Berets! Tutus!
Killer heels!
Whether it’s Carrie Bradshaw
or Emily in Paris, Patricia Field
is the super-stylist behind
some of TV and film’s most
famous wardrobes. Just don’t
expect to see any sweatpants,
she tells Pandora Sykes
At 79 years old, Patricia Field is a fashion legend.
The costume designer and stylist behind the iconic
screen feasts Sex and the City, Ugly Betty and The Devil
Wears Prada (for which she was nominated for an
Oscar in 2007), she is also responsible for the look of
Emily in Paris, the Netflix series about a perky young
Chicagoan marketing exec (played by Lily Collins) who
moves to Paris for work, which lands back on TV
screens later this week. It was watched by more than
58 million people in its first month of release in
October last year and sent the French critics
completely dotty. They dismissed the show’s touristy
depiction of Paris — the rude waiters, the Eiffel Tower
selfies, the abundance of croissants — as not only ridi-
cule but downright offensive.
“The French, they do not like anything,” laughs
Marylin Fitoussi, the Parisian costumier whom Field
engaged to help her on the show. “They never do!”
shoots back Field in her deliciously gravelly voice. I’m
speaking to the duo via Zoom: Field is at ArtFashion,
her fashion gallery in New York, wearing a plain black
top that reveals sinewy biceps, her hair a bright red that
is almost fluorescent, while Fitoussi, wearing a black
turban and multiple bright necklaces, is in Paris.
Known for her colourful, camp and often eclectic
fashion, Field is an unstoppable creative force who has
little time for trends and rules. Much like Fitoussi. “You
English have a dandy sense of decadence and style. But
the French, we follow so many rules,” she groans. “The
worst word for us is ‘overdressed’.” But Emily, with
her patterned two-pieces and Crayola-bright berets, is
meant to be overdressed, they say. “She is a fish out
of water,” Fitoussi says. “But strong and joyful, with her
own personality. Make her look like a boring FrenchHow Patricia Field dresses
TV’s most fabulous women