On the season premiere of Scandal Olivia wore a very striking white Burberry trench coat and in this week’s flashback episode she gave the audience at least 3 more reasons to have some serious coat envy.
So let’s get straight to it as we look at the costume design on “Guess Who’s coming to Dinner?” and the various coats from Olivia’s past and present
The first flashback reveals this is five years ago and the light in the scene is softened to differentiate form past and present. It’s immediately clear even without this chyron that this is some time ago as Huck is homeless and living in Union station and this is the only point in the episode where we get a date stamp. The first flashback coat is a grey tweed Stella McCartney funnel neck and while Olivia is giving off a relaxed attitude to Huck as soon as her back is turned her expression changes and we find out that Sunday’s are dinner with dad day.
The coat that Olivia wears for most of the flashback scenes is a traditional looking camel Burberry trench coat and in the shot above you can also see the Prada purse that costume designer Lyn Paolo got shipped in for the episode. It’s the black version of the bag that Meryl Streep has at the start of The Devil Wears Prada. Last week’s big bunker moment saw a completely different Burberry coat/Prada purse combination and shows that Olivia is consistent with her designer choices. In this scene Olivia is so transfixed by her dad’s possible deception that while searching for the pen she literally throws the other contents on the floor.
Here’s another close up shot of the Burberry coat and pretty much all of Olivia’s coats and jackets have amazing buttons on them (I’m a sucker for great button details).
In the present Olivia is also having frantic and threatening phone calls and here she is showing off both her old school looking Fitz only phone and her white backed (off course) smart phone. The navy blue Alexander McQueen jacket is what I want to focus on and once again it’s all about the buttons. This the kind of tailoring we expect to see from Olivia when she is in full crisis mode and it also reflects how buttoned up her character is as she rarely lets anyone in.
This is paired with white trousers and the light/dark motif is repeated in the flashback scene where Olivia meets David Rosen for the first time.
The difference here is that Olivia is wearing a skirt and this goes against her pants only work wardrobe. This is prior to Olivia’s big dad discovery and involvement with Fitz and a lot has changed in the last five years for this character and her clothing has evolved with these personal changes. David looks different too, his suit isn’t tailored showing he isn’t making all that much money – he jokes that he should have gone into corporate law. His glasses have heavier looking frames and yes that’s a goatee. It’s a small scene but I’m glad to see how these two crossed paths and how David inadvertently helped Olivia discover the truth about her dad as he’s always a strong purveyor of the truth.
Ah yes Eli Pope the man who is Command and this episode filled in a lot of the blanks about Olivia’s fraught and estranged relationship with the man who didn’t really raise her. In the scene above Olivia is in her defiant color – she’s wearing a white dress so we know she means business and this is where she threatens her father to get Huck back. Of course Eli has his way of showing his daughter just how powerful he is and that involves hurting Edison. Eli Pope might look meek in his Sunday sweater but he’s one scary dude.
Harrison isn’t as scary as Eli but he’s pulling a face to suggest that Olivia needs to do something and do something now. All while looking snazzy (standard) in another power clashing ensemble. Now that we know pretty much everything about Huck can we please find something out about Harrison? He’s still pretty much a blank slate right now.
Same applies for Abby and while we know more about her than say Harrison, her background is still full of holes including what exactly prompted this awesome new look. This is a lot funkier than anything we have seen Abby in before and it could be as a reaction to everything that happened with David, whatever it is I hope we continue to see more of this side of Abby. That’s a nice flash of leopard print.
Abby also gets to join Olivia in the amazing coat club with this DKNY wine colored cashmere shawl collar coat and it compliments her amazing raven hair. Good scarf accessorizing too.
Everything is about perception which is why they take Jeneane shopping and they need something current but classic and professional yet relatable. This is what Olivia is an expert in and it’s why she has been so good at creating an armor for herself out of the clothes she wears.
Random observation time but is it more than just a coincidence that Mellie and Quinn are wearing the same cobalt blue color? Mellie is aware that all of her snooping is bad – when Cyrus calls her evil she simply responds with a “You’re welcome.” Whereas Quinn is tapping into her dark side and not realizing the consequences of her actions; this involves Olivia’s emails and accidentally revealing that Olivia’s father is actually the head of the program that ruined Huck’s entire life. Pretty sure Olivia is going to be super angry when she finds out that Quinn has been looking through her emails. Mellie is learning the hard way that her meddling is having the opposite effect of what she hoped.
One final coat and it’s in the present viewed through the smeared windows of the morgue that Olivia checks throughout the episode for the missing Jake (he turns up at the end beardy, bruised, bloody and alive at the end of the episode). This is a grey Max Mara belted shawl coat and it’s another one to add to the “Olivia Pope Coats I Covet” list (see also the “Virginia Johnson Coats I Covet” list).
What is your favorite outfit from the episode?
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