Beth Harmon, the heroine of "Jeu de la dame" who puts Emily in Paris in checkmate

The world of chess and fashion: a couple we didn't see coming. In this endless day that is confinement, we let ourselves be caught by Le Jeu de la dame, one of the latest Netflix productions. The series was released at the end of October without publicity or trumpeting, unlike Emily in Paris, launched all fire, all flame at around the same time. While there's been a lot of talk about berets, croissants and cardboard Paris, word-of-mouth also worked very well for the seven-episode miniseries adapted from Walter Tavis' novel, set in the 1950s. -60. Today it is all the rage. It must be said that the heroine Beth Harmon played by Anya Taylor-Joy contributes greatly to this. His big round eyes and the quality of his game are probably enough to win the critics.

But the passion that surrounds this series is also due to the photographic and aesthetic sense of Steven Meizler. Worked in a surgical way, it asserts itself with precision, by sudden, everywhere. We find it in the red square of the young chess prodigy that we imagine cut with a sickle, the prints of a wallpaper loaded in a suburban interior of the 1960s, the badass architecture of the hotels of Las Vegas or Mexico, or even the neat wardrobe (and chasuble) of the gifted orphan. In short, if this series was a quickdraw, we would evoke a hypnotic vintage style.

In video, the trailer "Le Jeu de la dame"

Beth Harmon, a minefield for brands

As often in a production carried by a heroine, the public's enthusiasm for her clothes is the chronicle of an announced infatuation. If Emily in Paris is full of juicy contracts with brands, the chess champion is exempt. Beth is a brilliant character, but also plagued by alcohol and drugs. A minefield for advertising. To get a Beth Harmon look, you have to scour the thrift stores (and open your eyes). Her bespoke outfits were designed by costume designer Gabriele Binder. They are a compilation of references to a past fashion, that worn by stars such as Jean Seberg, Edie Sedgwick or Audrey Hepburn. And written by Pierre Cardin and André Courrèges. We are far from the marketed and neat business of the Emily in Paris series where everything has been studied so that its labeled Kangol-Chanel-Marc Jacobs outfit ends in a click on our shoulders.

Read also » After the mockery, Emily in Paris gets her revenge

So we don't take away from Emily Cooper and Beth Harmon the common point of loving clothing. Nor to claim to be a free woman. But the feminist incarnation of which the two characters claim to be leans in favor of the chess champion. In Le Jeu de la Dame, the style embraces the progression of a genius. First cast in the uniform of the boarding school boarder - after the death of her mother - Beth Harmon develops a fascination with the garment as she grows and reveals herself on the chessboard.

It all starts with a tartan dress that she pays for herself after winning her first tournament. The geometric print is nothing anecdotal. This detail refers to the game's checkerboard and becomes ubiquitous in her wardrobe. From then on, none of his clothes cut in squares, nor in black and white. But the trapeze dresses, the blouses, the little tight-fitting wool sweaters, the high-waisted pants, the coats or the scarves tied in the hair also say something about the young woman who is making a career in an exclusively male universe. The more she triumphs, the more her pace becomes emancipated. A journalist will ask her if she is not too glamorous to play chess. Beth Harmon responds to sexism by dressing how she wants. A militant act. Without ever losing sight of the just, even fatal blow.

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