There aren’t many ladies in Netflix’s new homicide thriller, The Good Couple, with whom I’d commerce lives. Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman) has a jaw-dropping mansion on the coast of Nantucket and a booming enterprise promoting thriller novels—certain, coloration me intrigued—however she additionally has to cope with such a sexually perverse husband (Liev Schreiber) that she requires her family friends to signal NDAs. Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson) works with zoo animals all day (I’m listening!), however she’s caught in a loveless engagement with a person who repeatedly asks if she’s “doing okay” hours after her greatest pal drowns. (No, Benji, she isn’t okay! Why are you?) And Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy)—effectively, she’s the one who drowns. Abby Winbury (Dakota Fanning) will get to embellish a elaborate Manhattan residence and magnificence her hair with Sally Hershberger, however she’s additionally a brat, and her husband is even worse. Then there’s Isabel Nallet (Isabelle Adjani), who sleeps with Abby’s terrible husband, and Chloe Carter (Mia Isaac), who has to serve all of them blackberry mojitos. I might go on.
However although I don’t envy their predicaments, there’s something I wouldn’t thoughts making an attempt on for dimension: their garments. There’s hardly a shirt or a button-down on this present that I wouldn’t slip into and sigh. The Good Couple takes what some may name the central tenets of “coastal grandmother couture”—effortlessly styled; deceptively costly; manufactured from cotton, linen, cashmere, and silk; dyed in pastels, lotions, and nature-inspired hues—and provides a signature aptitude for every particular person character. A few of them, like Greer, mix seamlessly into the island look. Others, like Amelia and Merritt, come throughout as too try-hard or fashionable. Costume designer Signe Sejlund does a wonderful job capturing the silhouettes of each the insiders and outsiders in what she calls “a really wealthy, WASP-y a part of America.”
As a previously landlocked Midwesterner, I might scarcely hope to take a look at residence in a real Nantucket wardrobe. (I solely simply realized about “Nantucket purple.”) But when Ralph Lauren got here knocking with certainly one of Greer’s spotless little cardigans? My closet has greater than sufficient area. Forward, let’s take a better take a look at how the ladies of The Good Couple costume—and why we’d need to costume like them.
Greer Garrison Winbury
Costume designer Signe Sejlund, who additionally labored with Kidman on HBO’s The Undoing, wished to decorate Greer as if she by no means wanted to fret about cleanliness. Thus: immaculate dry-clean-only materials in colours virtually begging for stains. As Sejlund informed WWD, “The extra cream colours she might put on, the extra sophisticated it’s to remain clear. And that’s a technique to present the way you don’t must care about whether or not you get spots in your garments or no matter.”
As she additionally informed Selection, Sejlund wished Greer to “be dreamy and timeless.” Her wardrobe consists nearly totally of sea-colored blouses, trousers, and attire—except a dusty purple one-shoulder robe that she wears throughout the implosion of her profession. She’s keen on monogrammed silk bathrobes, which she extends to all of her houseguests, and she or he’s by no means as soon as depicted in denim or fleece. When she requires consolation, she reaches for a a knit cardigan, by no means a sweatshirt. When she’s writing, she throws on studying glasses, however the blouses stay. That degree of refinement is past most temperaments—and financial institution accounts—however what’s fantastic about Greer’s wardrobe is that it’s able to a dress-down. Toss a type of blouses along with denims, or the trousers with a plain white T-shirt, and all of the sudden you’re not dressing like an uptight Nantucket matriarch, however a striving younger skilled on the subway. Versatility!
Amelia Sacks
In keeping with Sejlund, Amelia “doesn’t care about garments. She’s very, very pure.” Maybe that’s why she wears a lot merchandise from her office, the Central Park Zoo, along with her denims, tank attire, and striped boxer shorts. Even her extra elegant seems don’t fairly adhere to Nantucket protocol: Her orange-red halter robe on the rehearsal dinner clashes with Nantucket purple; her turquoise costume is just too plunging; and her wedding ceremony robe has no gildings. She seems most snug in a zip-up hoodie.
