TV trend: Fashion comes to fall series
Charlie's Angels features fashion from high-end designers such as Chloe, Gucci, Stella McCartney and Alexander Wang. Credit: ABC/Nathan Bell
It's the throwback '60s style as much as the story lines that have made "Mad Men" a success. The AMC series, which enters its fifth season in 2012, ushered in a ladylike trend in fashion that has reverberated all the way to the Paris runways and inspired a collaboration with retail chain Banana Republic. So is it any wonder that the big three networks are looking for their own fashion gold? Many of this season's new shows, whether they be contemporary or retro, are amping up the style quotient in a big way. Some highlights:
Thursdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.
Costume designer: Roemehl Hawkins, who started her career as an intern with L.A. designer Richard Tyler.
Setup: This new take on the campy, 1970s action series is set in present-day Miami with three new angels.
What to look for: Fashion from high-end designers such as Chloe, Gucci, Stella McCartney and Alexander Wang; designer name-dropping in the dialogue; and wacky Angel disguises.
Fun fact: Hawkins uses her creative license in an upcoming episode, dressing the Angels in re-creations of prison costumes from the original series.
Pan Am
Sundays at 10 p.m. on ABC.
Costume designer: Ane Crabtree, also the costume designer for the F/X series "Justified."
Setup: Drama series set in 1963 follows the glamorous adventures of a Pan Am crew.
What to look for: Retro 1960s fashions inspired by everything from the Kennedys to Sears catalogs.
Fun fact: Crabtree based the crew's uniforms on L.A. designer Don Loper's original designs for Pan Am, but she raised the armholes and slimmed the skirts to make them better-fitting. The original Pan Am blue was too gray when they tested it on-screen, so the color was tweaked.
2 Broke Girls
Mondays at 8:30 p.m. on CBS.
Costume designer: Trayce Gigi Field
The setup: Comedy about two girls waitressing in a greasy spoon who strike up an unlikely friendship in the hopes of launching a business. Produced by Michael Patrick King, who brought us "Sex and the City."
What to look for: Girl born broke (Max) in vintage blazers, scarves and copper jewelry from thrift stores and flea markets; and trustafarian gone broke (Caroline) in Chanel, Gucci and Christian Louboutin.
Fun fact: "When these girls go shopping, which they do in one episode, they are not going to Barneys," Field said. Sex and the City was a fantasy, but this show is about keeping it real. You're never going to see Caroline walking down the street in a tutu like Carrie."
Mondays at 10 p.m. on NBC. (Premiered Sept. 19.)
Costume designer: Isis Mussenden, a veteran film costume designer whose credits include "American Psycho," "The Astronaut's Wife" and "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."
Setup: Drama set in Chicago's Playboy Club during the early 1960s.
What to look for: Playboy bunny costumes, swanky '60s club-going clothes and after-hours outrageousness at the Playboy Mansion.
Fun fact: The bunny suits have no stretch, so there is very little room for error -- or a steak dinner. The actresses wear two pairs of pantyhose underneath, one in nude and one in sheer black, just as the original Playboy bunnies did. The bunny tails are made out of yarn.
How to be a Gentleman
Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. on CBS. Premieres Sept. 29
Costume designer: Julie Block
The setup: Comedy about an unlikely friendship between a refined writer and an unrefined personal trainer.
What to look for: David, the well-dressed gentleman, in suits, pocket squares and cuff links by Brooks Brothers, Ralph Lauren, John Varvatos and Theory; and Bert, the gym rat in Adidas track pants, Suburban Riot T-shirts and sneakers. As their friendship grows (and the show progresses) there will be a melding of men's style.
Fun fact: David doesn't own a pair of jeans, according to Block, and Bert's idea of dressing up is putting on Levi's.
