Why Call My Agent Is Your New TV Fashion Fix

Killing Eve withdrawal? Pencil in some time for Call My Agent

BY KATE FINNIGAN

Those still craving the TV fashion fix of Killing Eve might currently find some box-set style satisfaction in Call My Agent! (Dix Pour Cent), the hit French comedy drama on Netflix. Set in a Parisian talent firm called ASK, it follows four agents dealing with the dramatic highs and lows of representing the biggest stars in France – Isabelle Adjani, Juliette Binoche and Monica Bellucci and dozens of other actors happily send themselves up in the show.

Fast-paced and funny, it’s been going since 2015 with the third series just released this month (only six episodes per season, so easy to catch up). And while clothes are incidental to the show – which deals not only with diva strops and demanding directors but also equal pay, sexism, racism and the comic hell of office romance – the female characters’ chic Parisian style is a pleasing bonus and one we’re taking hard note of for office dressing inspiration. Here’s a quick guide to the key players and their style before you settle in.

Andréa Martel

The style star of the show is the badass agent played by Camille Cottin, who tells it like it is, parties like its 1999 and is a serial womaniser. A die-hard Parisian (her response to finding herself in the countryside with no phone reception is to call the police) she’s blessed with great hair and the legs of Emmanuelle Alt. Her uniform is modern French Vogue to a (slubby V-neck) T: skinny jeans, stiletto-heeled ankle boots, sharp navy and black blazers and a slouchy black leather tote. By night she goes for back-bearing dresses, ramping it up with gold sequined hot pants and a waist-coat, garnished with a bow-tie (only in Paris) for a party at a theatre, and a cool metallic shift dress by Martin Grant for the Cannes opening ceremony. Did I mention she has great legs?

Colette Brancillon
2/7

Colette Brancillon

In series one, Andréa becomes besotted with the uptight tax auditor Colette (Ophélia Kolb). Colette does excellent trench coat and fierce pony tail for work but transforms into a pre-Raphaelite goddess in soft cashmeres at home.

Sofia Leprince
3/7

Sofia Leprince

Receptionist and aspiring actress Sofia (Stéfi Celma) rocks a natural afro and has a smile like Julia Roberts. Whether doing the post round for her ungrateful colleagues or legging it to auditions with vile, racist/sexist directors, she’s an athleisure devotee in trainers, leggings and racer-back vests. Watch her style evolve into rich tonal colours and knee-high boots in series three as she starts to find success.

Camille Valentini
4/7

Camille Valentini

Fanny Sidney’s new-girl-in-town arrives in series one in dreary pastels and purple Converse, but when she snags a job as Andréa’s assistant she ups her Parisian style game. Think Vanessa Bruno velvet bomber jackets and spriggy floral and polka dot shirts (very Soeur Paris) worn with straight-leg jeans and block-heeled ankle boots. For after-work parties she does short LBBs and bare legs.

Catherine Barneville

The glamorous wife of untrustworthy agent, Matthias, Catherine (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) is in her fifties with a yoga-honed body and a nice line in vintage kimonos and antique earrings. She wears Louboutin boots to the hairdressers and you just know her lingerie collection is all devastating La Perla.

© © Christophe Brachet

Noémie Leclerc
6/7

Noémie Leclerc

Laure Calamy’s voluptuous brunette assistant has a pounding desire for her boss, Matthias. She’s overtly feminine in low-cut print dresses – we’ve spotted at least one from & Other Stories – wide leather belts to emphasise her waist, and mid-heeled pumps. She likes vivid colour because she’s that kind of girl.

© © Christophe Brachet

Arlette Azémar
7/7

Arlette Azémar

Liliane Rovère’s Arlette is a veteran agent and actress and works a version of classic Chanel with artistic Left Bank flair – boucle cardigans, sparkly knits, long skirts and wide trousers with flat shoes, accessorized with silk flowers, ginormous costume earrings and layers of long necklaces. Because in Paris, as in life, one is never too old for glamour.

© © Christophe Brachet

Source: Why Call My Agent Is Your New TV Fashion Fix | British Vogue

Advertisement

Kristen Stewart ditches high heels to go barefoot at Cannes

The actress seemed to be protesting against the red carpet dress code at the film festival.

Now it seems Kristen Stewart, a member of this year’s jury at the film festival, has flouted the ban on flat shoes – by instead going barefoot on the red carpet.

The Twilight actress wore black Louboutin heels as she arrived at the BlacKkKlansman premiere.

But before entering the screening of the Spike Lee film, she slipped off her shoes to walk up the stairs.

She was apparently not sanctioned for taking off her heels.

‘You cannot ask me to wear heels’

Last year, Stewart – who’s been known to wear trainers with dresses on the red carpet – spoke about the event’s fashion rules.

“There’s definitely a distinct dress code, right?” she told the Hollywood Reporter. “People get very upset if you don’t wear heels or whatever.

“I feel like you can’t ask people that any more – it’s a given. If you’re not asking guys to wear heels and a dress, you cannot ask me either.”

Source: Kristen Stewart ditches high heels to go barefoot at Cannes – BBC News

11 French It Girls You Should Follow Before Paris Fashion Week Photos

The Spring 2018 season will draw to a close this week, finally touching down in Paris for some of the biggest, most anticipated shows of the season—and for the European debuts of several American brands who recently decamped for the City of Lights, like Proenza Schouler, Thom Brown, and Altuzarra. But for all American designers may be taking over Paris Fashion Week, the city still has its very own contingent of It girls and models whose looks are just as enviable as their front-row seats at all the shows. Whether the offspring of models and actors like Lou Doillon, daughter of Jane Birkin, and Thaïs Klapisch, daughter of Cédric Klapisch, up-and-coming models like Léa Julian and Estelle Chen, or the enigmatic, globe-trotting teens of the Gucci Gang, here’s the complete rundown of 11 Instagram accounts you should be following before the Paris shows get underway. [ . . . ]

Read more: 11 French It Girls You Should Follow Before Paris Fashion Week Photos | W Magazine

Charlotte Gainsbourg, Reluctant Icon Of French Chic

By Phoebe Maltz Bovy

 

Charlotte Gainsbourg — daughter of French-Jewish singer Serge Gainsbourg and English actress (and handbag namesake) Jane Birkin — continues the family tradition of combining artistic excellence with Parisian glamorousness. Gainsbourg plays an important role in Joseph Cedar’s new film, “Norman”, and is also (oh to be so chic and part-French!) promoting a makeup line with Nars. And like any self-respecting representative of Frenchwoman style, Gainsbourg shares some beauty rituals but pushes back against the whole French beauty thing.

I want to be immune to the breathless (heh) items about how to look like a Parisienne, but I click, I always click. Even if the answer — as per Gainsbourg, and as per all ten trillion articles of this type — is to wear less foundation if you wish to look more French. Well, not exactly — it’s that French ladies supposedly wear less foundation than their American equivalents. Which may well be, but I have it on good authority (the mirror) that an American woman can eschew foundation and not look even the least bit French.

Source: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Reluctant Icon Of French Chic – The Forward