Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu attends the Emily In Paris Season 4 Part 1 L.A. premiere at the Egyptian Theatre Hollywood on Aug. 14.Matt Winkelmeyer/Netflix
The television series Emily in Paris has been hailed and hate-watched by fans and critics alike since it first streamed in 2020. In its debut season, the show was streamed by 58 million households and it inspired long-form essays in many mainstream media outlets, including The New York Times, which explored why and how so many love to loathe it. Netflix has dutifully stood behind the polarizing powerhouse and plans on releasing the final five episodes from Season 4 on Sept. 12 (the first five episodes of Season 4 were released Aug. 15).
Much of the show’s divide stems from its main character, Chicagoan Emily Cooper, played by 35-year-old Lily Collins. Emily is written as a digitally astute twentysomething marketer who moves from the deep-dish pizza capital to the City of Light for work. The fashion she wears and the city she’s navigating often overwhelm her. How she dresses – with brash patterns and graphic colours – feels as chaotic and frenetic as her new surroundings.
What is also overwhelming for the Midwesterner are her dealings with her fierce, chic Parisian boss, Sylvie Grateau, played by 61-year-old Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu. Their relationship is often worn on their sleeves, as the clothes they wear showcase how these two contrasting figures determine what is or isn’t fashionable.
Leroy-Beaulieu as Sylvie Grateau in Emily in Paris.Netflix
For years, women over a certain age on TV were deemed as invisible or written as slovenly, unkempt or put into a grandmotherly or remarkably unsexy set of aesthetics. Sylvie goes against years of older women being discarded as invisible and fans see her as an inspirational and stylish depiction of mature women.
For audiences watching closely, Sylvie doesn’t steal the spotlight from Emily with her own sense of style, she subtly secures it. Sylvie and her wardrobe have been such a draw for the show that both have ignited adoring features from InStyle (“No One Dresses Better Than Your Mean French Boss”), the L.A. Times (“Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu isn’t the villain of ‘Emily in Paris.’ She’s the role model”) and Vogue Australia (“Sylvie Grateau is my poster girl for office dressing”). In other words, Sylvie’s elegance, paired with Leroy-Beaulieu’s bravura, has proven to be a powerful lure for viewers.
Left, Lily Collins as Emily, and Leroy-Beaulieu as Sylvie Grateau in Emily in Paris.stephanie branchu/Netflix
The show’s costume designer, Marylin Fitoussi, says that the reason why Sylvie’s visual appeal is having a moment is because she based the character’s looks on her own experience with women over 50.
“Most of the mature women I know, know themselves,” Fitoussi says from Paris via a Zoom meeting. “They are aware of what they are saying with their clothes, have gotten acquainted with their own bodies and understand which clothes will make them feel powerful and which clothes make them seem powerful to others.”
During the press tour for Emily in Paris, the Toulouse-born costumer – who was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work on the show last year – was surprised to find that most of the questions being asked of her were about Sylvie’s character.
“I cannot believe how many people are Team Sylvie. I wonder if it’s because her clothes speak to us differently than Emily’s,” she says. “Sylvie isn’t experimenting just to experiment, she knows who she is.”
Leroy-Beaulieu as Sylvie Grateau, Eugenio Franceschini as Marcello in Emily in Paris.stephanie branchu/Netflix
From the first episode of the series, the pair’s dissimilar designer wear proves Fitoussi’s point: Emily meets Sylvie in an Alice + Olivia printed silk blouse and a cerulean-turquoise snakeskin mini skirt – it’s a classic case of try-hard style, an outfit whose aim is to fit into an in-crowd. Sylvie, in contrast, is decked out in a minimal, tight black Rick Owens midi skirt and a matching well-tailored top. The French CEO’s look is understated to make a huge statement: Sylvie is not a trend worshipper and she refuses to suffer fashion fools gladly.
“Sylvie’s mood board was inspired by Katharine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich and the way they played with men’s suiting as well as Philippine’s own mother, who was a jewel designer working for Dior in the eighties,” Fitoussi says. “I think we really have paid a tribute to [Leroy-Beaulieu’s mother] in a fearless way – with a kind of natural authority and a superelegance by simply mixing the masculine/feminine sensuality of Hepburn and Dietrich with [Leroy-Beaulieu’s] personal family history. Emily’s world is more fantastic and flashier.”
Throughout each season, Sylvie’s clothing choices steer clear of Emily’s logo-prominent or pattern-heavy palette. Sylvie’s outfits, such as a Saint Laurent cross-neck bodysuit top (Season 4, Episode 5), custom Renaissance jacket (Season 2, Episode 5) or a haute couture dress by Stéphane Rolland (Season 3, Episode 2), have more in common with today’s gender-fluid runways than Emily’s girl-ish tees, robes and gowns.
Fitoussi also cites French couturier Paul Poiret’s designs as a main source of inspiration for Sylvie. His work is famous for ditching corsetry and is known in fashion history for reconceiving beauty standards for women in the early 20th century. Introducing this sense of legacy to a new generation “wasn’t intentional,” says Fitoussi, noting that her strategy on set was simply inspired by the ways in which Emily appreciated – and gravitated toward – Sylvie’s aesthetic.
“Emily’s character has a lot of respect for Sylvie and you see how she begins to get inspired by her boss’s style and really starts to emulate it in Season 4,” Fitoussi says. This is evident when Emily takes on Sylvie’s masculine-feminine style in a royal blue Barbara Bui suit, which she wears to a jewellery launch. “It is cut like something out of Sylvie’s closet but it has a burst of colour and ode to her boss,” says Fitoussi.
Fashion photographer and writer Ari Seth Cohen says that exploring this kind of generational reverence for mature women on TV has been a long time coming. Cohen’s books, Advanced Style, Advanced Style: Older and Wiser, Advanced Love and the forthcoming Advanced Pets (available Nov. 12), chronicle fashionable mature women who have a flair for dressing themselves as confidently as Sylvie does.
Credited as bringing a newfound visibility to later-in-life fashion plates, Cohen views the rise in Sylvie’s popularity as something that was a welcome change. “Seeing that sort of representation and how it is being embraced by younger generations is what I’ve been advocating in my photography and my writing for years so to see it on TV is really exciting,” he says.
“Characters like Sylvie and Moira Rose from Schitt’s Creek are idolized figures who happen to be 50, 60, 70 years old because of their own take on personal style. They are people who think that clothes are part of their armor … and relay an independent spirit and an energy.”
Cohen says another reason why people in their teens, 20s, 30s and 40s are gravitating toward characters like Sylvie has to do with their own image and the images of their peers.
“Young people see so much, so quickly and have been forced to define who they are and what is their style online – that’s how a lot of them make a living,” he says. “To see an example of someone who consistently and methodically works hard at being who they are – and chooses clothes which represent that – for a long amount of time … is inspiring for [anyone] trying to find themselves,” he says.
And that’s where the magic of Emily in Paris truly comes to life: It showcases how characters like Sylvie can be a role model for all ages.