The Meaning Behind Emma Stone’s Costumes in The Curse

It’s an objectively absurd present, which makes the wardrobe of its feminine protagonist, performed by Emma Stone, all of the extra layered.

To look at Emma Stone in The Curse is to topic your self to fixed second-hand embarrassment and misery. That is exactly the purpose.

The fictional satirical collection tracks the weeks-long manufacturing of an HGTV present, starring aspiring eco-friendly builders Whitney Siegel (Stone) and her unsettlingly all-adoring husband Asher (Nathan Fielder). Is it a dry comedy, a slow-burn drama or a maniacal horror? The reply is sure.

To movie their home-reno collection, the moneyed millennial couple strikes to the working-class metropolis of Española, New Mexico. Whitney is enthusiastic about her energy-efficient “passive” properties: ultra-modern properties with mirrored exteriors and beige minimalist decor. She is set to rework this locale (ethically, she insists) right into a hotspot for sustainable residing, one tear-down at a time. We quickly discover out that her funds come from her dad and mom, notorious landlords with questionable morals.

Tackling gentrification and energy dynamics, the 10-episode collection operates in its very personal class of cringe, the place it’s not possible to inform if anybody, and particularly Whitney, is ever being real. In terms of understanding this character in The Curse, the costumes worn by Emma Stone are extraordinarily telling.

Whitney’s wares are a rotation of down-to-earth seems, comprising utilitarian jumpsuits, snug cardigans, and ever-so-slightly ill-fitted straight-leg jeans. Her subtly ombré-dyed hair cascades in uncomplicated waves and her sensible equipment — tote luggage and pale bucket hats — talk low-maintenance residing.

However there’s a discrepancy between Whitney’s camera-ready persona and her ambiguous motives. On-screen, she’s sterilely smiley, forcefully giggly and overly accommodating. It’s a performative facade that doesn’t finish when the cameras cease rolling; it extends to virtually each interplay she has. She is at all times molding herself to reflect what she thinks different folks need from her, and this extends to her garments.

Whitney presents herself as a selfless do-gooder with a dream; as somebody who just isn’t afraid to get down and soiled. At first look, her granola type displays this. She wears Birkenstocks, she rotates by unassuming T-shirts, and she or he rolls up the sleeves on her flowy button-ups. Her wardrobe is objectively unimposing and inoffensive (that’s, relying on the way you view the French tuck). However Whitney is desperately attempting to convey a picture of laid-back ease.

Factor is, these outfits — so primary and benign at first look — are rigorously curated to additional the compelled picture of who she is. Take her relationship along with her dad and mom, who’re identified for imposing unsafe situations on residents of their reasonably priced housing models.

Whitney insists she needs no half on this, and is continually working to publicly distance herself from their legacy. However she has no downside benefiting from it when she wants a fast mortgage of tens of 1000’s of {dollars}. (“Española is mine!” she screams at them throughout a covert rendez-vous.)

There’s a way that Whitney is at all times pretending. This falseness emanates from her passive properties, which sound utopian on paper however don’t precisely work in apply. (Potential consumers are routinely turned off that there’s no approach to management the temperature.) After which there’s her marriage. She is in a relentless cycle of manipulation along with her spineless husband, whereby she oscillates between discovering him amusingly charming and hating his guts when she thinks it would “work” for the present.

Worst of all, her performativity is painfully apparent when awkwardly interacting along with her buddy (?) Cara, an Indigenous artist who appears to merely tolerate Whitney. In all of their exchanges, Whitney is each vying for Cara’s approval whereas tokenizing her for cultural bonus factors. In a single dialog filmed for the present, Whitney shamelessly coaches Cara on what to say. (“My properties are so essential as a chunk of artwork, and also you’re proud to have your work displayed inside,” she instructs Cara to repeat in her personal phrases.)

Upon nearer inspection, Whitney’s activist-adjacent outfits seems to be made by designer labels like Christy Dawn and Paul Smith. In a single monumental episode, she dons a pair of vibrant Collina Strada trousers — dubbed “her gentrification pants” by The Cut — which might be festooned with workwear-inspired patches however are very a lot not meant for bodily labour. It’s the proper metaphor.

Via all of it, her type is an extension of her out-of-place homes. These eco-conscious constructions are a results of her shopping for up the neighbourhood and flipping reasonably priced properties into dear mirrored buildings. For as a lot good as they may do, they’re nonetheless actively displacing the Española neighborhood. Beneath their cozy linen bedding and locally-sourced pottery, they signify one thing much more difficult. The identical goes for Whitney.