In Season 4, 'Emily in Paris' Does French Girl Style With a Touch of Audrey Hepburn

Warning: Spoilers for part one of "Emily in Paris" Season 4 below.

In Season 3's deliciously drama-filled finale (featuring an ultimately-called-off wedding), we left the titular "Emily in Paris" in a très sticky situation.

On ˇThursday, Aug. 15, we reunite with Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) as she grapples with the aftershocks of her British boyfriend Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) walking out after Camille (Camille Razat) — who's later revealed to be pregnant — declared at the altar that Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) is in love with our plucky protagonist. (She may not grasp the language, but she's certainly adapted to the French style of drama.)

In part one of Season 4 of the Netflix series (the second half drops Sept. 12), Emily's much-talked-about fashion continues to shift. She hasn't kissed her signature pops of color and beloved pattern mixing au revoir just yet, but costume designer Marylin Fitoussi is tapping into Parisian style à la Cooper — or, as she dubs it, "the revenge of style."

"She always was a smart cookie, thinking out of the box. But since Season 1, she was watching Camille and Sylvie, but without any wish to look like them. She knows perfectly what the French wore, but she didn't want to give up a personal and strong and bold style," Fitoussi says. "I think this season, she suddenly said, 'Okay, look at me, girls. See, watch and learn.'"

French brands, of course, abound — Miu Miu, Germanier, Balmain, Jacquemus, Schiaparelli, Vaillant and Coperni are all featured. We also see worldwide emerging labels (such as Kate Barton, Magda Butrym, Thom Browne, Korean label Pushbutton and Vietnamese designer Do Manh Cuong's Sixdo) step into the Season 4 spotlight. Although, Fitoussi, who's crafting the fashion-forward (yet sometimes polarizing) "Emily in Paris" closets for the fourth time, explains she's focused on connecting with garments, rather than featuring big names.

"Because I'm a romantic, I just need to fall in love with the pieces who will help me to tell the story," she says. "Affordable, big brand, high brands, young designer — I don't care. It doesn't matter. It's just the vision of the pieces who will tell me and help me to tell the story and the emotion that the character requires."

Ahead, Fitoussi unpacks Emily's continued embrace of the "French girl" look, her newfound experimentation with masculine pieces and her sartorial tributes to the one and only Audrey Hepburn (including a modern-day "My Fair Lady" moment and a "Charade" homage).

Emily Welcomes Trousers Into Her Increasingly Parisian Closet

We've seen Emily in many different 'fits during her time in Paris, but she enters season four looking more Parisian than ever.

In her first appearance — at a coffee-date-turned-gossip-session with best friend and roommate Mindy (Ashley Park) — Emily embraces French styling codes along with nods to her love of color via a bright green matching floral set from Philosophy, a pink Jacquemus cropped cardigan and a coordinating Kate Spade gingham tote. Fitoussi softened her closet's palette a tad, and entered previously unexplored fashion territory: "I think what will define the new season is this masculine-feminine twist that we never had before."

We see Emily experiment with suits, button-up shirts, ties, sweater vests and — gasp! — trousers. The latter are the defining garments of this aesthetic shift, starting from Episode 1, when she attends the French Open in a red- and white-striped pantsuit paired with a bright red pointed collar button-up. (In the following episode, she wears a head-to-toe royal blue blazer, flared trousers and a high-neck top accented with a matching bow while pursuing an elusive Camille.)

Emily's new preferred silhouette — which Fitoussi dubs "American Psycho" — draws from Twiggy and the Swinging London era. In keeping with the '60s influence, she dons a monochromatic yellow ensemble that could have been plucked straight from the former's closet: a Possery boxy jacket, By Malene Birger frilly blouse and Isabel Marant mini skirt accessorized with a Silvia Tcherassi fringe bag, Marni checkered socks and Sergio Rossi chunky heels.

There's also a touch of Katharine Hepburn's iconic tailored pants from the '40s, according to Fitoussi. "I really love the simplicity, the boldness of a white shirt with high-waisted pants," she says of the actor's revolutionary style. "It's simple, it's timeless chic, but it needs to be perfect. If you don't have a perfect cut and the perfect fabric, it can look like something cheaper."

Emily's embrace of pants has to do with more than just wanting to switch things up: With her fast-paced position at luxury marketing agency Agence Grateau opposite her chic boss, Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu), "she's much more mature, she's much more in control, maybe much more powerful," Fitoussi says. "She's running a business. She's really part of the business now."