Maybe I wouldn’t advocate sporting your employer’s brand as a style staple, however there’s an ease to Amelia’s wardrobe that I feel evokes emulating. She reaches for attire which are free and flowing; her denim is straight-legged and a basic wash. She understands that hoodies aren’t meant to be paired completely with gymnasium garments. And, maybe most significantly, she doesn’t attempt too arduous to stick to another person’s model code. When Greer’s jaw drops as Amelia waltzes exterior in these little boxer shorts? I couldn’t assist however cackle.
Merritt Monaco
Because the resident Instagram influencer amongst The Good Couple’s wedding ceremony friends, Merritt offers herself permission—and has the clout—to decorate with little inhibition. Nearly nothing she wears in her (comparatively transient) moments on-screen may very well be known as “conventional,” thus they’re in all probability not a standard sight amongst Nantucket’s old-money crowd.
Merritt’s keen on modern, colourful designer manufacturers like Missoni and Cult Gaia, and her attire double as seashore cover-ups. Her jewellery is outsized and attention-grabbing. Even her boucle jacket is in a sunshine-y yellow, not an off-white or cream. As Abby mentions in a single episode, Merritt spritzes herself with Byredo Blanche fragrance, which the model itself describes as smelling of “our bodies slipping beneath recent sheets; laundry baskets crammed to the brim; a punch of detergent.” She is attention-drawing however not unsophisticated, which is in and of itself glorious model recommendation. Maybe most significantly, she isn’t too self-important about her garments. They’re enjoyable, however so is she.
Abby Winbury
Of all of the characters in The Good Couple, Abby Winbury is making an attempt the toughest to decorate like another person. As Sejlund informed Selection, “She’s very female however nearly in just a little little bit of an aggressive, annoying approach…She kind of actually needs Greer to love her, and she or he may even need to be Greer in some unspecified time in the future.” Thus, Greer’s daughter-in-law gravitates towards Greer’s wonderful materials and florals, however with a harsher edge: Abby’s coloration palette is all vibrant yellows and mauve-ish pinks, her garments festooned with girlish ruffles, polka dots, and pleats—particulars Greer herself wears solely not often.
Abby wields the Nantucket appear like a weapon; Greer wears it like a protect. Abby is determined to provide delivery to a child woman; Greer has solely boys. Abby freaks out when the Winbury brothers practically smear cake on her “classic” costume; Greer’s not often even within the neighborhood of mess. The variations between these characters—and their garments—are clear.
But there’s a way of craving about Abby’s wardrobe that I however discovered relatable. She’s making an attempt to rework herself, and actually, isn’t that what a lot of style is about? A small metamorphosis? Discovering a pores and skin that feels proper? As somebody chronically allergic to polka dots, I don’t foresee myself sporting lots of Abby’s signature seems. However there’s an aspirational high quality to her styling that I feel is extra tempting to think about. With out going too removed from what looks like me, I need to push myself to attempt the seems I’d by no means have beforehand thought of. I might begin with one thing daffodil-yellow, proper? The polka dots can wait.
Chloe Carter, Isabel Nallet, and Extra
Simply missed amongst the extra main characters in The Good Couple, Chloe Carter, Isabel Nallet, and several other different ladies within the sequence sport outfits deserving of greater than the few frames they obtain. Isabel, the melodramatic French guest-of-honor, adorns herself in romantic jewel tones with lengthy sleeves and feathered hems. Chloe—one of many youngest members of the solid—opts for a suede jacket and butter-colored hoodie when she’s not in her pressed-white server digs (paired with a polka-dot necktie, naturally). Greer’s PR workforce members and jeweler all get their very own trademark kinds: collared shirts, printed wrap robes, moto jackets, denim attire, and easy however chunky jewellery.
Their garments, not like Greer’s or Abby’s and even Merritt’s, really feel lived-in and beloved—way more like one thing friends sans belief funds may put on to an unintentional murder-mystery social gathering. And in the event you are going to point out as much as an unintentional murder-mystery social gathering, you may as effectively feel and appear good doing it.
Lauren Puckett-Pope is a workers tradition author at ELLE, the place she primarily covers movie, tv and books. She was beforehand an affiliate editor at ELLE.