Costume designer Olga Mill's work for the second season of 'Beef' dissects class through a specific visual lexicon: the pastoral fantasy of Montecito country club attire. For a curator of lingerie history, this meticulous construction of a 'nonproblematic' uniform is strikingly familiar. The staff's forest green polos and tennis skirts, designed to blend seamlessly into the background, echo a century of foundation garment marketing that promised the perfect, invisible silhouette - a sartorial erasure for polite society.
Mill's anthropological approach to the members' 'casual and seemingly relaxed' quiet luxury, sourced from brands like Jenni Kayne, connects to a longer narrative of Californian ease. This is not the overt opulence of a bygone corseted era, but a modern, expensive minimalism that speaks volumes. It recalls how brands like Jockey, in the 1970s, shifted lingerie advertising toward naturalism and comfort, selling a new, understated ideal of wealth and well-being.
The true tension, however, lies in the aspirational mimicry of characters like Ashley. Her evolution from a basic tee to status-signifying business casual mirrors a recurring theme in intimate apparel: the garment as a tool for social mobility. Just as the 1950s merry widow offered a ready-made hourglass for entry into a certain glamour, Ashley's wardrobe changes are calculated steps into a world she wishes to inhabit. Every stitch in 'Beef' is in conversation with this history, proving that the politics of presentation, whether on the clubhouse lawn or under one's clothes, remain a potent language of aspiration and belonging.
Originally reported by WWD