How The Small Screen Trumped Street Style as The New Source of Fashion Inspo

For many of us, there’s only one question informing our summer holiday wardrobes this year. Are we more of a Chelsea, or a Chloe? (Or even a Jacqueline or a Victoria…) That’s because unless you’ve been living under a very large rock since the beginning of the year, you’ll have been aware of how incredible the fashion in the most recent season of The White Lotus has been—and how easy it is to recreate in your own wardrobe (whether you’re staying at the Four Seasons in Phuket or not).

There’s no denying it: we are in a golden age of fashion inspiration from television. Not since Carrie Bradshaw had us buying tutus and Fendi baguette bags in the early 2000s has there been such a plethora of get-the-look style features pegged to the small screen, with TV wardrobes influencing what we wear IRL more than ever. And with social-media savvy costume designers, high-street collaborations and affiliate link shops pegged to our favourite dramas, it’s never been easier to dress like the stars of the small screen.

According to Depop, searches for pieces relating to TV shows have never been higher, with searches for The White Lotus increasing by 1700% between February and April 2025, while Emily in Paris’s latest season saw a 356% increase in searches in September 2024. Steve Dool, Depop’s senior director of brand and marketing, explains that when a series resonates with their audience, they see immediate spikes in searches for styles and brands that appear on that show.

“Depop’s community thrives on cultural moments and television shows have become a significant catalyst in shaping fashion trends,” he explains. “Earlier this spring, as The White Lotus was dominating the cultural conversation, we clocked an uptick in interest in the ‘loud luxury’ aesthetic of the series’ costume design. Ahead of the highly-anticipated third season of Euphoria, we expect that fans will be paying close attention to how that cast’s style will evolve. The season two premiere caused a 264% spike in searches on Depop in January 2022, and we predict a similar surge in demand this time around.”

Being a fashion and TV obsessive who wanted to buy what she saw on her favourite shows inspired Katherine Manweiler to create Montage, an app that curates the fashion that you see on TV and tells you where to buy it. “At Montage we of course see surges in interest for shows like The White Lotus and Emily in Paris,” she explains. “One of the biggest breakout hits on Montage last year was the Amazon Prime remake of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine. Our menswear users in particular were crazy for this show—there was lots of interest around Donald Glover’s outfits, the Fear of God Essentials cargo jacket and Mister Freedom varsity jacket in particular.”

The White Lotus’ costume designer, Alex Bovaird, has been delighted by the response to her costumes on the show. “Mike White creates such a wonderful world and encourages me to dress it in a fun and vibrant way, I think it’s a testament to his creative vision and ambition for the show to be enjoyed and chewed on,” she shares. “It’s an honour to have the looks coveted, and when I saw online where-to-buy outfits worn by extras I realised we had reached new levels of aspiration.”

For Manweiler, it’s the sheer volume of prestige TV today— and the vast array of aesthetics, from Bridgerton’s Regencycore to the quiet luxury born out of Succession—that is behind the increase.

“There’s no denying that the volume of high-quality TV has increased in the past 15 or so years,” she explains. “Streaming platforms that produce and distribute their own content can play creatively with the format of television series, so now we have 60-90 minute episodes of prestige TV that look and feel like standalone movies.”

It’s this new boom in streaming that has also resulted in higher profile costume designers becoming attached to products, who bring with them a wealth of connections, often including up-and-coming designers and expert vintage sellers.

“The stylists behind these looks are emerging as celebrities in their own right,” says Dool. “Perhaps the first to become a widely known name outside of the fashion industry was Patricia Field, who designed the iconic looks for Sex and the City, and more recently, Emily in Paris. Now she’s joined by the likes of Heidi Bivens of Euphoria fame, Alex Bovaird, the costume designer for The White Lotus, and even UK stylist Sinead McKeefry who garnered a lot of press attention for her distinctive styling for Claudia Winkleman on The Traitors.”

“Costume designers are masters at bringing characters to life visually with dimensional outfits, and one of the easier things for an audience to absorb about a character is their style,” agrees Manweiler.

“While many film characters may be really well-costumed, we typically don’t get to see them wearing many clothes. On the other hand, an average episode of Succession contained over 120 individual articles of clothing and accessories because there are so many characters and multiple costume changes. That format affords more room for characters to display their style and more opportunities for inspiration.”

Of course, while the TV shows gain culture cachet and undeniable cool-points for having covetable fashion, it’s the brands themselves that are ultimately winning here. There's no doubt as to why H&M was keen to piggyback onto the success of the recent season of The White Lotus, launching its own capsule collection inspired by the show.

The Duchess of Sussex also showed her finger is on the pulse of the fashion mood when she decided to launch her own ShopMy account following the release of her Netflix cookery show, With Love, Meghan. Though not specifically the looks from the series, it gives an insight into her shopping habits and wardrobe, allowing her fans to 'get the look' for themselves via Meghan-approved links.

For Manweiler, there’s nothing new per se about people wanting to mimic their favourite character’s style—it’s just that it’s far more accessible now thanks to apps like hers. “TV fans were itching for a ‘shop tv style’ solution back in the ‘90s after watching Jennifer Aniston in Friends, and then certainly with Sex and the City,” she says. “What’s interesting to me is that shows that weren’t deemed fashionable at their time of release are now getting a lot of attention from style enthusiasts. One big example of that is Seinfeld. ‘Normcore’ has been a revolving trend in recent years, especially for menswear, and so it’s interesting to see when modern brands like Aimé Leon Dore pay homage to characters like George Costanzas.”

“I think costume designers have always influenced trends and inspired others,” agrees Bovaird. “We spend days and weeks thinking about what people wear so I think it makes sense that we are also influencers, since in many cases we are the experts! There can also be a certain amount of mirroring the culture, so it can sometimes also be casting a lens on reality.”