The characters might be grotesque on this binge-worthy series – but their wardrobe is enviable
White Lotus is the TV show that everyone is loving and will make you want to glamorise your wardrobe. Here's our rundown of the key looks
The White Lotus is one of those rare TV shows that everyone seems to love, even the people who normally hate overhyped TV shows. Like Schitt’s Creek, it unites those who tend to be divided: people of all ages, genders and demographics can watch it, united in their love of Jennifer Coolidge, and their loathing of whichever character most gets on their nerves.
There aren’t many TV shows that your teen will beg to binge alongside her parents. Euphoria? Too edgy and graphic to watch with Mum. Yes, The White Lotus serves sex, drugs and violence, and while it most definitely isn’t a family show, it’s proving catnip to older teens, even if the nuances of its finest satirical moments are lost on them.
Whether you’re there for the pin-sharp dissection of wealth, privilege and power, the pithy dialogue, the black humour, the schadenfreude, the interiors, the scenery, the return of Michael Imperioli in his first big role since The Sopranos or because you just really like dramas set in hotels, it doesn’t matter. The White Lotus has something for everyone.
And then there are the clothes. Even if you haven’t had the good fortune to visit Taormina (where season 2 is set), the clothes are so evocative as to spirit you there. The characters might be grotesque, but their wardrobe is enviable, a heady mix of Sicilian prints, Mediterranean hues and aspirational labels.
Granted, some looks (hello, Tanya and Cameron) are too outre to countenance unless you are a rich heiress or a finance bro, but most function as ideal holiday inspiration for that trip you’re hoping to take in August 2023 (lifehack: don’t go to Taormina in August – it was bursting at the seams long before The White Lotus was filmed there). Here’s a rundown of the key looks and players.
Tanya’s boudoir chiffons
“Guess who I am!” everyone’s favourite character, Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) asks Valentina. “Peppa Pig?” Valentina replies. “I’m Monica Vitti!” Tanya trills, the insult as blissfully lost on her as is the concept of minimalism.
Tanya’s diaphanous pink dress, painstakingly chosen to wear on her “dream Italian day”, is, in fact, by the very British designer, Alice Temperley. It was chosen because it has “a Fellini-esque strangeness to it”, according to Alex Bovaird, the show’s costume designer, who added an Alberta Ferretti scarf and Jimmy Choo heels to complete the look.
Rhinestone heels on a moped? Impractical, but also peak Tanya, a woman never knowingly under-dressed or under-accessorised. Of the many things to love (while simultaneously cringing) about Tanya is that she’s always dressed for the boudoir: this is a woman who loves sex, or at least the intimacy that it brings. She’s a cack-handed seductress, a symphony of lip gloss and cleavage, whose idea of glamour is all the more charming for belonging in a bygone age.
Daphne’s trophy wifeism
There are parallels between Daphne (Meghann Fahy) and Tanya’s wardrobes. Both are exemplars of the notion that when you go on holiday, you want to present the best version of yourself, and never more so than when staying in a luxury hotel in a chi-chi Italian resort.
“When people, especially Americans, go to Italy, they dress up a bit more. They bring their A-game,” Boviard has said, explaining how she upped the wardrobe ante when she found out that season 2 would be set in Sicily.
Brits are no different: the Italian beach look, a glamorous confluence of kaftans, one-pieces and designer bags, is an all-nationalities intimidator. Little wonder, then, that Daphne has left no stone unturned in her quest to serve unimpeachable holiday glamour.
Like Tanya, she has the same bottomless budget, even if hers is funded by her husband. Unlike Tanya, she’s clued up about which labels best assert her status. She plays her part of trophy wife to perfection, via a phalanx of statement sunglasses, Vuitton totes, eye-catching Gucci or Zimmerman prints and midriff-baring ensembles, which show her abs are as alpha as her wardrobe.
Harper’s Jackie O redux
Initially, Harper’s holiday wardrobe is everything that Daphne’s is not: classic, muted and designer label-free, bar the odd stealth wealth purchase that befits her status as a hotshot New York lawyer. Harper (Aubrey Plaza) has a fear of seeming vulgar, and her clothes reflect this.
They also reflect her insecurities. The understated shirt, Bottega bag and Loewe one-piece belie a woman who doubts her own choices, which is why they’re so by rote, and also why she’s genuinely pleased when Daphne compliments her hairband. As the series unfolds, and her confidence increases, her wardrobe relaxes and blossoms accordingly.
The tasteful neutrals she wears at the start of the show give way to themed Sicilian tile prints and low-slung jeans as she leans in towards Daphne’s exuberant style.
Cameron’s status shirts
Where to begin with Cameron, that deep-as-a-puddle paean to toxic masculinity, a spoiled manchild who can only dream of having as many layers as the buttery croissants he so avariciously snarfs at breakfast?
