Jessica’s wardrobe in ‘Too Much’ is chaotic. It’s also perfect

In the opening scene of Too Much, an inebriated Jessica, played by actor Megan Stalter, breaks into her ex-boyfriend’s home to confront him and his current partner, content creator Wendy Jones (Emily Ratajkowski). Jess is in a broderie anglaise corset paired with blue basketball shorts from a night of partying, a look that speaks to her personal style—delightfully mismatched but unapologetically her own.

“We don’t always understand her choices and we wouldn’t necessarily make them ourselves,” shares Arielle Cooper-Lethem, the show’s costume designer. “Jess is somebody who might own something trendy, but which she would never interpret that way; it’s always with the added element of whimsy. She’s not quite getting it right in the way that a magazine would tell you to, but that doesn’t mean that she’s getting it wrong.”

For Cooper-Lethem, the project struck a personal note. “Lena [Dunham, the show’s director] called me and said it’s about a New Yorker who moves to England for love. I married a Brit and moved here five years ago, so I suppose I understood the brief,” she recalls.

Jess’s unmanicured wardrobe evokes similarities to Dunham’s own character, Hannah Horvath, in Girls, whose clothing was sometimes intentionally tailored to fit her badly, mirroring the authenticity of a real person’s wardrobe.

The unanticipated pairings result in a look that captures Jessica’s infantile energy—there’s lots of cutesy frills, Peter Pan collars, and an outfit is frequently punctuated by a powdery stocking. Her style is strangely cool; even in her most cringe moments she stands out like a sore thumb in the most endearing way—like when she wears a floral, fur-collared trench coat by Spanish designer Celia B while posing outside a blue door in Notting Hill. “Our world doesn’t have quite the same polish—it’s a little bit grittier—but she feels like someone who is binge-watching Emily in Paris and realises she can’t buy those clothes but she still can be fabulous.”

Move over, Romeo

Too Much disrupts all the known trappings of what makes a typical romcom heroine, but notably, the hero as well. When we first see Jessica’s new paramour-to-be, Felix, played by Will Sharpe of The White Lotus fame, he’s hunched over a barstool dressed in a lace shirt, with lipstick and painted nails—like a grungier cousin of Harry Styles. Coincidentally, Dunham’s husband, musician Luis Felber, was high up on the mood board while shaping Felix’s character.

Through the course of the show, Felix wears languid granny blouses under beat-up leather jackets and refashions an embroidered kimono as a dressing gown, his androgynous style debunking traditional heartthrob machismo.

“Felix is broke, so he has limited clothes that he’s collecting from couch surfing, or [he’s] rummaging through his parents’ attic and stealing his dad’s coat. Will Sharpe was really adamant about the character having a punk spirit, hence we see him in girly clothing. It’s not only about visually looking the part but also living like one,” explains Cooper-Lethem.

Over time-jumps from New York to London, we see Jessica’s character embrace the possibility of finding love in a new city and simultaneously defying notions of conventional femininity. In a special flashback episode about the start of her relationship with ex-boyfriend Zev, she wears more obviously sensual silhouettes, like flimsy slip dresses from Cider. “I was in New York at the same age at the same time, and I have a clear memory of what that looked like—being fresh out of college, desperate to just have people like you and accept you,” recalls Cooper-Lethem.

Years later, Jessica’s style evolves to include a roomy lace-spliced sailor dress from British brand Foundry Mews, one that Zev finds repellent. Interestingly, it’s the same dress she wears to the pub when she goes home with Felix the first time. “The dress symbolises her outgrowing the relationship with Zev—we always see her leaning into femininity in some way, but it’s a femininity that she’s created for herself rather than one she’s been sold in a marketing sense.”

A fashion feast

All of this meant that Cooper-Lethem’s styling process wasn’t linear. Each of the show’s characters fits into an archetype, yet they still have a style all their own. Ratajkowski’s Wendy Jones, a DIY fashion influencer, knits her own clothes, is obsessed with lip gloss, and carries a Miu Miu Matelassé bag. But rather than lean into the actor’s sensuality, Cooper-Lethem dressed her in a lot of vintage Nike, chunky knitwear, and some delicious archival pieces from New York-based designer Maryam Nassir Zadeh.

Similarly, Jessica is a loud and proud American who loves Miley Cyrus and looks like she fell of the Betsey Johnson runway, yet she also dreams of finding her own Jane Austen-esque romance. Her love for Sense and Sensibility means that she often wears a series of Victorian nightgowns, a mix of vintage buys and picks from British brand If Only If Nightwear. “The nightgown is something that’s a bit of a uniform. She sleeps in one but also will throw it over zebra-print pedal pushers and Asics sneakers to run errands. It perfectly encapsulates her character. Despite her quirks and oddities, we don’t feel sorry for her; she’s unafraid of being herself.”

The nightgown is emblematic of Cooper-Lethem’s vision for the show and its emphasis on highlighting each character’s kooky individuality. “I don’t want the show to be beholden to that specific time and place. I want people to be able to watch it in 15 years and be like, okay, this stands on its own in some way.”