How to dress like the 1 per cent, by the woman who creates the look for TV

While she’s earned Oscar and Golden Globe awards or nominations for playing a weather girl (To Die For, 1995), a showgirl (Moulin Rouge, 2001) and Virginia Woolf (The Hours, 2002), in recent years, Nicole Kidman has devoted her acting skills to the more specific niche that is “rich and troubled middle-aged wife whose life is falling apart”. Nobody gazes meaningfully out on to the ocean like Kidman: it’s why Big Little Lies (2017) was such a hit, as well as Expats, Nine Perfect Strangers and The Undoing.
Next up is The Perfect Couple, Netflix’s new must-watch that’s set to do for the photogenic Nantucket what One Day did for Edinburgh. Based on Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling novel of the same name, the six-part murder mystery has everything required of a binge-fest: an A-list cast (Dakota Fanning, Meghann Fahy, Liev Schreiber, Eve Hewson), a compelling plot, a sumptuous setting and enough property porn to satiate the most discerning palate.
And then there are the clothes, skilfully put together by Signe Sejlund, the Danish costume designer whose working relationship with Kidman dates back to The Undoing in 2020. Sejlund’s Scandi sensibilities are perfectly placed to capture Nantucket’s laid-back style. The backdrop of your next style crush? Not Monterey or Sicily, but a wealthy island 30 miles south of Cape Cod. “It’s a beautiful, interesting world,” Sejlund says, smiling, when we speak over Zoom (she’s in London working on a contemporary spy drama). “It was about finding that fine line between being true to the look of Nantucket, which is very specific, but at the same time, creating our own world within this world.”
The world inhabited by the ultra-privileged Winbury family is covetable and claustrophobic in equal measure. Kidman plays Greer Garrison Winbury, a novelist, mother and the impeccably dressed wife of Tag (Liev Schreiber), whose old money is a counterpoint to Greer’s new. Like many people who marry into wealth, Greer is fiercely protective of what she has, and suspicious of newcomers as a consequence. Which is bad news for Amelia (Hewson), a humble zoologist with whom Greer’s middle son, Benji, has fallen in love. They’re set to marry, until a body is found washed up on the photogenic beach.
Sejlund says Kidman is a joy to work with; unusually open-minded and collaborative for an A-list star. “Obviously, it’s a dream to dress her because she wears clothes beautifully, but she also gets it 100 per cent. I would work with her again and again if I could. Having worked together before [on The Undoing], she knows I have no hidden agenda. The minute she trusts you, she’ll play along.”
Like Succession, The Perfect Couple drips (or rather pitter-patters) with quiet luxury, but the Nantucket version, as opposed to the tailored, boardroom-appropriate New York kind. Clothes tend to be unstructured and fluid, in natural or nautical hues. “If you’re really rich, you don’t need to show it,” Sejlund says. “There’s no branding in this show, and no designer bags. Nothing says Gucci, Prada or Miu Miu. They don’t say anything, which I prefer.”
But if labels — or their absence — signify wealth, so too does colour. “I can’t think of anything more extravagant than wearing white or cream when you’re out in nature. It’s not suitable. But you can if you’re very rich.” To further emphasise Greer’s wealth, Sejlund also put her in delicate, high-maintenance fabrics. “That silky, see-through feel was intentional, although she sometimes protects herself with sweaters too.”
While Sejlund prefers to choose clothes based on suitability and look rather than provenance (“I never, ever look at the label in the back”) she did use a lot of Ralph Lauren, putting the men in salmon or cerulean-coloured polo shirts and Kidman in a pristine blue and white floral shirtdress. “Ralph Lauren is very New England — it’s perfect for that family and that world.”
• Susanne Bier, director of The Perfect Couple: ‘The wealthy do get away with things’
To research the look, she viewed images of high-profile Nantucket events, of which there is a surfeit, given that celebrities roll in as often as waves (Oprah Winfrey, Drew Barrymore, Kourtney Kardashian and Ben Stiller are frequent visitors, while Tommy Hilfiger owns a ten-bedroom estate there). “Thank God for the internet,” Sejlund says, laughing. “There’s so much out there. When I looked at pictures, I was quite surprised to see that it’s actually the men who are peacocks. They’re dressed in really strong colours and weird prints, while the women are less wild.”
If Greer’s look exudes quiet sophistication, the other female characters are dressed in ways that equally reflect their standing. As the status-obsessed pregnant wife of Greer’s eldest son, Abby (Dakota Fanning) dresses like a box-ticking facsimile of Nantucket wealth, in saccharine floral maternitywear.
The good-time girl Merritt (Fahy), meanwhile, wears a slew of slinky dresses in bright colours and sensual fabrics that aren’t dissimilar to her character’s wardrobe in The White Lotus. One backless Missoni dress in particular is guaranteed to have viewers craving their own Studio 54 moment. “I don’t think anyone else but her could pull off that dress,” Sejlund says. “Meghann is a goddess — and absolutely lovely too.”
One of the trickier characters to choose a wardrobe for was Amelia. “I wasn’t sure what to do with her. Who is she? We tried all sorts of things. She has sort of boring costumes because she doesn’t really care about clothes — they’re not her thing. She’s interested in people. She’s real.”
While Sejlund admits trying to include “little Danish brands” in her projects, “it was very hard here, because the Danish [style of] minimalism was almost impossible to incorporate”. But she did source Amelia’s wedding dress from the Danish designer Jesper Hovring, a favourite of Denmark’s royal family. “There’s a scene where Amelia is running on the beach, and I wanted a dress that was really light and floaty. It had to look beautiful, but also work for the exact scene we were filming. If her mother-in-law, Greer, had chosen the dress, it would have looked different. It’s a simple dress, and it works for the show.”
With a body of work that includes two Kidman projects, plus Bird Box, The One and Only (one of the most successful films in Danish history) and The Night Manager (dressing Elizabeth Debicki so beautifully that the actress caught the eye of the fashion world and ended up becoming an ambassador for Dior), it’s a surprise to learn that Sejlund has no formal training. “I wanted either to study anthropology or be a fashion designer,” she says. “Today I have a job where I’ve mixed those together.”
She fell into the profession by chance after meeting The Perfect Couple’s director, Susanne Bier, through Bier’s ex-husband, who was a friend. “Susanne asked me to do costume design for a feature film [The One and Only]. I had no idea what I was saying yes to. I was very young! That was almost 30 years ago — it’s definitely a work relationship and a friendship now,” she says.
As for whether she feels any pressure wardrobing a Kidman project, with all the heat that comes with it, she answers with typical Danish cool. “No,” she says, smiling. “It’s nice. I forget all of that when I’m working on it — I’m just into the story and the characters, and making it look beautiful.” Mission accomplished.
The Perfect Couple is on Netflix from September 5
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