Ahh Netflix, the predecessor of the late Blockbusters, a safe haven of TV gold and shows old. It lulls you in, offering great comfort and then before you know it, your whole day has wasted away and you've still got three episodes to go before the end of the programme and your life. Netflix is a bitch like that.
However, you forgive her because she's there when it's a Friday night and you've got no plans. It was one such Friday evening when I happened upon an old favourite, 'Absolutely Fabulous'.
I watched the entirety of the show, as one does when Netflix binging. But it wasn't until the very end that I thought about the fashion. You may think that an odd thing to see as a secondary, considering the show's premise centring around the chase for relevance and 'It-dom' through social climbing and the clothes that represent this. However, the farcical depiction of fashion renders it somewhat of a prop, rather than a display of enviable wears.
In satirising the materialism intrinsic to fashion and the consumerism necessary to stay 'in', the show acts as a comical critique of the fashion industry. Thus exposing the lunacy of trying to keep up and fit in season after season, regardless of personal taste. Saunders herself told the Guardian, "there is something innately funny about people wearing something that makes you think: ‘What the fuck have you come as?’ until they tell you it’s Gucci or Prada and you go: ‘Oh, it’s wonderful!’”
I find this refreshingly honest. The crux of fashion is about newness, even if it is a redux of fashions' past. Yet often it falls victim to its own attempts at staying ahead of the zeitgeist. Its trendiness being its own undoing, often speaking of a distinct lack of creativity. Take for example the industry's subsequent creation of 'Normcore', an interest in stereotypically basic clothing, a reactionary move against trying to stand out, rather the desire being to fit in. More recently again is an interest in 'anti-fashion', focusing on the typically un-fashionable, with designers embracing bumbags and tracksuits and the now infamous Christopher Kane bejewelled crocs, all of which were embraced by fashion folk en masse.
The lines of good taste/bad taste are evermore indistinguishable, an anomaly playfully dissected in 'Ab Fab'. Yet, what particularly interested me, was the similarities in the portrayal of 'Ab Fab's' Edina Monsoon and Carrie Bradshaw of 'Sex & The City'. Edina is an archetype of a fashion victim in its purest sense, her personality and clothing are both of proportions so unbelievable as to make her caricature-like both physically and behaviourally. And it is this propensity for outlandish outfits that led me to figure Edina and Carrie comparatively.
Both Eddie and Carrie embrace a more is more aesthetic in their daily outfits. They share a penchant for colour blocking and print clashing, with feathers, sequins and vertiginous heels an everyday stalwart. Eddie strives to be in with the crowd, a desperado in Dolce, her taste in fashion being relative to its price tag. The show revels in her obliviousness to her status as a fashion victim, the clothes being a signifier of her cluelessness.
Yet little separates Carrie from sharing this title also. She too veers into the costume. See her dog walking attire, or that time she dated a politician (and therefore had to dress like one), or the time she attempted to get married with a bird on her head, or the time she went to stay in the woods... Carrie adopts different characterisations of herself depending on her current situation. This element of dress up is much like the various iterations of Barbie over the years; see 'Beach Barbie' or 'Safari Barbie' as examples. Each outfit being a representation of the environment she finds herself in rather than a relatable outfit of personal style. The impracticality of Carrie's wardrobe is largely ignored, rather we are to praise her daring and her commitment to dressing how she pleases.
Despite the correlation between both characters, the preliminary difference lies in the context of fashion each show is set. 'Ab Fab' offers a self-conscious critique of the fashion landscape, setting out to ridicule the pretence of basing judgements and opinions purely on the material through crazy get-ups. Whereas 'Sex and the City' uses fashion as a vehicle to visually signify the multifaceted nature of female expression, which does also often include some questionable outfits.
Regardless of practicality, both characters are committed to the outlandish and zany. We are encouraged to explore the surface value, drink in the visual and enjoy the voyeurism of the fantastical outfits of both Eddie and Carrie. Though Carrie may be lauded for her fashion prowess and Eddie laughed at for her blind commitment to labels, I believe both to be depictions of fashion playfully expounded upon, reminding us that little separates good taste from bad taste. It is merely distinguished by personal opinion which is in itself a relative concept. It is the motivation behind a fashion statement that is truly remarkable. The similarities of Eddie and Carrie in relation to this and thus the difference in which each character is received, prove this to be true. It is not what one wears, but why one wears it. Whether it is for fashion's sake or purely personal style.
Though embracing extroversion is not something that most can enact in day to day life, it is not to say that both protagonists cannot inform one's fashion proclivities. Especially during this time of year. When else do sparkles, cowboy hats, fishnet tights and feather boas constitute an outfit, other than at New Year's Eve? Whether it's just for the night or what will come to inform one's New Year's resolution. Personal style should be fun and beneath the layers of fur and neon, that is what both Carrie and Eddie embody (albeit to the extreme). Though whilst letting your fashion flag fly, remember, not to wear your rhinestone thong under your naked dress...
(Photos: The Telegraph, Netflix, whowhatwear.co.uk & Vogue Australia)
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