In the fourth episode of The Perfect Couple – the soapy Netflix murder mystery that takes place on the island of Nantucket – Dakota Fanning’s character, the snobby Abby Winbury, has some choice words about a revealing Missoni dress worn by Meghann Fahy’s Merritt Monaco. “That is not a dress,” she smirks. “She’s wearing a bathing suit.” Fanning, with one swipe at an outfit, confirms to the viewer what the show has been hammering home for the past three episodes: Merritt isn’t one of them.
This is in great contrast to her husband, Tag Winbury, who lounges in bathrobes and wrinkled linen button-downs in the house his family has owned for generations. At the end of the series, the uncomfortable high-heel shoe drops: Greer is a former escort who married Tag and attempted to reinvent herself. Suddenly, her overdressed, overcompensating aesthetic makes sense. The Perfect Couple isn’t the only show using clothes to send subtle signals about class.