“Emily Cooper” moves from Chicago as a marketing associate to work in Paris. Through her career journey, she lives a new adventure in her personal and practical life, and tries to balance between work, friendship and love... This is the brief story of the series “Emily in Paris”
The story looks simple and repeated, but it has gained a global fan base since it was first shown on Netflix in 2020, and the series's scope has continued to grow into this year, becoming one of the platform's most successful and popular romantic comedy series.
Emily in Paris's "Rising Tide"
الأكثر قراءة
The series presents a fictional version of the City of Light, where life is full of love and openness, with an idealization of the city's style, food and free-spirited romance, and embodies the world's passion for French popular culture.
This Parisian “fever” has affected many audiences around the world, as “Emily” has stimulated tourism and the influx of travelers to France, which is confirmed by the results of a new study conducted by the French National Center for Cinema (CNC), which reported that 38% of tourists mentioned the series as one of the reasons for their visit to Paris, and that they felt a desire to travel and shop on the Champs-Élysées after watching the series.
Not only the audience, but also the appearance of the French First Lady, Brigitte Macron, in her real character, during the events of the fourth season of the series, was striking, as she played a role in a short scene in which she takes a selfie with "Emily" in a restaurant, indicating the French President's wife's support for the series and her admiration for it.
In the corridors of politics, a diplomatic confrontation has erupted between the two neighbors, Italy and France, against the backdrop of Emily's travel to Rome and the transfer of the series' events to the Italian capital during the final episodes of the fourth season, amid expectations that the fifth season will be filmed in Rome.
This angered President Emmanuel Macron, who told the American newspaper “Variety” that he would “fight hard” to keep the series in France. On the other side of the Alps, the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, was enthusiastic, writing on his X account: "Dear Emmanuel Macron, rest assured, Emily looks really great in Rome, and don't forget, no one can control matters of feelings and the heart, let her - meaning Emily - choose between the two cities."
Emily and the Climate Dilemma
Amidst all this commotion, the series continues to draw criticism for its clichés of Paris and the stereotypical image of the capital of love in the series. It always appears as a set of clean streets free of garbage or animal waste, with colorful squares free of homeless people in the middle of the blue Seine River, an image that is completely devoid of realism, and some have described it as a vulgar fantasy!
In fact, this stereotyping and detachment from reality in presenting an image of life within cities in drama is not only a cultural or societal issue, but also a climatic one. But, does the City of Light still look the same under the darkness of the climate crisis?
David Belliard, the deputy mayor of Paris and the city's head of public spaces and transport, wrote an opinion piece last year in the French magazine “Libération” rejecting the series, calling it "disturbing" because it completely ignored climate issues.
The image of Paris in the series is "caricatured", according to Belliard. It appeared as just a group of upscale neighborhoods inhabited by the rich, with a unified architectural heritage, as Belliard said: “It’s Paris as seen on Instagram”; flawless colors and perfect looks, completely erasing the constraints imposed by climate change and resource scarcity.”
"Billiard” was surprised by the image of "revived" Paris in the series, while in reality it is swept by historic heat waves that have reached catastrophic levels in recent years, and then he asked: How does “Emily” enjoy her life in a high-rise apartment in the Latin Quarter? As apartments are usually inhabited by the poorest people, they turn into unbearable ovens in hot weather!
The Deputy Mayor of Paris added: “While we could reduce the temperatures in these apartments by simply painting the roofs white, no one is willing to give up the colorful Parisian facades out of nostalgia for the stereotypical city, at a time when adapting to climate change should be a top priority for all of us.”
Fashion and consumer lifestyle
The series has been widely subjected to criticism for promoting consumerism and "high-carbon" luxury lifestyles, which are inconsistent with the Paris Climate Agreement, and for its stylish looks that bring to the foreground the issue of the fashion industry as one of the most polluting and resource-intensive industries.
The fourth season... Correcting the sustainability path a little
This recently showed season offers a glimmer of hope on the subject of sustainability, as it attempts to incorporate some concepts that reflect global environmental values into the episodes’ events:
Circular Fashion and Recycled Accessories
In the first episode, Mindy, a singer and Emily's best friend, visits "Vestiaire Collective”, the world's leading online platform for used fashion, to sell her dress..
“Vestiaire Collective” is a real-life platform known for its role in popularizing circular fashion, allowing people to buy and sell pre-owned luxury goods, and has even created a “From Paris with Love” collection, which offers fans the opportunity to purchase pre-owned styles inspired by the series.
It also featured a variety of vintage and archival looks from some of the series' stars, showing viewers that slow fashion is worth paying attention to.
In another scene, an intern with Emily at work explains her previous job at a startup that offers clothing rental services for weddings, cocktail parties, or business events. The intern explains the importance of these rental clothes in reducing fashion waste and waste. The intern also sheds light on the company's environmental and ethical policies and its interest in recycling and animal welfare.
In the fifth episode, Emily wears a bag made from recycled grape waste, designed by Parisian company INCXNNUE, focusing on artisan style that puts innovation and sustainability first.
At first glance, all of these shots may seem like just stylish scenes or clever marketing, but in fact they are a prime example of how drama and media can indirectly drive cultural and environmental transformations.
Fashion and elegant looks are a major reason for the series' success and its wide fan base of women, who follow in the footsteps of the heroines of "Emily in Paris" on the path of fashion.
The series’ characters move away from the stereotypical scenes of the heroine shopping from the most expensive brands in order to be influential in the fashion world, and move towards sustainable and ethical choices that suit the climate era, inspiring the work’s audience and making them move away from fast fashion and adopt a more conscious purchasing pattern through used fashion platforms, for example, which reduces the demand for the production of new clothes, saves resources and reduces emissions.
With time and changing public purchasing behavior, the high fashion industry will find itself forced to adopt the concepts of sustainability, environmental responsibility and ethics.
It may be difficult for Emily to give up her "luxurious" life, but she can certainly change the concepts of the fast fashion industry, which clings to creating a world of suspicious elegance, and perhaps one day Emily can achieve the dream of pink sustainability, which combines fashion that respects nature and elegance together.
