Turning on the TV as a young woman growing up in the 90s was dangerous. Pop culture is rife with toxic messages about what constitutes beauty — specifically thinness — and we’re taught to seek out celebrities who fit those standards. Magazines are filled with images of a super-skinny Kate Moss; Waifish Winona Ryder dominates the big screen. But one of TV’s leading ladies has bucked the trend: The Nanny’s Fran Drescher.
For all of Fran Fine’s beauty (and despite her admittedly petite figure, she still fit the narrow beauty standards of the time), the flashy girl from Flushing feels like a safe space for an entire generation of women. Fran is unabashed: sexy, funny and strong. Whether she’s going on a date in a Bob Mackie dress, down to breakfast in a floral terry coat or chasing Maggie, Grace and Brighton around the house in opaque black tights and a mini dress, she does it all. that’s so stylish. She also did it while embracing her hourglass figure, the closest we got to “curves” on screen in the 90s. Fran’s look remains one of the most iconic in television history and today there are millions of Instagram and TikTok accounts dedicated to recreating Fran’s appearance on different body types.
Now, The Nanny costume designer Brenda Cooper is sharing what she learned working on the show with her legions of fans. “I wanted [the book to feel] like I was in your closet with you and we were actually playing dress-up,” Cooper tells Bustle about her book, The Silhouette Solution. “[I want] to help each [reader] love who they are and step into their greatness.” Although the book is set during Cooper’s time in the series and even has a foreword by Drescher, The Silhouette Solution also focuses on how fashion can become an act of narcissism – regardless of What is your scale and budget? Because according to Cooper, you don’t need a body like Fran Fine or a bank account like Mr. Sheffield to love the way you dress.
Below, Cooper talks about dressing Drescher at 64, the concept of an “inner wardrobe,” and the core pieces everyone should have in their wardrobe.
I like how the book starts with managing your “inner closet.” Tell me a little bit about why it’s important to start there, because it’s not just asking “do these pieces fit together?”
Your “inner wardrobe” affects everything in your closet because how you feel about yourself affects everything. If you wake up and feel confident, you’re going to have a different day [than if you] wake up and feel terrible and look in the mirror. The way you dress is not superficial. It’s an emotional thing as well as a tangible thing about wearing a dress. So for me, the obvious place to start is the inner closet. And then start to dig into that closet and go behind that closet and see where our beliefs [about our bodies] are formed. From childhood, from what was told to us, from what the media told us.
While working on The Nanny, I often stood next to the screen as each scene was shot and Fran loved that I did that. Because I would dress her, yes, but then I would have to look at the camera and say, “How is she moving? What happens when she moves? Does that flatter her?” So I look at myself like that and that’s why I do my job well, because I look at the shape of my body. So you want to wear things that fit well and flatter your body. And develop a discerning eye.
At no point in your book does it say, you’re too tall to do this, you’re too big to do this. There is no such thing as a “bad body” in your book.
Because that is my truth and philosophy about women. You have the body you were destined to have. I have a body that fate has determined for me. And every woman in my world has the right to look fashionable, feel good about herself, and wear stylish clothes. I don’t care if you’re a petite size 2, or if you’re a size 22 or 24, you can look absolutely stunning. And I hate the rules of fashion. I really do, because they’re limiting.
You recently styled Fran for some HBO press to promote The Nanny. How have you adapted Fran Fine’s wardrobe to women her age today?
Those are subtle changes. People often say, “Oh, how are you going to dress Fran today?” I wouldn’t dress differently from her. It’s still the same concept, but it will lengthen the dress to look more elegant because of an extrard, and become romantic. Do a romantic look, do a traditional look, but you are all starting from the same place with these particular pieces. So the possibilities are endless.
