From top left, clockwise, to bottom left: Lily Collins in Emily in Paris – très chic, in a green coat from Chanel’s Cruise 2020 collection; Jodie Comer in Killing Eve – this iconic Molly Goddard dress sold out soon after the episode aired; the girl before. 

David Oyelowo and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in The Girl Before – Mbatha-Raw’s elegant wardrobe as Jane was as compelling as the plot; and Tracy Ifeachor in Show Trial – Duty solicitor Cleo gives a masterclass in aspirational executive dressing. 

Vanity Fair called the show ‘gorgeously glossy’. Even le Carré was impressed. By the time the BBC commissioned an adaptation of another of his novels, The Little Drummer Girl, two years later, the template had been set. Florence Pugh’s clothes were designed to be talking points for women.

It isn’t just about female characters. From Oyelowo’s architect in The Girl Before to Line of Duty’s police detective Steve Arnott, immense care is now taken in how men dress, too. Arnott’s three-piece suits have become a meme (he used to get them from Ted Baker, but in line with his recent promotion, now has them custom-made). 

If Scott & Bailey, written in 2011 by the brilliant Sally Wainwright and starring Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp, were being made today, I’m pretty sure their wardrobes would get a serious makeover.

The Girl Before is testament to how far British TV has come. As has been noted in the reviews, it looks like Grand Designs meets Bergerac, set in a modernist, architecture-award-winning house with a lead character dressed stylishly in Stella McCartney, Gucci, Prada and Brunello Cucinelli, mixed with some high street, including an intricate ruffled pale-pink Zara blouse.

The Cucinelli trousers alone would have cost about £800 – had Jones’s wardrobe department had to pay for them. Once upon a time, costume designers paid for everything, which is why, in a home-grown drama, even affluent, supposedly stylish characters have, for years, often worn lacklustre outfits. But times are changing.

As TV has become sexier as an industry, brands have become ever more willing to loan high-end clothes. The pandemic has also unexpectedly helped. ‘Luckily, these days, particularly in a time of lockdown, brands were happy to lend,’ explains Jones. 

The Girl Before was filmed in Bristol and London during the lockdown of winter 2021, when catwalk shows were suspended or took place digitally, so television, once a reviled medium for many upscale brands, suddenly acquired previously undiscovered appeal, even for labels as famous as Prada.

‘Having an actor like Gugu was [also] hugely helpful in getting designers [involved],’ admits Jones – Mbatha-Raw has worked with designers such as Armani. ‘But getting on board with a TV series is always a risk for [fashion] brands.’

The use of a Peloton bike in And Just Like That…, the sequel to Sex and the City, is a prime example; after Chris Noth’s character Mr Big died of a heart attack following a strenuous Peloton class, the company’s stock plummeted 11 per cent in a day. (Peleton hired Noth to star in its adverts – a clever move, except that five minutes later, Noth was embroiled in allegations of past sexual assault.)

One programme that doesn’t scrimp on clothing budgets and shiny production is The Morning Show, a US series with a starry cast and one of the highest drama budgets ever – each episode costs a reported $15 million. 

The salaries of Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell and Reese Witherspoon account for a large part of the budget; Aniston’s wardrobe of Dior, Celine, Valentino and bespoke Valextra bags, presumably a sizeable chunk of the rest.

She plays a breakfast news anchor called Alex Levy – though her sleek, mainly camel and black wardrobe of uber-luxurious, drapey cashmere is more reflective of what Aniston herself wears in her private life than the bright body-con dresses of the average US breakfast show host. But Alex is a star on about $25 million a year, so she can get away with channelling Diane Sawyer.

Sisters Clare and Nina Hallworth, Aniston’s long-time stylists, were also part of the show. ‘We worked to create a wardrobe for Alex that [contained] no disposable fashionable pieces,’ Nina told The Telegraph last year.