Finding Lily

With four years of 'Emily in Paris' under her beret, actress Lily Collins has settled into her role as leading lady, producer, and fashion maven. But she—and Emily—aren't done shaking things up.

In search of a show-stopping look for the upcoming season of Emily in Paris, star Lily Collins reached out to her friend, designer Harris Reed. The third episode in the fourth installment of the hit Netflix show features a pivotal black-and-white masquerade ball. Collins wanted to make a statement and Reed delivered, designing a striped, full-length bodysuit complete with attached gloves. On top, they layered a structured overskirt, a wide-brimmed bolero hat, and a voluminous cape with a huge bow at the neck.

It’s the kind of more-is-more look viewers have come to expect from the show, which follows an eager Midwesterner in her attempts to shake up a French marketing firm. Since its debut in 2020, the eye-catching fashion on Emily in Paris has been as buzzed about as the love triangles (“triangles, circles, squares—the love geometry game is as strong as ever this year," says Collins). This season’s masquerade ball is one of the big set pieces early on, the perfect place for Emily to have a heart-to-heart with her longtime romantic interest, Gabriel. Collins was thrilled with what Reed dreamed up for this moment, particularly the duality of the look: The skin-tight bodysuit felt vulnerable yet not revealing.

There was just one problem: The elaborate ensemble didn’t fit with the script. The hat was too big for the car Emily was supposed to take to the ball. Collins wanted the cape to conceal the outfit until she arrived at the party, but there was no natural moment to remove it or place to put it. A mask was in the mix, too; when and how would she put it on?

The easiest thing would have been to simplify the look. But not for Collins. “I was like, ‘No, no, no—we have got to show the entire thing,’” the 35-year-old actor recalls. “This is the vision.”

Together with director Andrew Fleming, Collins reconfigured the scene to accommodate Reed’s design. They solved the hat issue by filming Emily walking to the car and away from it, but never in the vehicle itself. As for the cape, Emily wears it in a guarded conversation ahead of the ball, and as a visual teaser to enter the party, then it vanishes. “Let’s believe,” Collins posits, “there’s a coat check.” The enormous hat stays on Emily’s head as she ascends the statement staircase, a move Collins choreographed so she could theatrically lift the brim to debut the mask. Later, the hat pulls a disappearing act, as does the mask, giving viewers a better look at Emily just as she begins to open up to Gabriel.

“It becomes Tetris: How do I fit in every element of this outfit to tell this story?” Collins says. “You have to think about it,” she continues, then catches herself. “I mean, you don’t have to—that’s how I think.”

It feels a little like how Emily Cooper might think, too. The line between Collins and her character is a delightfully blurry one, which becomes clear when we meet on a sunny Southern California morning. The actress has a much different backstory than the fictionalized persona she has played for the last five years, but they share a detail-oriented, plucky core.

That earnestness, coupled with outrageous costumes, made Emily in Paris an easy target for critics at first. But it was that same combination that kept viewers enthralled—Season 3 ranked second on the U.S. Netflix charts when it debuted in December 2022, collecting 117.6 million viewing hours in its first week, according to the streamer. The highly anticipated fourth season (delayed due to last year’s strikes) hits Netflix later this month.

“It’s really tough,” Emily in Paris executive producer, creator, and showrunner Darren Star says with a laugh when I asked him to distinguish between Collins and the character he created. “She’s very, very capable,” he begins. “She wants to do her best.” Just when I begin to wonder if he is talking about Emily or Collins, he clarifies: “Lily has all of those qualities.” Those aspects of his show’s star, along with what Star calls her “360-degree vision,” made him want Collins to be a producer, too, a role she took on in the first season. “She could be so totally involved in a scene, and the character, and basically come out of there and say, ‘I think I saw that extra looking in the wrong direction,’” Star recounts. “And I’m thinking, Oh my God, how is she picking up everything?”

