'Too Much' Was a Love Letter to London — and British Fashion
Fashion
TSS Talent
Arielle Cooper-Lethem
As head of costume design, Arielle Cooper-Lethem—a New Yorker living in London—took the opportunity to shine a spotlight on British heritage and design.
It’s a question many ask at some point in their lives. Am I … is this … too much? The answer may differ depending on which side of the Atlantic Ocean you sit. The phrase gets a whole new meaning when brought into the context of the Netflix serieit's-com-esque comedy drama, written and directed by Lena Dunham, famously known for the seminal HBO series “Girls.” It depicts life in London through the lens of New Yorker Jess (Meg Stalter), an ambitious TV producer navigating her way post-breakup, in new territory. Dunham co-created the series with her husband, Luis Felber, a British musician who also scored the series. The story is loosely based on their real-life romance, Dunham’s own fantasy - (versus and reality - ) of moving to London and their subsequent marriage. Each of the episodes title gets a romcom pun, from “Nonsense and Sensibility” to “Notting Kill” and themes of sex, drugs, tantrums, and tiaras are scattered throughout—with the help of an iconic cast including Richard E. Grant, Rita Wilson, and Naomi Watts, plus model Adwoa Aboah and writer Raven Smith, who collaborated with Dunham in a writers' room and has a cameo in episode eight of the series.
From scripted dyed-pink hair to handcrafted knits, sequinned dresses, and many fluffy vintage coats, the on-screen wardrobe is a maximalist's dream. Enter Arielle Cooper-Lethem, the show’s costume designer, who too, moved to London for love, she tells us. It’s part of the reason she resonated so well with the characters and British cultural references, armed with a wardrobe that is never, ever too much. It’s just the right amount… and a little bit more.
Megan Stalter in "Too Much." Courtesy of Netflix
“I think any of these people alone, if you saw them walking down the street, you wouldn't necessarily be like, what? But I did want the world to feel a little more sensory and turned up. So I was like, how do we take these characters that we might all know a version of and heighten them a bit — not so much that they feel foreign, but just so that we're in a world that's a little bit too much, and a little bit more fantasy,” she notes. The first episode makes a quick transition from sunny New York to gray London, revealing it not quite to be the fairytale adventure Jess expected.: “She's a bit of an Anglophile… think Jane Austen’s “‘Sense and Sensibility”’ and she has this obsession with cop dramas and period dramas….There's whimsy written into the character,’ she explains. ‘From the beginning, she’s wearing pastels, pink, baby blue, baby yellow, ruffles. She loves a piece of jewelry. She's not afraid of anything,” Cooper-Lethem adds. “She’s quirky, but she’s cool and there's a lot of confidence in her character.”
At the mercy of British weather, statement outerwear and layers take the lead, from The Hippie Shake shaggy vintage coat to the endless coloured tights. “The color and texture palette… she wears a lot of chunky knits that are embroidered. She's into details,’” she adds. “‘We also have to respect the fact that she takes being at home very seriously, you know what I mean? Which is why she has this fabulous collection of nightgowns. There’s a UK-based brand called If Only If, we used a lot of their gowns. They're the ones that have the little zigzag collars.’” The independent British brand has since lifted taken off following its India nightgown being featured in promotional press coverage from the series. “That sailor dress that she's wearing when she meets Felix. It’s a really special piece in the show. It's just such a sweet moment, and then it comes back later in the show,” she adds. The Amalie dress can be found on Foundry Mews, a London-born brand now based in Japan. “‘She's coming from New York, and we needed to separate her from this gritty pub scene that Felix is in.”’ She notes. “‘Sometimes you get the feeling that he doesn't smell very good.…His leather coat was supposed to feel like maybe it was in his family’s attic, and his dad used to wear it but he gained too much weight and now Felix wears it.”’ A couple of pairs of shoes were all Cooper-Lethem for Felix’s character: “The shoes, we looked at George Cox, we looked at Docs. We felt like he would have two pairs—he’d have his black dress-up shoe and his football boots and that’s basically his whole wardrobe.” She adds. Dr Martens and George Cox’s — the Original Creeper Brand — are cult classic shoes for Brits, still seen everywhere in the UK today. For Jess? “The French Sole ballet flats, they’re a total staple.”,” she adds.
Arielle Cooper-Lethem's Edit
It is in meeting Felix’s fragmented friendship group, that Jess’s differences — in both her personality and fashion choices — become more obvious: “‘She sticks out like a sore thumb in the London world, but she's also got enough of an angle that Felix finds her interesting and these people around her are like, oh, I can't really put her in a box,” she adds. Throughout the series, Felix’s past romances all make fashion statements of their own. Adwoa Aboah’s character Linnea in episode two wears a black Annie’s Ibiza PVC dress to tie Felix to the bed. “Annie’s is an iconic party dress shop in London. She does vintage and then has her own label which is super fun,” Cooper-Lethem notes. “Adwoa’s character has the most amazing massive ruby ring and then she's got these studs in her ears that look like little pigeon claws. That’s this incredible higher-end jewelry designer called Tessa Metcalfe. The subversive jeweler casts her designs from the city's pigeon road kill, often dotted around the streets surrounding her London store. She always wears a large necklace from sandralexandra, handcrafted by artisans between London and Barcelona.
There’s no denying the air of money throughout, and Kim, a close colleague of Jess, leans more towards higher-end staples throughout the series: “She's adapting to London, but she's a very confident character and a very decisive character. She's also someone who's investing quite a bit of money on clothes. That's where a lot of her paycheck is going,” says Cooper-Lethem. Her other colleague, Boss, takes a different stance, closer to Jess’ palette, giving them an immediate bond: “‘He’s over the top, he’s very openly gay, and he’s trying to define himself through this very loud way of dressing. His outfits were some of my favorites. We tried to shop realistic brands for him, so he wears a little bit of Asos and Lazy Oaf….a little bit of tragedy, but he’s also really cool. He’s too much.”
In contrast, when we look to the New Yorker characters Zev (Michael Zegen) and Wendy Jones (Emily Ratajkowski), we notice a shift in style, yet still referencing British designers. “‘We found this great knitwear designer, Sarah Beasley, who has a brand called SULK, and ended up using a bunch of her pieces because the color combinations are really great,” says Cooper-Lethem. “She [Wendy] wears a Kangol hat when Zev proposes to her, and at the party when Jess is standing there,”’ she adds. The Kangol golf hat has become iconic over the years, more recently in the party scene among Brits. Lots of vintage for many of the characters was sourced by Found and Vision on Portobello Road in London, and many of the pieces are still available in their hire archive if you want the 'Too Much' look.”’
