Editor’s Note: Featuring the good, the bad and the ugly, ‘Look of the Week’ is a regular series dedicated to unpacking the most talked about outfit of the last seven days.
CNN
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When Megan Stalter, the leading lady in Lena Dunham’s new Netflix series “Too Much,” arrived on stage at “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” this week, she did so in a calf-length honey blonde wig and a top that declared she was the prettiest girl in America. “It must be serious actor night,” Stalter quipped as she took her place beside Colbert — not before at least 5 seconds of wig-swishing, winking and kiss-blowing to the camera.
She is, after all, a comedian, who made her way through the stand-up circuits of Chicago and online via social media platforms such as TikTok, before eventually landing her breakout role in the HBO series “Hacks” in 2021. And now, just four years later, she has a starring role in Dunham’s latest — and highly anticipated — work of autofiction since the HBO hit “Girls.” (HBO and CNN share the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.)
Some actors might buckle under the pressure that newfound fame brings, but Stalter isn’t taking anything too seriously.
Stalter’s larger-than-life personality is apparent from the moment she struts on Colbert’s stage with a Prada Cleo shoulder bag tucked under her arm. “Oh I saw the screen up there! I look amazing,” she interrupts Colbert as they speak, her wig becoming progressively more tangled in her talon-like nails. She asks the late night host if he recently returned from Disney, and jokes about seeing him on Space Mountain, which Colbert finds visibly bewildering. But nothing seems to contribute to her “cringe” comedy style (a burgeoning subgenre of humor that revels in the discomfort of its viewers) more than her clothes.
Her strapless top — which, she tells Colbert, is really just her comedy tour merchandise tee stretched over a corset that she sewed in place on the car journey over — reads, plain and simple: “Meg Stalter is the Prettiest Girl in America.” A photo of Stalter appears emblazoned on the front, this time in an even lighter blonde wig, wearing a stars and stripes bikini, with the American flag as the backdrop. “I love your shirt,” said Colbert, to which Stalter replied, “So many people kept saying it I thought it was probably time to put it on a damn shirt!” before throwing another theatrical wink into the crowd. Even her Prada bag becomes a prop. As she lays it before Colbert and he begins to explore its contents, she swiftly scolds him: “You never know how many tampons might be in there if I’m on my big period!”
The outfit is only a few turns of the dial away from what her character Jessica might wear in “Too Much.” In the show, which is loosely based on Dunham’s own transatlantic move in 2021, Jessica’s outsized American buoyancy makes her incongruous in London, a city known for its reserved and emotionally aloof residents. She experiences culture shock and has the occasional misunderstanding (see her misinterpretation of the English swearword “bollocking”) after emigrating to the city from New York.
On screen, Jessica’s clothes are audacious, quirky and unpredictable — in one scene she accessorizes a ‘70s-style paisley PVC trench coat with a fur collar by CeliaB with a turquoise bag; in another, she wears a custom-made metallic blue ruffled minidress with a giant bow on the back. The fusion of bold colors, clashing prints and other odd-ball pairings, selected by the show’s costume designer Arielle Cooper-Lethem, help visually render Jessica as an outsider in London, where neutral colored-clothing has largely become a ubiquitous uniform. “She’s living her glam dream, but she’s still not quite able to blend in,” Cooper-Lethem told W Magazine. “Like, she doesn’t know how to be quiet.”
Kat Typaldos, who has been curating Stalter’s’s recent press tour looks, also took cues from Cooper-Lethem. “Her work inspired my approach,” Typaldos recently wrote on Instagram Stories, alongside a photo of Stalter at the show’s LA screening.
Still, longtime fans of Stalter will know she has always found fashion funny. During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel in 2021, the actor staggered onto the stage in a tiara, a giant pink tulle princess dress and a sash that read “Prettiest Girl in the World”. Like an unhinged Miss World winner, she contorted her face as if she were crying while cradling a bouquet of roses, before blowing kisses to the audience and taking her seat. At the Critics Choice Celebration of LGBTQ+ Cinema and Television in Los Angeles last month, Stalter wore a Di Petsa dress and her prom-queen tiara once more, this time with a “Best Gay Actor” sash (Stalter identifies as bisexual).
Needless to say, Stalter is not afraid to maximize a press opportunity with a head-turning outfit — particularly when a superlative is involved. In fact, she might just be the Most Fearlessly Dressed Talk Show Guest we’ve ever seen.