Okay, Sirens isn’t a great show. There’s The White Lotus-like anxiety that lingers through all five episodes, culminating in a climax that’s, well, average. It does, however, have the elements of the frothy rich-people-mystery genre we’ve all been savouring lately. In these all-is-not-what-it-seems narratives, it’s always a house in a snow-laden wonderland, or an exotic retreat. Here, it’s a cliffside mansion in the Hamptons.
The show boasts a formidable cast: Julianne Moore, Meghann Fahy, and Milly Alcock. In a quest to reconnect with her estranged younger sister, Fahy’s Devon arrives at a sunny estate right out of a storybook. Having spent the previous night in jail for a DUI, she appears scruffy, racoon-eyed, dressed in an all-black ensemble of a lace camisole, utility jacket and combat boots, and is immediately mistaken for the valet. Her dishevelled appearance contrasts painfully with that of her sister, Simone (Alcock), sheathed in a fuchsia wallpaper-print dress, her coiffed hair held by a prim hairband, with a dainty gold locket dangling from her neck. Simone has shed her scrappy background to be groomed into the chief of staff for one rich housewife. She mans the mint-walled salons, brushing lint rollers against mint-hued uniforms.
When it comes to clothing, the real contrast here is not between the two sisters, Devon and Simone. It’s between Simone and the other characters that frequent the manor versus the lady of the house, Michaela aka Kiki. Through the show, the visual contrast between the ones who hold real power and those who are simply followers is gently reinforced. While not groundbreaking, the costumes shed light on the two schools of wealth: one that uses the tool of fashion in a bid to ‘belong’ to a clique or community, setting aside personality-driven outfit choices for comforting congruence, and the other that explores the power of disruption through trendlessness with a lasting impact. Tanya Mehta on why the fashion in 'Sirens' is way more than what meets the eye.
