How to do Riviera chic
Inspired by our wondrous politicians, I’m going to do something rash – possibly insane – and declare that even though August’s TV delights are yet to come, Riviera, Sky Atlantic’s glossy, A-list casted and enjoyably high-pitched thriller, is this summer’s The Night Manager (from 2016) or, if your memory stretches that far, 2014’s The Honourable Woman. Clothes-wise I mean. Obviously.
Admittedly, the aesthetic in Riviera, shady people in high-definition, sun-drenched colour – digresses from Maggie Gyllenhaal’s muted Roland Mouret palette in the The Honourable Woman, and Elizabeth Debicki’s pastel, flowy languid columns in The Night Manager. However, like Manager and Woman, its tone is dizzyingly aspirational.
We’re not really used to this degree of label flashing in British dramas. In Line of Duty, the BBC’S recent edge-of-thesofa showpiece, Thandie Newton’s suit could have come from Asda’s school uniform department. But then Julia Stiles’s Céline dresses probably surpassed the Line of Duty’s entire clothing spend.
On the up side, Newton is probably in line for a Bafta next year whereas if there are any gongs to be had for Riviera, it should be for the outfits. Not just because every scene brings forth a new trophy from Alexander Mcqueen, Vivienne Westwood, Michael Kors, Stella Mccartney, Jenny Packham and Victoria Beckham. But because they manage to pay joyful lip service to the excess-all-areas showiness of the South of France, while somehow, particularly in the case of Stiles, averting tacky schlock horror moments. Some of the signposting is subtler than others. Stiles’s diamond ring is the size of a small canoe. But there are few obvious monograms or predictable status bags. Taking in the bigger picture, Stiles’s wardrobe is a template for how to do contemporary, sleek glamour in the heat.
That picture includes cerulean skies and creamy Belle Époque buildings. One of the big sartorial lessons from
Riviera is the impact of colour in sunny weather. “We made an early decision, bold sandals rather than use pattern for Julia,” says Riviera’s costume designer, Emma Fryer. “She wears a check dress in the first episode, and although it’s a great dress, it was obvious that bright, plain swathes of colour against the Riviera’s blue skies and white architecture made for a much punchier image. She’s also quite a serious character and pattern tends to look playful.”
Playful this version of the Riviera is not. Stiles plays an art adviser married to a zillionaire – handy, given her Céline habit. “She has to look fashionable, but also wear items that don’t date in five minutes, because this would be going out a year after filming,” says Fryer, who decided the best approach was to go for streamlined silhouettes in silks and crepe de chines, and to resist fussy details. Her starting point was archive pictures of Audrey Hepburn and Brigitte Bardot and a basic premise: whatever they’d be wearing now would probably work for Stiles.
The search took Fryer into Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, all down Mayfair’s Mount Street
– a striking upmarket detour from many film briefs these days. “Riviera was one of the more generous clothing budgets I’ve had to work with, especially given that I had to buy two of some outfits for stunt doubles,” concedes Fryer, whose most recent credits include Free Fire, a British feature comedy set in Seventies Boston, and SS-GB, the BBC’S Forties drama. That doesn’t mean there is no high street in the show. Stiles wears a pink jumpsuit from Reiss. She is, after all, a modern woman.
Even with painstaking storyboarding, real events sometimes hijacked Fryer’s plans. The day after she bought a white one-shoulder Ralph Lauren jumpsuit for Stiles, Melania Trump appeared in an identical one on her husband’s election night.
“We had a wobbly moment over that one,” says Fryer, “because it acquired a whole load of baggage it hadn’t had 24 hours earlier. But Julia loved it so much that in the end, we went with it.”
If jumpsuits (glamorous yet effortless) formed the basement of Stiles’s house of style, shirt-dresses are the groundfloor – the silky slim-fitted ones as opposed to those with swishy skirts. “I was lucky because when I was shopping for this last year, there were more shirt-dresses around – this summer’s ruffles and flowers would have been much harder to negotiate.”
Stiles’s character is meant to be ambiguous, professional but overtly glamorous. Cue a rainbow of soft tailoring, impeccable fit and flattering fabrics. Dresses are narrow at the torso but generally fall into gentle pleats and drapes below the waist. Colours are strong without being strident.
There’s a negligible amount of tarty body-con but plenty of Prada sunglasses and heels. When I tell Fryer that’s she’s succeeded in making the Côte d’azure’s dress codes look flashy but not trashy, she laughs diplomatically.
“The accessories probably are a bit blingy – but it’s about beautifully-made clothes that don’t wilt after a 14-hour day, good belts and posture and all that amazing underwear that smooths away lumps and bumps, and makes clothes hang a million times better. And you can find that anywhere nowadays, including M&S.”
All episodes of Riviera are available on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV