For Andrea Flesch, the esteemed costume designer behind Colette and Midsommar, Harriet Warner’s splashy, sexy new Dangerous Liaisons prequel on Starz was the project that almost got away. “I first heard about the show three years ago,” she tells Vogue over Zoom. “Leonora Lonsdale, the director, offered me the job, but I was working on something else at the time so I couldn’t take it. They hired someone else but then had to stop because of COVID, and when the other designer couldn’t do it anymore, I accepted.”
The series is certainly richer for her involvement. A ravishing eight-part period piece set in pre-revolution Paris and based on Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s 18th-century classic, it tells the story of Camille (Alice Englert), the soon-to-be Marquise de Merteuil, and Pascal Valmont (Nicholas Denton) before they become the venomous rivals embodied by Glenn Close and John Malkovich in Stephen Frears’s 1988 adaptation of the same name.
We meet the pair as young lovers struggling to make ends meet, Camille a sex worker and Valmont a penniless mapmaker. When the former discovers that the latter is also secretly romancing a string of aristocratic women including the married Geneviève (Lesley Manville), the current Madame de Merteuil, in a bid to better his fortunes, she is heartbroken. Her friend Victoire (Kosar Ali) steals Madame Merteuil and Valmont’s explicit letters, and she and Camille use them to blackmail Madame Merteuil into welcoming the two of them into high society. Armed with a new wardrobe of sumptuous gowns, Camille goes to war with Valmont. Then, another figure enters the fold: the virtuous Jacqueline de Montrachet (Carice van Houten), the woman Camille once served, whom she now vows to get revenge on—and whom Valmont sets out to seduce.
The costumes are spectacular throughout, from the delicately embroidered capes to the glittering jewelery and powdered wigs. As the season continues, Flesch talks us through all of the major talking points so far—and her favorite looks—below.
Photo: Martin Mlaka1/7The moodboard was filled with 18th-century paintings
“I mostly took inspiration from paintings, especially those by Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre, Alexander Roslin, Gilbert Stuart, Jean-Étienne Liotard, Henry Robert Morland, Joshua Reynolds, and Louis Tocqué. They are incredible. In their work, you can see the quality of the fabrics they painted, the jewelry, and also these fantastic characters. Leonora wanted us to stick to the period, which was very ornate, but also present that in the simplest way, at a lower register, so it feels a little more modern. We didn’t want to overwhelm viewers.”
Photo: Dusan Martincek2/7When it came to fabric, color, and cut, authenticity was key
“I bought a lot of original pieces to see how they were constructed, and original fabrics to feel what people would’ve felt at the time. We couldn’t really recreate them because we didn’t have enough of the same fabrics or time to add so many details to a single costume, but I tried to capture their essence in the pieces we made. The most important thing for me was to use only real silk, velvet, cotton, and duchess satin, never polyester. The colors were also crucial. In that period, they didn’t use artificial dyes so it was difficult to find the right shades. Lace overlays were also very common then. We used them sparingly, and mostly for Madame Merteuil.”
Photo: Dusan Martincek3/7Camille’s style is chameleonic
“Camille is more modern and her costumes reflect that. The cuts and shapes are different from other people’s—there’s a simplicity to it. We see her grow in the series and she really uses her costumes as a weapon to help her get what she needs. At the beginning, she gets her first opera dress from Madame Merteuil—this baby-pink dress which doesn’t reflect her taste. Then, as she gains power, she develops her own style. She’s not in a single color palette because she’s living a few different lives. One of her most special looks is a white organza dress decorated with flowers and birds. I took the pattern from an original piece, and it took two months to create because it’s all hand-painted.”
Photo: Dusan Martincek4/7Valmont dresses to please his lovers
“Valmont is similar to Camille because he uses different costumes for different situations, depending on his goals. You see this with his hair, too—he uses wigs when he goes to visit different women, but less so when he’s with Camille. When he goes out, he’s usually more colorful. He has these great suits, some of which were embroidered in Denmark. But then, he meets Madame Montrachet. He wants to seduce her but she’s quite a puritan, so he dresses a bit like a priest.”
Photo: Dusan Martincek5/7Victoire is a secret revolutionary
“Kosar is Muslim, so we had to find a way to make Victoire look of the time without showing skin. Her wardrobe is quite limited, but the colors are really important—they’re blue, white, and red, the colors of the French Revolution. So, it’s almost as if she’s already aware of the revolution. She also has this stunning blue cape, which was made using techniques from the period. That took us two months to create, too.”
Photo: Dusan Martincek6/7Continuity was ensured—even when using original pieces
“For the men in the show, I wanted to use original waistcoats from the period. They are so intricately embroidered and you couldn’t recreate them today, but it is still possible to source them. So, almost all of the waistcoats you see, which are embroidered, are original. But then, for some scenes you need duplicates because it’s raining, or there’s blood, or something. That was a big challenge. For Valmont, I actually managed to find three very similar waistcoats from the period, from all over the world, which was pretty amazing.”
Photo: Dusan Martincek7/7Hidden accessories were as important as the elaborate dresses
“Overall, my favorite character to dress was probably Madame Montrachet. For her, we made quite similar white dresses from different white fabrics. They’re incredibly detailed, and she also had these big hats and veils. There’s also a black cross which she always wears, which is an original piece from the period. For one scene at the opera, we swapped it for a gold cross. All of the accessories hold a special meaning for the characters, whether you can see them or not.”
