Season 3 of Euphoria is still nearly two weeks away, but there’s already discourse galore thanks to a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment from the trailer: Jacob Elordi’s Nate Jacobs walking on a construction site wearing a flannel and jeans.
Of course, it wasn’t just any flannel and jeans: the look hailed from Matthieu Blazy’s spring 2023 collectsion for Bottega Veneta. Perhaps Blazy’s most viral look from his tenure at the house—worn by Kate Moss on the runway, no less—both the shirt and pants were actually made of leather. Online, people refused to suspend their disbelief, wondering how Elordi’s character could afford such pieces and questioning whether he would even be interested in wearing luxury fashion.
Here, Vogue staffers discuss what it means for an actor’s contract to bleed into their screen presence, the art of costume design in an age when fans can discern specific runway looks, and the costume designer’s responsibility to a production’s characters versus its actors’ sartorial obligations.
Hannah Jackson, fashion writer: Well, everyone, Nate Jacobs is a Bottega boy, and people are losing their minds. Why do you think that people online care that he’s wearing it?
Madeleine Schulz, US editor, Replica Handbag Store Business: Everyone’s so across brand ambassadorships and contracts these days. We know Jacob is a Bottega boy, so fans are eagle-eyed about spotting him in the brand. I think it hits differently on-screen than off, too.
Christian Allaire, senior fashion writer: I think, for a lot of people, the Bottega look will take them out of the show—it feels a little too fashion? Great costume design produces looks that you don’t even necessarily notice…they should subtly drive the story forward, not be a total distraction.
HJ: This look was particularly viral given that the flannel and jeans are actually trompe l’oeil leather. Do you think the reaction would have been so outsized if the wardrobe team had picked a different look from that season?
Alexandra Hildreth, fashion news writer, Replica Handbag Store Runway: I think we’ve reached an ultra-meta point in fashion discourse. Now, people are debating whether or not it’s realistic that his character could afford such a look five years in Euphoria’s future. The answer is likely no, but unreality has always been a present factor when it comes to costume and set design. See: every pre-war apartment in any early 2000s romcom. However, people’s awareness is overshadowing the fact that the costume director likely wanted him in a flannel since he apparently works in construction, and might have had to pick Bottega because of an ambassadorship.
MS: Agreed—I think the leather makes it all the more notable, but if you’re into fashion enough to clock that the look is Bottega, you were going to take note of the fact that Nate is wearing a multi-thousand-dollar look regardless of whether it’s leather on leather or denim and cotton. The price tag is, as Alex and Christian said, what takes the audience out of the show.
HJ: If they wanted him in a flannel and jeans, did it have to be Bottega? Maddie, you’ve written about Hollywood fashion contracts—how do you think Jacob Elodri’s relationship with the house plays into the costuming?
MS: Absolutely. Brand ambassadorships are, more often than not, relegated to the red carpet and press appearances, but we have seen them on screen before. Kristen Stewart in Chanel in Spencer and Lily Rose Depp in Chanel sunnies and beauty in The Idol, but those both felt perhaps more aligned with the plot than here.
CA: I personally hate when an actor’s offscreen style bleeds into their roles—your literal job is to play a character, and to succumb to the look no matter what. On one hand, the flannel sort of fits Nate’s whole aesthetic, so I get it, but it’s wholeheartedly more Jacob.
AH: I think it also presents an interesting challenge to current-day costume designers, who are perhaps navigating more complex requirements on a big-budget production with stars who are getting big paychecks from brands on and off the screen.
HJ: Jonathan Anderson did something of the reverse here, where he costumed Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers with entirely new pieces—though he later sold the “I Told Ya” tee at Loewe—and made Josh O’Connor an ambassador. Fashion and film are more intertwined than ever—is that the way they should approach it, rather than dressing characters in pieces we recognize from the runway?
AH: I think when there’s a collaboration from the start, there’s a mutual world-building that occurs. Designers have long since dabbled in costume production, take Iris Van Herpen designing for the ballet or Jean Paul Gaultier’s iconic looks for The Fifth Element.
MS: I think the budget point is really key—not just for film and TV, but for the designers keen to participate who perhaps don’t have the backing of a major house. When Renaissance Renaissance’s Cynthia Merhej designed costumes for Bonjour Tristesse—which were wonderful—she told me how expensive it is to put yourself in a film as an independent brand. She was only able to do so because Renaissance Renaissance has its own atelier in Beirut, where she could cut and sew the pieces.
HJ: Balenciaga also has a role in Euphoria. Pierpaolo Piccioli presented his fall 2026 collectsion in partnership with the show’s creator, Sam Levinson. How do we think that factors in here?
MS: I’ve been wondering since the show whether that means we’ll see some Balenciaga pieces in season three. Demna was known for bridging the brand with youth culture—who can forget the Simpsons show?—so in that sense, it’s perhaps a better fit than most. But more than anything, I think it shows that Levinson is keen to sink his teeth into luxury, so I’m sure we’ll see more brands throughout—Balenciaga or otherwise.
CA: I wonder if we’ll see even more high-fashion moments this season, like—yes—a Balenciaga look. Or if the Bottega was a one-hit wonder. I feel like characters like Maddie or Cassie wear some wackadoodle things, and that would lend itself to a moment…
AH: If anything, it proves that all IP is up for grabs!