High on Fantasy: The Fashion on Euphoria is Insane… Literally

*Article from Lexington Line’s Spring/Summer 2022 Issue, pages 77-79

Check out the full issue here

If there is one thing that Euphoria is known for, it's fashion. It’s charming, if also a little ridiculous, to see Maddy wearing custom Dior pieces on her way home from her babysitting job.

When I was in high school, I never had the freedom that the students of Euphoria High have. Granted, I attended a charter school where uniforms were implemented, but there are certain choices we would’ve been in serious trouble for making. There were no rhinestone-dramatic eye looks at 7 a.m. AP classes and heels for school were without a doubt a no-no, no matter whose play we were set to star in.

But If I had to re-costume my high school experience, I would without a doubt throw some designer pieces into the mix. And when you dive deep into the costuming for Euphoria, season two specifically, you get the sense that this is exactly the fantasy the show’s stylist, Heidi Bivens, is out to achieve.

Bivens has been the costume designer for Euphoria since the show first aired in 2019. After getting her start in the ‘90s, first as a journalist and then as a stylist for magazines like Paper and W, she made her entrance into the world of costume design as an assistant on the set of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind—the film that introduced the fashion world to the manic pixie dream girl. Bivens also earned her reputation dressing young kids on the sets of Mid90s and Spring Breakers—the latter a cult classic filled with neon balaclava-and-bikini looks.

“In terms of style, I played it safe the first season,” Bivens recently told Interview Magazine. “I really tried to be conscious of making it realistic, so that the audience couldn’t really pick the story apart.”

But in season two, “that went out the window because I just wanted to have fun. Maude Apatow’s character, for example, is wearing Miu Miu. Like, she can’t afford Miu Miu, her parents aren’t buying her Miu Miu, but I said, ‘Fuck it. She looks great in it.’”

And Lexi is far from the only character that Bivens transforms through fashion. Even the characters that are designed to look normal, like Rue and Elliot, are all dripped down in designer. Overall, outrageousness is the point, so let’s look at some of her more outrageous choices.

Maddy Perez, portrayed by actor and fashion insider Alexa Demie, is the show’s unofficial fashion correspondent, turning looks since season one. She quickly became the it-girl of the series, and thousands of fans have been recreating her looks on social media. In season two, she has taken it further, with looks that belong on a red carpet, not in the hallways of a public high school.

In episode one alone, she wore a dress and matching gloves by designer Aiden Euan, which retails for $230, styled with a pair of Amina Muaddi heels which go for—wait for it—$2,274. While high schoolers may splurge on items here and there, this is certainly not Gossip Girl. The designer also created a lavender terry cloth set for Maddy, which we can only assume retails for around the same as the dress.

But one of her boldest choices this season was actually a custom Dior Saddle Bag—a purse that retails anywhere between $3K and $5K, an amount that could be used for Maddy’s college fund, or possibly as the downpayment for a really nice car. I can selfishly say, I am happy she went with the bag instead. Accessories seem to be Maddy’s soft spot, as she was spotted in episode five wearing Balenciaga black stretch heeled sandals, a calm $975 pair of heels, just to hang out at her friend’s house.

The girls of Euphoria love brand names, especially Marc Jacobs. In episode three, amidst a montage of looks, Cassie, played by Sydney Sweeney, wears a Marc Jacobs The Prom Dress ($300) for a regular day at school. Casual. For her birthday, and in an effort to avoid being outshined, Maddy wore a Marc Jacobs x Devon Lee Carlson Devon Slip Dress for $225. We’ll give her that one, it was her birthday after all.

There are dozens of other easter egg fashion moments throughout the season. Kat, played by Barbie Ferreira, in the Mimi Wade Liquid Fairy Baby Doll dress ($2,165) she wore to a New Year’s Eve house party; Elliot, portrayed by Dominick Fike, in the Telfar hoodie ($280) he wore to school; Jules, Hunter Schafer, in KNWLS Spring 2020, designs that can retail anywhere from $500 to $700; and Maddy, once again showing her dominance, in Blumarine Spring 2018. The girls that get it, get it, and the girls that don’t, don’t.

One of my personal favorite fashion moments came from a character that isn’t even associated with fashion. In the season premiere, Rue Bennett, played by Zendaya, wore a vintage Jean Paul Gaultier vest paired with vintage Roberto Cavalli pants. Now, vintage implies that the pieces are rather dated, and they could have somehow ended up at a thrift store, but the fact that Rue, a struggling drug addict, was able to spot these two pieces on a rack, or that they would be at a price range affordable to her, has to be the most camp idea presented in season two.

But sometimes, camp is what's necessary. The “high schoolers doing high schooler things” trope is nothing new to television. But what Euphoria offers is much different. Taking a mundane experience and filtering it through a fashion lens could be the secret to Euphoria’s success.

For fashion die-hards, Euphoria has served as a two-season-long game of Where’s Waldo? After each episode, the internet runs to credit all the designer pieces used. Twitter is almost instantly inundated, since most fans live tweet each Sunday, with threads about who wore what. And it's usually somebody wearing something really, really good.

I also believe that the show’s fashion has resonated so well with audiences because Bivens has a talent for combining high and low. Sometimes, it's a Steve Madden pump, accessible to most and easily recreated by fans. Other times, the garments pulled are from an up-and-coming designer that the online fashion community is dying to see in the limelight.

Bivens’s ability to keep her thumb firmly placed on the industry’s pulse is probably the most realistic aspect of these teenagers' fashion. Although they might not be able to afford them, the kids of Euphoria are definitely fashion informed, and the brands they are wearing are brands that interest real teenagers in real high schools across America. Perhaps what they wear represents a teenager’s imagined version of themselves, not the real thing.

The reality, or lack thereof, of Euphoria’s costumes, isn’t stopping anyone from partaking in the fangirling, even big-time designers. During episode seven, Maddy watched Lexi’s high school theater production in head-to-toe Jacquemus, also wearing the brand casually in between classes. The audience was gagged to say the least, including Simon Porte Jacquemus himself, who posted screen grabs from the episode on his official Instagram account.

“The second picture is my reaction,” the designer wrote about an image of Maddy clapping and cheering.

The show’s fashion credibility, and the stars it has created, have also begun to leak out into the real world. Actors like Hunter Shafer and Chloe Cherry recently walked fashion shows during Milan Fashion Week in February, for Prada and Blumarine, respectively. Even Angus Cloud, who plays Fezco on the show and isn’t known for his fashion at all, sat front row at Coach’s Fall 2022 show during New York Fashion Week.

Sometimes, fantasy is what an audience is looking for in a show. An escape from the everyday, especially in a show with such heavy themes, is what keeps the audience coming back for more. A show like Euphoria offers fashionistas as many noteworthy moments as a magazine spread, so it's no wonder that the show has had this level of impact.

Is it realistic? Maybe not. But the fashion is so good that we don’t really care. In the words of Chaz Michael Michaels, “no one knows what it means. But it's provocative. It gets the people going!”