Emily in Paris star, Lily Collins, says wearing several pairs of heels while filming the series impacted her health. The Netflix series follows the eponymous Emily who moves from the United States to France in order to further her career in the marketing industry. Emily joins the French marketing firm, Savoir, and must juggle her career aspirations with her love life and effort to settle into her newfound home city of Paris.
Collins' character is often shown in striking and unique outfits from head to toe throughout the series. Her wardrobe in season 2 is assembled by costume designer Patricia Field. Emily shows off these outfits around Paris both during her work day and in her free time. Since she is a marketing executive, her style is part of how she puts her best foot forward not only for herself, but for Savoir as well, a long-running theme for series creator Darren Star. Star also created Sex and the City with main character Carrie Bradshaw dressing in several iconic outfits throughout the series. Similar to SATC being filmed in the title city, Emily in Paris is largely filmed in Île-de-France, which is the largest region in France with Paris at its center.
Collins recently spoke with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon about how the choices of shoes on set for Emily impacted her podiatric health. Collins notes that the large amount of cobblestone streets, which add to Paris' charm and history, also made it extremely difficult to film while wearing the heels. She relays that the pain of walking in heels every day led her to a weekly visit with a podiatrist in order to "fix her feet." Collins also ordered custom insoles for every pair of shoes that she wore on the show in order to ease the pain of her feet while filming. Collins jokingly states that she would film "Emily in flats" for future seasons.
Click here to watch the interview on YouTube
The outfits that Collins wears on the series are sometimes met with praise and other times with criticism due to their boldness in fashion choices. Heels traditionally are connoted with more formal wear, however, that concept is changing with the modern era. Several iterations of flats are often worn by professionals, although the classic black loafer or slip-on may not be as eye catching on Emily in the streets of Paris as multi-colored stilettos.
Recently, sneakers are seen in the fashion world being worn not only by celebrities walking down the streets of LA and New York, but also in fashion shows themselves. This trend, along with the distress that heels cause to Collins' feet, pose the question as to whether it is still necessary to have Emily's character wear heels at all. The coronavirus pandemic also created situations where many people who formerly wore business or business-casual attire to work are now wearing more casual types of clothes while working remotely, leading many people to question the necessity of "business" attire as a professional standard entirely. Perhaps the next seasons of Emily in Paris will show Emily wearing more flats or sneakers throughout the series, not only to help advocate for actors setting boundaries that prioritize their health to a greater extent while filming, but also as a sign that Emily's character is part of the modern world which is beginning to accept more causal forms of clothing in the workplace.