In an interview with Fibre2Fashion, costume designer for the show Emily in Paris, Marylin Fitoussi discusses how she started her career and ended up working on the show.
When asked how she first started her career in fashion, Fitoussi said, "Since childhood, I loved visualizing stories and depicting a story through garments. I started my career 28 years ago doing movies. I was doing period and contemporary movies."
When asked how she discovered French fashion culture in Paris, Fitoussi said, "Paris is supposed to be the capital of fashion, which is less true. You have all the fashion world here, but normal people, for several years, are more casual. French people don’t like colors, they don’t like a lot of prints. They usually love navy blue, black and Grey. When you go to fashion week, everybody is well dressed and it is one specific instance. But in general, I find this trip less and less interesting. And people are less well-dressed even when you go to the opera. Earlier, when I was younger, people used to dress for the opera, but now they wear jeans paired with a jacket. And I am very worried about that. I think everybody needs to break the rule of fashion. So, my message through Emily in Paris is: ‘Do what you like to do.’ Whether you like to mix many prints, or mix colors, or you feel confident with a jacket, do it. Break the rules. People live with the fear of the fashion magazine and follow what’s trending, what’s not trendy, whether it’s in or it’s out. Everyone has their own body, so you need to find pieces and things to fit your body first and after that whether it’s special or not. You should not care. Honestly, you need not follow the rules—it’s my rule number one. So, since I tried experimenting with colors in Emily in Paris, I received many messages from people who say 'Oh! we discovered color with you, and we didn’t know that it can be fun to wear color, or that we are allowed.” They say, “It’s crazy that you in your own personal life are not allowed to wear colors.' So, it’s very strange and it’s funny to see that brands and fashion houses get very inspired by berets because now they are trying to mix up trends. I saw a lot of red berets in some recent collections. So that is what I love. That sounds amazing."