Born in the U.K., Collins is the daughter of Genesis drummer and singer Phil Collins and his second wife, Jill Tavelman Collins. She landed her first on-screen role at 2 years old, on a British show called Growing Pains (no relation to the American sitcom of the same name). Even as a toddler, fashion was top of mind. Collins remembers her horror over a scene in which she was supposed to be sick, meaning the new dress and white shoes she wore needed to be covered in fake throw up. “I was so confused and upset,” she says, “because I loved my outfit.”

After her parents split, she moved with her mother to Los Angeles at the age of 5. Over tea poolside at the Langham Huntington in Pasadena—a perfect pairing of her British and Southern California roots—Collins recalls how they would regularly visit vintage stores and flea markets. “I existed in a world where fashion told a story,” she says. (Her mother now owns Waverly on Doheny in West Hollywood, describing herself as “a purveyor of resurrected oddities.”)

By 16, Collins knew she wanted to act professionally, beyond the confines of her tony L.A. private high school. She started meeting with agents and chose to major in broadcast journalism at University of Southern California, searching for any type of on-camera experience she could get. The program also gave her a glimpse into other aspects of the industry, including writing, editing, and post-production. All the while, she was auditioning—without much luck. But Collins never wavered. “I always took ‘No’ as: ‘No, not right now,’” she says.

Her big break came in 2009 when she was 20, cast as Sandra Bullock’s teenage daughter in The Blind Side. It was an on-set education from Bullock, who would go on to win an Oscar for the role: “I really understood—by watching her and hearing the questions she was asking and the interactions she was having on set—how to better navigate that world.” Collins booked a steady stream of gigs in the years that followed, including Snow White alongside Julia Roberts’s Evil Queen in 2012’s Mirror, Mirror, the lead in Warren Beatty's 2016 film, Rules Don’t Apply (which earned her a Golden Globes nod), and a starring role in David Fincher’s 2020 biographical drama, Mank.

But nothing has, or likely will, define Collins as much as Emily. She first met with Star in early 2019 to discuss the role. Collins recognized the character on the page immediately. “Emily was written very specifically,” she says. “Midwest, young, a little naive, but very hungry to do her best.”  A few weeks after that initial meeting, Collins was called in to audition. The question became: What to wear? Collins was very Emily-esque in her thought process: “I don’t want to overdo it. I don’t want to offend. I don’t want to underdo it. I need to make an impression.”

A friend came over for an impromptu fashion show, helping her select an Abercrombie & Fitch jean skirt paired with a vest, collared shirt, and knee socks. It was a world away from where fashion-forward Emily ended up on screen, Collins says, but it channeled the character’s emotional core, her “can-do attitude.” When eight weeks went by without a word, Collins figured it wasn’t meant to be. Then, on her 30th birthday, Star called to tell her she got the part.

By June of 2019, Collins was on a plane to New York to meet with Patricia Field, the renowned costume designer behind Sex and the City. Field, who was the consulting costume designer for the first two seasons of Emily in Paris, played it a bit safe, according to Collins, so as not to scare her off. Later, Field sent Collins PDFs filled with pictures of clothing, shoes, bags, and more. Collins dutifully gave her feedback, thinking she was offering guidance more than making specific requests. When she arrived in Paris in August for her first fitting, she found her picks waiting for her. “I was blown away,” Collins says, her voice dropping to a whisper: “This is Patricia Field.” When she expressed her surprise, the costumer responded: “But you said you liked them?”

It was an empowering moment for Collins, who had downplayed her own sense of style in the preceding years. A previous relationship, which she wrote about in her 2017 book, Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me, was verbally and emotionally abusive, with criticisms that included how she dressed. “You can’t wear that, you can’t do that, you can’t say that,” Collins recalls when we talk. That experience kick-started what she calls a “dull period.” Collins stuck with muted tones, shying away from bold colors or anything too big or revealing. “I thought for a while that if you make yourself physically, with volume, appear bigger, then you’re taking up too much space,” she says.

Stepping into the platform stilettos on the set of Emily in Paris reintroduced Collins to fashion. “Emily, in a lovely way, takes up so much space,” she says. “Mixing patterns and prints, textures, styles in a way that was foreign to me, I started to realize that I didn’t have to be afraid of color anymore.” She gently points out, as if not wanting to hurt a friend’s feelings, that she would not wear everything her character wears. But the costuming process has taught her how to mix-and-match in a way that feels natural. (Consider what she wore to our chat: a painter’s jacket from a Parisian Vintage store, AGOLDE jeans, a black Cartier shoulder bag, and mesh J.Crew espadrilles with a jewel-embellished buckle.)