Flats Enter the Darren Star Universe

As Emily embarks on a morning run around the city, she spots many of Paris' eligible bachelors and ultimately ends up taking a spill. Physical comedy aside, this ushers in another first for the show: flats and sneakers entering the footwear conversation.

"For the first time in the story of Darren Star, we put a pair of chunky but flat shoes," Fitoussi says. "In the aesthetic of Darren Star, flat shoes don't exist and sneakers don't exist."

While donning an athletic Goldbergh red zip-up top, bright blue leggings and a floral puffer vest, Emily dashes around the city in a sporty pair of Salomon sneakers. The second half of the season will also see Tod's chunky shearling-lined loafers, Miu Miu crystal flat slingbacks and Christian Louboutin loafers.

Mindy's 'Eurovision'-Bound Style vs. Her Couture 'Wifey' Look

Mindy and her band, Beno?t (Kevin Dias) and étienne (Jin Xuan Mao), were selected as the French delegation to Eurovision, but there's a catch: They have to scrape together the funds for dancers, choreographers and, of course, a pyrotechnic expert to put on a winning performance.

The group is in fundraising mode, busking five to six nights a week or, as étienne suggests, asking Mindy's boyfriend, JVMA executive and nepo baby Nicolas (Paul Forman), for the money. Despite the financial reality check, Mindy embodies "Eurovision" opulence ahead of the group's ascent to a global audience with her eye-catching ensembles on and off the stage.

While singing Elton John and Kiki Dee's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" in Episode 4, she sparkles in a sequined and beaded pink mini dress with a three-dimensional accent curving across her body, straight from the Germanier Fall 2023 runway. Fitoussi argues that Kevin Germanier is the perfect designer for Mindy's shimmering aesthetic given his mastery of sequins, beads, rhinestones and feathers. "We call her 'Sparkling Mindy' because she's all the time overdressed, and I love this character and designer for it because she's not afraid of the word 'overdressed,'" she says. "For a Parisian, the word 'overdressed' is rude, it's grossier... That's why I love Mindy so much: She doesn't care. She makes her own tribute to sexiness and to freedom."

It's not all rhinestones and feathers for Mindy this season, though. Nicolas gifts her an haute couture dress — a pink and white long-sleeve mini with executive realness shoulder pads by Balmain — to wear in JVMA's French Open suite, which Fitoussi says Park calls Mindy's "wifey look." After overhearing Nicolas's father making comments about her bold fashion choices, though, Mindy learns the dress was his attempt to make her style more digestible to his family. In an act of sartorial revenge and a declaration of fashion independence, she sells the "wifey" dress on Vestiaire Collective, and tucks the cash away for "Eurovision," all while wearing a floral Magda Butrym top and a fuzzy aqua blue hat. After all, there's no use trying to dim "Sparkling Mindy's" shine.

"She's happy to live half naked and with feathers and glitter," Fitoussi says.

Emily's Homages to Audrey Hepburn

Agence Grateau client Maison Lavaux — helmed by Sylvie's former flame Antoine (William Abadie) — launches a poignant new fragrance with Baccarat called Heartbreak, and hosts a black and white masquerade ball to celebrate. Always one to make an entrance, Emily arrives in a modern-day salute to Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady" in a bespoke head-to-toe striped bodysuit accented by a belted open-front skirt designed by Harris Reed for Nina Ricci, accessorized with a wide-brimmed black hat and a lace eye mask. (Eliza Doolittle would be proud.)

This isn't the only Hepburn reference in Season 4. In an upcoming scene from part two, Fitoussi teases a recreation of a look from Hepburn's 1963 film "Charade" — a high-neck brown fur coat with a matching hat and balaclava — while using the actor's original pair of Pierre Marly sunglasses. She recounts visiting the brand's eyewear museum and "sweating" while handling the iconic frames. "I gave the pair to Lily, and we made a photo session with that," she shares. "We had goosebumps."

"Charade"

Emily recreates Audrey Hepburn's "Charade" look using the actor's original Pierre Marly sunglasses.

Though we don't yet know why Emily finds herself in a head-to-toe Hepburn homage, archival fashion fans can rest easy knowing they had a duplicate pair of sunglasses made to avoid any accidental slips or scratches.

Of course, there's still plenty of fashion surprises in store in part two — including a red "superhero"-inspired outfit that Fitoussi says was "unexpected and really sexy" for Emily.

"Could you imagine Emily taking a piece from Mindy's closet? Just let your imagination run," she teases.

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