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What a view | Chanel and Gossip Girl, Gucci and Lady Gaga: the relationship between fashion and television
- Are the expensive and meticulous outfits we see on shows like Nothing But Thirty, Sex and the City and Gossip Girl all there is to fashion on television?
- From reality competitions to true-crime dramas, TV shows portray fashion differently, and it’s used for far more than brand advertising
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Nothing But Thirty and Hermès; Sex and the City and Fendi; Emily in Paris and Marc Jacobs; Gossip Girl and Chanel.
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It’s hardly a stretch to say there is somewhat of an incestuous relationship between fashion and television – but which serves which and are they in it solely for the purposes of advertising?
Market research shows, for instance, that the daring balconette necklines seen on the women in Netflix’s period drama Bridgerton pumped up sales figures for brands with such a design.
The black and white, check-pattered Nikki coat by fashion label Stand Studio became a hot item last year thanks to the popularity of Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit. On the big screen, the upcoming film House of Gucci starring Lady Gaga may well inflate prices of the luxury brand’s leather goods – and the knock-on effect is certain to benefit those making knock-offs, too.
Having a celebrity as a brand ambassador – look at Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively for Karl Lagerfeld and the 2021 revival’s Whitney Peak for Chanel – doesn’t really damage a house’s profile, but if fashion on television is represented by little more than overpriced clothes and bags, then it can occupy only a narrow world. Does it lend itself to anything else?
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Yes – fashion and true crime meet in Netflix series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, which stars Édgar Ramirez. The sumptuous and the seedy prove inseparable from Versace’s originality in design and empire building – right up to the point where his murderer strikes.
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