Girls On Film

There’s a new crop of complex characters and self‑possessed heroines hitting our screens – and their costumes are just as powerful.

- Grace O'neill

THERE’S A MOMENT IN THE OUTRAGEOUSLY BRILLIANT TV show Killing Eve that typifies the complicated relationship of the two female protagonists. It involves a dress. Or, more specifically, a silk dress by Roland Mouret. Villanelle – a psychopathic assassin with a taste for French designers (played by Jodie Comer) – taunts her adversary, Eve Polastri – an unglamorous MI5 agent (played by Sandra Oh) – by stealing her suitcase and replacing everything in it with gift-wrapped designer pieces.

While she desperately hates Villanelle, Polastri can’t help but be seduced by the stylish assassin she’s investigating. When she tries on the dress and marvels at how good she looks in it, she’s flirting with a version of herself that harnesses her sexuality. “The discussions really centred around the contrast between Eve’s lack of interest in her appearance and Villanelle’s hyper-awareness of the effect she is having on those around her,” says Phoebe De Gaye, the show’s lauded costume designer. “Over the course of the series, Villanelle’s interventions lead Eve to discover her womanly qualities, and perhaps allow Villanelle to discover her humanity.”