The Best Fashion Moments in Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme”

Cartier Catholicism, Prada picnic gear, and Sandy Liang-loving nuns

At the tail end of spring in New York, as it rained for the zillionth day in a row, I resigned myself to a plush chair with a bucket of popcorn and a purse full of gummy candy for a trip to Modern Greater Independent Phoenicia.

all images courtesy focus features

The perfect rainy day escape, a Wes Anderson film is an afternoon holiday in a square world where everything moves with speed and purpose¹ — a sharp contrast to real life where everything feels painfully random (and not nearly as beautifully stylized).

The thing I found most captivating about the movie was the costuming. Visually, it’s exactly what you’d expect (and love) from an Anderson project: warm vintage color palette; brilliantly intricate props; and some of the most enviable ensembles you’ll see on the silver screen.

So take a quick trip with me to Phoenicia, won’t you? There’s Cartier and Prada and sexy oversized sunglasses right this way…

(Warning for minor detail spoilers but no major plot reveals. Nothing more than what’s already in the trailer!)

Peter Pan-Collared Habit

Sister Liesl, played by Mia Threapleton, is en route to a life of piety, but her father has different ideas. Liesl meets these ideas with resistance: a resistance personified by the purity she is clothed in.

Liesl wears her religion on more than just her sleeve, it’s the rest of her shirt, her skirt, her tights, her necklace, her head-covering, and her bare face too. She is heaven on earth, wrapped in pure white cotton clutching a simple wooden rosary, unmistakably devoted to things not of this world.

Liesl’s top — a short sleeve button up with a Peter Pan collar — feels like it could have come straight off the rack at Sandy Liang. It’s appropriate for the film’s 1950 setting (this collar had a major moment in the mid-20th century), yet it still feels completely modern. This dual-identity habit could only exist in a Wes Anderson movie, and only Wes Anderson could render me jealous of a nun’s closet.

Cartier and the Colors of Sin

Remarkably, Sister Liesl wears almost the exact same outfit for nearly the entire film and yet her styling is the most impactful of any character. Slight changes and subtle additions of color punctuate a descent into debauchery as her devotion to the holy world begins to waver.

I mean, no longer can the nun be thought of as modest when she’s clutching an emerald, ruby, and diamond Cartier rosary.

My favorite thing about Catholicism is the drama. I attended a Catholic high school, plaid skirts and all, and while the religion didn’t particularly stick, the romanticism certainly did. If Catholics got one thing right it was the grandeur.

Liesl’s rosary stands out by its own merit (it’s Cartier after all) but it shines particularly against the white background of her habit, framing the jewels like a stark matte paired with a priceless work of art. Red and green are a through line in her style as it progresses, and we see this next in her lipstick, eyeshadow, nail polish, and tights.

Jungle green tights are switched for the original white, and a matching shadow paints her lids; she lacquers her nails and lips in a cherry red incapable of subtly; and in a final act of rebellion, she trades in her wooden tobacco pipe for a bejeweled one.

In these forms, there’s nothing godly about a Christmas-y pairing of red and green: they represent the exact sins that defy Liesl’s religious path. Lust and greed might only be Dante’s second and fourth circles of hell, but they’re still in hell. No place for a nun and her Sandy Liang habit.

Prada Picnic Bag

I have a well documented interest in all things Prada but especially things of the bag variety. So you can only imagine my delight in discovering that this red beauty — a central prop to the film, attached to Michael Cera’s character at the hip — is custom Prada.

Its structured square frame and top-loading design harkens back to a classic wooden woven picnic basket, and the red and white houndstooth-y detailing is reminiscent of a gingham picnic blanket. All the more silly and entertaining that the Prada picnic bag is filled with cash.

The bag is one of one, unfortunately, much to Michael Cera’s dismay. In an interview from Focus Features, he lamented its unavailability and called it “a very ready-for-the-airport kind of thing” with the unique back-strap carrying option.

Sexy Sunglasses

This shape feels somewhere between an aviator and a cat eye, a perfect blend of practicality and flair, grit and charm, fitting for a character of the same proportions. These are the ideal glasses for our lead, Zsa-Zsa Korda played by Benicio del Toro — someone who is 1. constantly flying and 2. obsessed with beautiful things.

Anderson commissioned the glasses from LA-based brand Oliver Peoples, and only 10 of the style were put into production and released for purchase. I’d venture to guess del Toro looks good in any shaped sunglasses (he just has one of those faces), but this unique style flawlessly straddles the line between work and play.

Pinky Signet Rings

The pinky signet ring is an accessory of the cartoonishly evil (famously a feature motif of Austin Powers’s Dr. Evil, the most cartoonish caricature of a movie villain). The evils of the Wes Anderson world feel a bit cartoonish even when they’re live action. Just like every frame of a cartoon is drawn, every frame of an Anderson project is meticulously orchestrated giving the scenes an animation that’s otherwise difficult to capture with a camera.

It’s also a piece of jewelry long associated in media with organized crime. Anderson shared in an interview with Vanity Fair that his inspiration for this project’s idea of “tycoon” was “somebody who’s in a 1950s Italian movie.” So it makes perfect sense that the rings on the film’s host of powerful men feel like a detail plucked straight from The Godfather.

Marked by its flat top often engraved with initials or a family crest, a signet ring is traditionally worn on the left pinky finger.

Zsa-Zsa’s ring is notably on his right hand in the below scene, begging the question: is he wearing it on his right pinky finger because his other hand is in a cast, or is it reflective of how his nature differs from the others? Perhaps it signifies a future down a path more righteous than his counterparts? (I was too engrossed in the movie to check its placement in every single scene, so if you have any notes please do share.)

Honorable Mention: Pinstripes

The pinstripes are never-ending in Modern Greater Independent Phoenicia — another nod to the 1950s mob persona that Anderson was referencing. Pinstripes have such a cheeky feel to me, and these custom Taillour looks work so well especially for Tom Hanks’s and Bryan Cranston’s characters who are as cheeky as they are stern.

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Have you seen The Phoenician Scheme yet? Would love to hear your thoughts! As always, you can in touch with me at mackinley@yeehawt.com if you’d like to work together or find me doing other things on IG.

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1. In regards to this, I think Wes Anderson and Amy Sherman-Palladino have a lot in common in the way they write and direct their characters… Gilmore Girls x Royal Tenenbaums crossover reboot when