She is also quick to point out—delighted, even—that behind Emily’s flash is a tremendous amount of thought. Take the outfits she wears in the second season finale, when Emily is torn between beaus and must decide whether to stay in Paris or return to Chicago. Lost in love, and in life, she opens the episode in a blouse with a vintage map print. Later, as her new-ish British boyfriend, Alfie, tells Emily he is leaving Paris, she is wearing a deep red tulle gown with a plunging neckline and voluminous shoulders that resemble the shape of a heart. For the final extended sequence, in which Emily talks first to her American boss and then her French one, Collins opted for an under-the-sea themed dress. “Emily was drowning,” she says. The seahorses in the design were symbolic, too, Collins notes, as her character prepares to share her feelings with Gabriel: “Seahorses mate for life.”

Collins found her own life partner in 2019, meeting writer and director Charlie McDowell through his thriller, Gilded Rage. They share a famous-parent bond: McDowell is the son of actress Mary Steenburgen and actor Malcolm McDowell. Collins and McDowell were married in September 2021 on a luxury ranch in a former 1800s Colorado ghost town. The bride wore a custom lace Ralph Lauren design, complete with a hooded cape. “I’ve never wanted to be someone’s someone more than I do yours,” she captioned her Instagram post of the pair kissing at the altar.

When they are not working, the couple splits their time between a handful of locations, including Los Angeles and Copenhagen, a city they fell in love with last spring. “Our friends are architects and chefs and ceramicists and lawyers,” Collins says, describing their eclectic Danish social circle. They both find the creativity of the city to be inspiring and inviting. “It’s a place where I feel welcome as I am,” Collins says, “just as I am.”

Early takes on Emily in Paris were not entirely kind. But in the thick of pandemic, when the world was trapped home in sweatpants, the heightened and superfluous world Star created became a much-needed respite. “​​Emily in Paris Is the Hate Watch We Can’t Stop Watching,” said one Slate article. Reviews of the show’s fashion had a similar tone: “26 Cringe-Inducing Emily In Paris Outfits That I Can't Stop Thinking About,” read a Buzzfeed listicle.

I wondered if, given her own style journey, Collins took any of it personally? No, she says. If the swipes had been at her off-set attire, she might have. But she had enough distance, through her character, to not let it bother her. Plus, she had confidence in Star and Field’s Carrie Bradshaw–blazed track record. “I knew that we were, a little bit, playing into the tongue-in-cheek of it all,” she says. Particularly in Season 1, the fashion was a crucial way to help viewers identify the characters and where they fit in this fictionalized world. Emily was meant to look out of place, leaning all the way into the clichés of French style, with berets, Chanel bags, even a shirt with the Eiffel Tower on it. It was an obvious visual contrast to her Parisian boss, Sylvie, whose minimal vibe was much sleeker and sexier.

Ashley Park, who plays Emily’s similarly stylish on-screen BFF, Mindy, has noticed an evolution from those outrageous early days. “Everything’s elevated,” Park says of the fashion now. What’s more, both her character and Collins’s “really found the women that they are and they never apologize for that.” 

Field brought on Marylin Fitoussi as the Paris-based costume designer for Seasons 1 and 2, then handed Fitoussi the reins going forward. Fitoussi rethought the fitting cadence, opting to do as much as possible before shooting began, with early scripts. The process allows for more elaborate outfits to be prepped then assigned to a scene. “If you’ve done this extravagant fitting situation, then you have—for the entire season—a plethora of looks,” Collins says. Ahead of the upcoming 10 episodes, they assembled and photographed a staggering 82 ensembles for Emily, Collins says.

