The Honourable Woman's Nessa Stein: Currently The Best Dressed Woman On TV?

From vintage Chanel and Jil Sander to Stella McCartney and Acne, the list of labels Maggie Gyllenhaal's character in The Honourable Woman gets to wear is enviable.

The Honourable Woman
The Honourable Woman
(Image credit: BBC Pictures)

From vintage Chanel and Jil Sander to Stella McCartney and Acne, the list of labels Maggie Gyllenhaal's character in The Honourable Woman gets to wear is enviable.

The Honourable Woman is fast becoming a classic piece of television. Set against the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the BBC2 drama is gripping, complex, beautifully shot and features the fantastically talented Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Fantastic acting, intelligent writing and political tensions aside, it's the wardrobe of Maggie's character, Nessa Stein, that has really caught our eye.

The cool-as-a-cucumber businesswoman runs the Stein Company with fearlessness, campassion and a power wardrobe that we can only dream of.

Four episodes in, and the contents of Nessa's wardrobe read like a fashionista's dream. So far, Nessa has worn: Roland Mouret, Stella McCartney, Acne, Escada, Pringle and vintage Chanel, with the 1970s Yves Saint Laurent-inspired silk blouses and wide-legged trousers being created especially by Hilary Marschner.

(Image credit: BBC/Drama Republic)

Her outerwear consists of Mulberry, vintage Jil Sander and a 1980s Gieves and Hawkes man's coat. And those silk slips she wears to sleep in her weird panic room bunker? They're by Parisian lingerie designer Carine Gilson and London based lingerie label Bodas.

Speaking to The Independent, Ed Gibbon, costume designer for The Honourable Woman, explained that they initially started off looking at powerful women of the past for style inspiration.

'Because the character of Nessa is so complicated and multi layered, we looked at all sorts of different people as reference. I suppose we started off by looking at other powerful and stylish women through history, Jackie Kennedy, Eva Peron, Margaret Thatcher, Cleopatra,' he said.

'And then we kind of threw all the reference away and started afresh. The way Maggie looked as Nessa was constantly evolving throughout the six month shoot.'

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