Let’s begin with his shirts. Cameron (Theo James) doesn’t realise he’s boring – he thinks he’s the most interesting man on earth, and that any human graced with his presence should be eternally grateful. But then, self-awareness and Cameron aren’t even on nodding terms. Just as Cameron conflates wealth with success, so too does he seem to conflate success with the mandatory wearing of loud, obnoxious, garish shirts on holiday.
We’ve all seen “that man” by the breakfast buffet, pleased as punch with himself for being metrosexual enough to have packed a zany floral or a palm print. Cameron is that man on steroids. However smug he is about his D&G/Etro/Liberty shirts, he can’t wait to take them off again and reveal the real treasure – his body – underneath.
Ethan’s tech bro masterclass
Ethan (Will Sharpe) is a foil to Cameron’s exuberant style in much the same way as his partner, Harper, is a foil to Daphne’s. But where Cameron’s look is all his own, you sense that Ethan’s has been shaped by Harper’s.
Left to his own devices, Ethan would reach for the nearest clean shirt: clothes don’t interest him, and he’s as unbothered about fitting in as he is about standing out. He’s happiest hiding under his mandatory tech bro baseball cap (unbranded, of course), but Harper had other plans: she’s been on Mr Porter and ordered him a softly tailored jacket, three basic tees and some chinos, in muted hues of beige, navy and stone that echo her own.
Portia’s Gen Z clichés
“I have to get another job,” says Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) wearily, as she feasts on another free breakfast in the dappled sunlight of a tranquil terrace of a five-star hotel. Portia is the very person she purports to despise, an idea echoed by her wardrobe. Just as she’s unaware of her entitlement, so too is she unaware that her clothes succinctly and unmistakably mark her out as part of a tribe.
Portia might imagine her nose ring, crochet top and zany ankle socks make her look quirky, but it’s hard to look quirky when every other 20-something is wearing the same things as you. Her Stussy shirt and No Problemo sweatshirt (by the cool, storied British skate brand, Aries) show she’s part of a tribe, but they also say something more significant.
However much Portia may claim to feel trapped in her job, this is a young woman of means: there is a trust fund/generous allowance somewhere. How else can she afford a £235 sweatshirt?
Valentina’s power suits
Unlike Portia, Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) has to work, and dresses accordingly. In fact, she dresses not so much for the job she has as the career she wants, since her position as hotel manager is unlikely to provide sufficient financial remuneration to pay for the designer suits she favours.
It’s one of the more poignant fashion messages of the show that even when the labels are right, the cut is wrong: her suits are too tight, her shirt buttons straining in an echo of her repressed sexuality. That her brightly coloured suits purposefully reference those of last season’s manager, Armond, is a lovely touch.
Jack’s Essex boy charm
It’s unfathomable, and also entertaining, to imagine what non-British viewers must make of Jack (Leo Woodall), the cheeky chappie whose tats make such a memorable appearance in episode 3. It seems the internet is divided into two camps: those lusting after Cameron, and those lusting after Jack, the Essex Boy yin to Cameron’s San Franciscan yang.
Both are equally cocky, but only one has a West Ham tattoo, and only one wears a chain with a panache not seen since Normal People’s Connell. Woodall claims he prepped for the part by watching videos of TOWIE alumna Joey Essex. The boy done good. As did the costume department, for his wardrobe is pure Essex Boy On Sea, with a soupçon of Love Island thrown in.
Lucia’s Dolce Vita
If Lucia (Simona Tabasco) isn’t sitting in Dolce & Gabbana’s front row next season, it’s an oversight, for her commitment to La Dolce Vita aesthetic is absolute. If Sophia Loren’s take is the benchmark by which all others should be judged, Lucia’s trick is to reinterpret the look for a new generation: specifically, Gen Z, a demographic that loves nothing more than a highly recognisable, Instagram-friendly accessory.
She might have arrived at The White Lotus wearing bargain-bucket bodycon, but as soon as she’s found her meal ticket, she’s straight off to the hotel’s boutique to upgrade her wardrobe with Prada cat’s-eye sunglasses, a chic black La Perla one-piece and a Moschino wrap dress that’s the quintessence of exuberant Italian style.
Her desire for expensive designer swag is likely to be felt keenly by any teen and 20-something viewer, even if they lack the stomach to turn to sex work to acquire it. It’s all very Pretty Woman: like Vivian, Lucia is a working-class girl trying to make good, her morality suspended in aspic as she pursues her Italian dream.
Quentin’s elegant ostentation
“So chic!” says Quentin (Tom Hollander) of Tanya, though one doubts his sincerity, given how chic he is himself. Whether a man who wears bespoke suits would find Tanya’s aesthetic “chic” is a matter of debate: this is a man who uses the best tailors in Palermo, whose jackets come in deftly chosen fabrics, whose hues seem to echo those of the Sicilian sky.
What Cameron is to loud shirts, Quentin is to gorgeous tailoring: rare is the British holidaymaker who hasn’t felt inadequate in the face of an Italian man’s innate ability to wear salmon pink. Like Valentina, Quentin is a native – one whose suits fit properly, and are redolent with aristocratic charm.