www.harpersbazaar.com: Love her or hate her, you have to admit there are few people to emerge from New York in recent years as instantly recognizable (and instantly polarizing) as the Soho Grifter herself, Anna “Delvey” Sorokin. She penetrated the ranks of downtown society, defrauded banks and hotels, betrayed the friends who supported her the most, and, to the delight and befuddlement of both social media and the fashion press alike, hired a celebrity stylist to shape her courtroom image at trial in early 2019.
4 comments:
Madeline is obsessed with this show so I was excited to read about it! I didn’t realize it’s based on a true story about a woman who grifted banks and hotels out of money. The idea that she hired a stylist to refine her image in court in 2019 makes her a perfect fit for a high fashion drama. I love media where it makes sense to blow the insane amount of money required to create highly decadent and luxury costumes that many shows do for no apparent reason. I’m a very research-heavy designer, so it’s so interesting to see how industry designers create looks for people who are real, current, non-celebrities (at least not celebrities who are constantly photographed). The usage of Instagram posts to inform looks that the designers made from their imagination is so awesome to me, especially because of the work I did to design Godspell based on the fashion within my town. This mixed with the ability to exactly match what Delvey wore in court by reaching out to designers and finding the exact pieces from resellers if the brands did not have those pieces in their stock anymore. I’m also super interested in how the costume design captured how Delvey was a “chameleon” in order to gain the trust of whoever she was targeting at the time.
I have never heard of this show, but the premise seems very interesting. I will definitely be doing more research into Anna “Delvey” Sorokin and what she did to get a better idea of what the show I about. But it is already absolutely captivating from a costuming perspective. It is so interesting to hear about how the designers are working with designing a real person who was seen on many cameras and on social media only a couple years ago. In my mind that wouldn't give the designers a ton of freedom to choose whatever they wanted for fear of being too "out of character" for the real person. However I love the spins that the designers are taking on their version of Anna. The idea that she is changing what she is wearing based on who she is with is so interesting and, I can imagine, a very important aspect of the show. I also love the quote at the end by Paolo where he is talking about the difference between a fashion connoisseur's style choices and the mish-mosh of brand names that the real Anna seemed to throw to gather to make it look like she fit it: “I don’t want to say anything negative, but I would say that our Anna has slightly elevated taste.”
I actually just finished binge watching this show and was delighted to find an article related to it! Especially because while watching, I was just enamoured with the costuming and the choices the costume designers made while designing a show centred around someone who faked their way into high society. Clothing is often one of the first things that someone sees–the assumptions and impressions that people glean from one's clothing is not insignificant, to say the least. 'Inventing Anna, as we came to learn, uses fashion to manipulate the audience into understanding—or into thinking we understand—who Anna is'--this quote from the article is very, very much similar to the show's portrayal of Anna. The manipulative and quite frankly, confusing nature of 'understanding' a person is an element inherent to grifting and I love that the designers chose to carry this idea through into the costuming as well. Overall, very smart and informed choices throughout the show!
After finishing another show centering scam artists called Imposters, I decided to stay on the theme and start Inventing Anna. Granted I’m only like three episodes in, but the costumes have already played a huge part in it. I remember a character discussing how Anna has more than style and that she was born with taste. That is a big challenge for the costume department to take on, on top of the fact Anna’s character is sort of a bunch of different characters. Since this is based off of the real Anna Delvey, I think it’s great that the designers chose to recreate many of her real looks. It was also interesting to learn about the relationship Paolo and Frecon had with famous designers to recreate the looks. I’d wonder how willing designers would be to have their work displayed on someone who has been exposed to the public as a fraud?
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