HBO Girls: Fashion Not What It Used To Be
It’s interesting that Vogue did a piece covering the look of HBO’s Girls because one thing this show seems to be not about is fashion. Or at least it’s played very differently from the show Girls most frequently compared to, Sex & The City, for which fashion repeatedly was cited as the show’s fifth character.
Indeed, while the writer & star of the series, Lena Dunham, pays the requisite tribute to SATC via a giant poster featured on the studio wall of NYU student, Shonshanna (gosh I love that name), it’s something of a backhanded compliment as she is Girls’ least hip character with fashion choices that tend to be more mainstream mall-ish what with her matching Victoria’s Secret bra & panties, short-sleeved Juicy hoodies and ack, even a Snuggie! In many ways Shoshanna represents the final ripple of that which was spawned S&TC, with the end results not all that pretty much less chic. (And actually I have a theory that Dunham secretly has mixed feelings about the SATCcomparisons, would prefer ones made to Seinfeld, and in the ultimate teenage rebellous move accidentally-on-purpose does a lot of stuff that kicks dirt on its main themes.)
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Meanwhile Dunham, aka Hanna, has become best known for flashing her untoned bod, her hole-riddled underwear and not sexy pantyhose looks. And that is no accident. According to a NYMag interview with wardrobe designer Jenn Rogien, the show is taking a decidely unsensuous approach to lingerie to the point where the more accurate description of the characters’ most intimate garments would probably be plain ole underpants:
“[Hanna] is in bed and it was about finding just the right pair of gross underwear — really playing against the sexiness of being in bed when it’s not supposed to be sexy. In this show, it wasn’t about finding the prettiest lacy bra for a sex scene.”
The liklihood that some brand akin to Manolo Blahnik will emerge from Girls seems very unlikely. If anything it will be some vintage clothing store like Gemiola, owned by the character Hanna’s (played by Jemima Kirke) real-life mom and a wardrobe source for costume designer Rogien. Which makes sense actually. While brands still matter greatly, in a post-2008-recession-world, fashion for women anyway doesn’t seem to be what it used to be. There are no more hipsters because at least in major cities everyone dresses that way now, and outside of the fashion world, getting dressed to the nines like the SATC ladies used to do seems, well, like either something for celebs on red carpets or office worker types and who wants to be either one of those?
