Lily Collins Says Emily in Paris Helped Her Be Playful with Fashion Again After Turbulent Relationship with Ex

Ahead of the new season of Emily In Paris, Lily Collins opened up about how playing Emily Cooper in the Netflix hit series allowed her to be playful in her fashion once again off the heels of her turbulent relationship with an ex-boyfriend. 

In an interview with InStyle on Aug. 6, Collins, 35, recalled wearing muted colors and how she would steer clear of anything that would be considered big, bold or revealing. She referred to that time as her “dull period.” She said when she was with this ex-boyfriend — whom she has never publicly named — he would tell her that “you can’t wear that, you can’t do that, you can’t say that.”

“I thought for a while that if you make yourself physically, with volume, appear bigger, then you’re taking up too much space,” she explained. 

The Emily in Paris actress previously opened up about her ex-boyfriend in her 2017 book Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me, where she wrote about how she tried to be “perfect for him,” but “the more I silenced my voice with this guy, the more isolated I became.”

“I became a one-woman island, but not the strong and independent kind,” she wrote at the time. “I was the definition of codependent. And worst of all: I became so scared that if I left him, I would have nothing. Be nothing.”

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After ending that relationship, Collins told InStyle that working with costume designer Patricia Field — who previously worked on Sex and the City was and the consulting costume designer on Emily in Paris seasons one and two — was an empowering moment for her. 

Collins explained that she sent her feedback on several fashion options for the show and thought she was only providing guidance, rather than “making specific requests” and was “blown away” when she arrived in Paris months later when she saw her picks ready for her during the first fitting.  

When Collins expressed her surprise, the costumer responded: "But you said you liked them?"

Collins later explained that one thing she loved about Emily was that “she takes up space in a lovely way.” 

“Mixing patterns and prints textures, styles in a way that was foreign to me,” She said. “I started to realize that I didn’t have to be afraid of color anymore.”

Despite some of the criticism Emily in Paris received for the costuming of the first few seasons, the Mirror Mirror actress said that it didn’t bother her, especially since she “had enough distance” from her character and that “Emily was meant to look out of place, leaning all the way into the clichés of French style” and serve as a contrast to Emily’s boss, Sylvie — who went for a “sleeker and sexier” vibe. 

“I knew that we were, a little bit, playing into the tongue-in-cheek of it all,” she added. 

Collins expressed that while her own fashion sense might not always match up with Emily’s in the show, the costuming process for Emily in Paris taught her how to “mix-and-match in a way that feels natural” to her. 

Season 4, part one of Emily in Paris will be available on Netflix on Aug. 15. Seasons 1 through 3 are now available to stream.