The Preppy Summer Style of 'We Were Liars' Signals The Show's Dark Secrets
Fashion
In "We Were Liars," the preppy wardrobes captures the allure of old-money summer style — and the unsettling darkness hiding beneath its polished surface.
The cast of "We Were Liars." Courtesy of Prime.
Set on the private island of a wealthy New England family, "We Were Liars" is not just another series about the halcyon days of summer. The series, based on the novel by E Lockhart, revolves around 16-year-old Cadence Sinclair (Emily Alyn Lind) and her fellow “liars” — her cousins, Mirren (Esther McGregor) and Johnny (Joseph Zada), and family friend, Gat (Shubham Maheshwari). Though the past summers have been idyllic, and we get glimpses of some of their halcyon days, the tone of the series is far from carefree.
It is set during the friends’ 16th summer, throughout which Cadence is determined to understand what happened to her the previous year that left her estranged from the group. With her memory broken into pieces and her family acting distant and secretive, Cadence gradually uncovers the increasingly sinister dark side of the Sinclair title.
What results from this is a series that is both visually luxurious and emotionally bracing — a new kind of summer story. Costume designer Amanda Riley was set on crafting a meticulously calculated presentation of Martha’s Vineyard summer wealth, which the Sinclar family represents. Speaking to Woman’s World, costume designer Amanda Riley said, of crafting Cadence’s wardrobe: “I think Emily [Alyn Lind] and I have had fittings that have lasted upwards of five and six hours on a Saturday, and that really bonds you.” The Sinclairs’ costuming provides viewers with summer style “inspo,” but beyond that, reflects the traits and personality each character most wants to project. Riley characterizes the family with unique aesthetics, alluding to their fluctuating statuses within the family, and evolving states of emotional undoing. Everyone in the Sinclair family is notably beautiful, blonde, and preppy.
“Dressing the Sinclairs was like building a time capsule of American aristocracy,” Riley explained, citing sophisticated style icons like Audrey Hepburn and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy as some of her inspiration for their wardrobes. The crisp polo shirts, tennis uniforms, floral bathing suits, and cable knit sweaters, a staple among Cape Cod-vacationing families, help convey their image as an ostensibly perfect family. Upon closer inspection, though, cracks begin to show through subtle choices in each character’s costuming.
The three sisters in the Sinclair family all have impeccably tailored wardrobes, but their respective styles reflect their different aims and approaches to winning over their father, Harris Sinclair (David Morse). Carrie (Mamie Gummer), the eldest Sinclair sister, flaunts a freer style than her more buttoned-up sisters. As “a bohemian art lover soon to marry an NYC gallery owner,” as Riley described her to Chic Collective, she dressed her in paisley prints and earthy colors. Her tunic-like silhouettes are loose and drapey. Though she appears to be a calm presence, her style is essentially an illusion of harmony she is intent on displaying, despite turmoil lurking just below the surface.Bess (played by Candice King), the younger sister, couldn’t be more different. She’s “Nantucket perfection,” according to Riley and her costuming mirrors her ambition and obsession with upward mobility. Her hair is always smoothed back, jewelry kept classic and minimal, and she dresses in feminine and soft pastels that contrast sharply with Carrie’s boho prints. As for middle child Penny (Caitlin Fitzgerald), the “fashion-forward matriarch,” her wardrobe is structured, chic, and speaks to her no-nonsense demeanor. She is more restrained than Carrie and Bess, and while she possesses the same parochial and striving mentality as her sisters, her costuming suggests she views herself as above it all.
Cadence’s style transformation is perhaps the most obvious, and her reckoning with her family’s privilege takes center stage over the course of the series. Darkness and unhappiness may exist “in the real world, but not on Beechwood,” and Candace is acutely aware of how rarefied her time on Beechwood, the Sinclair private island, is from her usual everyday life. During her fifteenth Beechwood summer, Candace sports a colorful and carefree wardrobe. By the following summer, she has undergone a makeover; her preppy, printed swimsuits and collared shirts are replaced by denim cutoffs and gray sweatshirts. For the first time, her self-described “off-island time” is blending into the fantasy of Beechwood life. Over the course of the series, Riley skillfully blends the two seemingly disparate aesthetics in a way that reflects Cadence’s gradual healing process. As Riley put it to Chic Collective,“ as [Cadence] begins to remember, glimpses of her former self return in lighter fabrics and softer shapes.”
As it hurtles towards its shocking finale, "We Were Liars" works to unravel the illusion of perfection that comes with the picturesque life of a privileged family. Though the costuming and sets are beautifully sun-drenched and enviable, they also subtly reveal the fault lines beneath the oppressive and superficial Sinclair family dynamics.
