many of the items she wears, from her velvet jumpsuits to satin coats to silk dressing gowns, are selling out despite the designer price tags. And there’s a trickle down. The internet is awash with advice on how to replicate her “to die for” looks in a way that’s kinder to purses, while websites such as Etsy are coming up with lookalike clothes.
This is nothing new. Debra McGuire spent 20 years designing the popular outfits on Friends. She was inspired by an earlier age, with Mary Tyler Moore, Lucille Ball and Hitchcock films. Fans of My So-Called Life have sulked and yearned in plaid shirts; The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air viewers have stuffed their wardrobes with tracksuits and Air Jordans; Twin Peaks aficionados will have knotted cherry stalks in Audrey Horne’s daywear, while Gossip Girl fans might have hatched plans in Blair Waldorf headbands. In the past decade, there has been Scandi-noir knitwear, the power-suits of The Good Wife and maximalism à la Cookie Lyon in the hip-hop drama Empire.
What is relatively new, however, is being able to shop from our sofas which is blurring the line between watching TV and consuming. Hands can slip from remotes to mobiles – and buying a bikini just spotted in the Love Island villa is little more effort than turning the volume up.
And, just as it has become easier to contact our favourite authors to tell them how that one line made everything slot into place, so too can people tweet costume designers directly. “I get asked about the Fleabag jumpsuit and red floral dress a lot,” says Ray Holman, the costume designer behind Fleabag and Doctor Who.
McGuire – perhaps in part down to the Netflix effect as Friends is the world’s most streamed show – gets about 10 emails a week from people wanting to know where they can find the guys’ T-shirts or Rachel’s yellow dress. She answers when she can: “I just get such a kick out of it.”
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