If you thought wearing a white dress or a red lehenga as a wedding guest was an act of war, Euphoria season 3, episode 3 is here to recalibrate your POV. Think of it as the aesthetic equivalent of Game of Thrones’ Red Wedding. Except in this glitter-streaked couture dump, where the dress code ranged from sacrilegious-but-chic to ‘I’m wearing the venue’s upholstery’, the thing being slaughtered was the concept of wedding-appropriate dressing.
The only way Euphoria does minimal
Let’s talk about the twinning: Rue and Jules both in powder blue. Jules (Hunter Schafer) with Hime-esque bangs kept it minimal, literally, wearing a naked Acne Studios spring/summer 2023 satin and mesh gown held together with giant bows. A background cast member from the wedding asked what we were all thinking: “Where are your clothes? I can see all of you. Are you not frigid?” Apparently, hypothermia is the new black. Contrast that with Rue (Zendaya), who showed up being... well, Rue. In a lazy suit and dirty Converse, she looked like she’d wandered into the wedding while looking for a place to nap.
Does Gen Z have a new revenge dress?
We can all agree that so far, Maddy deserves better than what this season has offered. Yet though the writing may have failed her, the costume design certainly didn’t. Her olive green revenge dress—a custom piece sketched by the show’s costume designer Natasha Newman Thomas—absolutely ate. Internet fans, in their usual state of hyperbole, have even tried to anoint this as Gen Z’s version of the Atonement dress, referring to that iconic silk slip that Keira Knightley wore in the 2007 film (to them I say, calm down). But with its cutouts and the gold rosaries as straps, the look is giving Alexander McQueen’s spring/summer 2003 rosary-heels energy, but for the spine.
And the bride wore…
At the altar, we had bridezilla Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) in a cream Wiederhoeft look that was a mashup of every princess bride’s dream—there was an ultra-cinched corset, a glittery skirt with a high slit, a poofy overskirt and a veil, all in one look. The designer Jackson Wiederhoeft told InStyle that it was, “not so much about what she wants; it’s just about being the biggest and the best.” That included custom beaded pasties for the nip slips that invariably would happen in the low-cut bodice, during their ultra-cringe dance routine.
How many bows is too many bows?
At first glance, Lexie (Maude Apatow) and the bridesmaids’ dresses were the only normal things. But if you looked closer you realised that the drapes of the wedding decor matched the pink Nana Jacqueline bow dresses. If the goal was to make the wedding party blend into the walls, mission accomplished.
So while I’m still grieving from the loss of the rhinestone-dusted world that was the first season of the show, I can still appreciate how Gen Z-coded this wedding was. Nobody’s dress was appropriate but instead, each character leaned into some expression of their own personal style, opening up a new space for wedding-guest dressing. Me though, I’m just here for Jacob Elordi’s insane face card, his ludicrously expensive Bottega Veneta wardrobe, and the sheer audacity of a rosary that almost touches the butt at a wedding.
