I can’t stop thinking about red dresses this January. Scratch that. I can’t stop thinking about a very particular, very Versace red dress this January. While buried in blankets watching the box, I was delivered a soccer punch of a siren-red gown on Camila Morrone in The Night Manager. We’re talking the kind of va va voom dress that transports you from the depths of winter to somewhere fabulously farflung – in this case: Colombia.
Morrone, in case you’re not up to speed, plays Roxana Bolaños, a drop-dead gorgeous Colombia-born, Miami-based broker helping Tom Hiddleston’s Jonathan Pine – who now goes by Alex Goodwin – to infiltrate a Colombian arms operation run by Teddy Dos Santos, a young, hot tycoon in Scarface-adjacent suiting. But enough about his white tailoring, it’s Roxy’s muted separates that take centre stage from the first time we see her.
At dinner wearing The Row workwear – the kind that Hailey and Kendall stocked up on when positioning themselves as model moguls, rather than just clothes horses – Bolaños is the perfect template of the one per cent boss lady. “Roxana is a big budget kind of character,” says series two costume designer Oliver Cronk, as my eyes light up at his mention of Khaite in the mix. (We love to hear of a healthy fashion budget at the Beeb.)
Of course, anyone can pull off a Meghan Markle-coded uniform supplied by the Olsen twins – that’s the point of elevated everyday essentials. It’s the firecracker Versace gown that’s the real show-stealer. “I can’t tell you how many dresses we looked at to get it right,” says Cronk, the quest to source a “high-impact look for a big head-turning entrance” still fresh in his mind. We could have told him Versace would always win out. As soon as Morrone, who was practically made to model Donatella’s sexiest designs, put on the classic draped confection with the signature Medusa clip, they knew it was the one. To enhance the wow factor, the team stripped out any other warm tones from the cocktail party scene in question. “You don’t realise it, but your eyes have been starved of red,” adds Cronk, who was led by the innate glamour of Penélope Cruz when mapping out the moment.
Bianca Jagger also made the moodboard, but it wasn’t these bold-faced names that were the most integral to Cronk’s vision of the realtor with an active Amex. Rather, it was Johanna Ortiz. The craft-forward designer based in Cali, Colombia – who prioritises community over commerce – consulted on Bolaños’s closet, particularly the prints and accessories. The hibiscus-splashed pool dress we see Roxana wearing in episode two comes from Ortiz’s female-centric atelier, and encapsulates the international jetset lifestyle of Morrone’s character while staying true to Roxana’s roots – in other words, the tension that gets her in such a bind in the series.