The well-dressed elephant in the room is Emily’s closet, or lack thereof. Unlike some of Star’s other fashion-forward hits, which have worked the notable style into the story, Emily seems to magically appear on screen wearing these complicated (and often expensive) getups. Nevermind who pays for them, where does she keep it all? Collins imagines a storage space beneath a loose floorboard in Emily’s apartment. But applying logic to this French fantasyland misses the point. “It doesn’t need to be explained!” she insists. “We’re creating a world here. If we can do it for fantasy and Marvel, why can’t we do it for this?”

While filming the first season, Collins fretted to her now-husband about the similarities between herself and Emily. “How is this a character?” she wondered aloud. “How do I make her different?” She struggled mightily with Emily’s perfectionist tendencies, which Collins had been working on herself. As she settled into the role, she realized her own life lessons could apply to her character, too. “This idea of perfection, needing to just always feel ready to go, always feeling like your perfect self,” she muses, “that's not how I want to live my life, especially at 35.” She calls the fourth installment of Emily in Paris, “the season of vulnerability,” describing “messy” scenarios and the “emotional breakdowns” that come with them.

Having so much time off between seasons allowed Collins to return to Emily if not older (Season 4 picks up right where Season 3 left off), then wiser. While shooting an upcoming episode, Collins put on a skirt that had been tailored in an earlier fitting. “It was uncomfortable,” she says of putting on the garment. There was a time when Collins would have worn it anyway and spent the day distracted. Instead, she asked her dresser to cut the back of the skirt and add in elastic, calling it “a small physical act that made a huge emotional difference.” She went on with her day, able to breathe and move much more freely. That candor applies to her social media presence, too. She confesses to being someone who falls into the spiral of scrolling and thinking others are leading their best lives. “It’s a gentle reminder to not be that for someone else,” she says. “I need to feel my reality.” For her 28 million Instagram followers, she posts a combination of candid living-life shots—often in nature, mid-hike, with McDowell—in amongst the expected über-glam portraits.

And what of her reality beyond Paris? “I really want to continue to step outside the box,” she says, before correcting herself. “I never wanted to be in a box, I don’t think I’m in a box, but the thing is, Emily is Emily.” Earlier this summer, Collins was featured in a supporting role in MaXXXine, the third installment of the slasher trilogy by Ti West. (“I got to play with blood,” she says, in a tone that was decidedly not Emily.) What may feel like a hard pivot was actually a return of sorts. In 2011, after The Blind Side, Collins played a kidnapped teenager in the movie Priest. On set, she was told she had a “great scream”—as high a horror compliment as they come—and has wanted to explore the genre ever since. Also in the works: A big-screen take on the tiny toy Polly Pocket. Collins has been in talks with Mattel for many years, even before Barbie became a blockbuster hit. As a fan of Polly growing up, she says she is excited to “play with that world.”

Next up, however, Collins will take to the stage. Case Study Films, the production company she started in 2022 with McDowell and producer Alex Orlovsky is working on a West End production called Barcelona set to premiere at the end of this year. “Doing theater has always been a dream of mine, especially in London,” Collins says. It is one of many Case Study projects at the moment, ranging from indie films to TV series for streamers, for which Collins is working behind the camera, too.

As for how long she will play Emily, that remains to be seen. The show was greenlit back in 2022 for Season 3 and 4 at the same time, giving the cast what Collins called “breathing room” to explore storylines. They did not have that luxury this time around, which she says put her in a weird position, emotionally, as an actor. Collins decided to embrace the uncertainty. “I didn’t say goodbye to anybody,” she says matter of factly. “It was more like, ‘See you soon!’”

It sounds, once again, quite a bit like something Emily would say—a reminder that whatever happens to Paris, we’ll always have Lily.

Special thanks to the Peninsula Beverly Hills.

Credits

• Photographer

• Leeor Wild

• Cinematographer

• Matilda Montgomery

• Eric Longden

• Stylist

• Brad Goreski

• Makeup Artist

• Fiona Stiles

• Hair Stylist

• Gregory Russell

• Nails

• Thuy Nguyen

• Tailor

• Ongell Fereria

• Prop Stylist

• Amy Jo Diaz

• Booking

• Talent Connect Group

• Location

• The Peninsula Beverly Hills

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