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Why Schitt's Creek's Moira Rose provides the wardrobe joy we all need right now

Catherine O'Hara as Moira Rose in Schitt's Creek - Pop TV
Catherine O'Hara as Moira Rose in Schitt's Creek - Pop TV

I shed a tear this morning and not because I’m dreading the impending second lockdown, but because Moira Rose finally got her Emmy. Gathered remotely together last night in Ontario, the cast and crew of Canadian TV show Schitt's Creek swept five Emmy awards for its sixth and ultimate season - finally, it got the recognition it was due.

Most deserving of all are Catherine O’Hara, who won best lead actress in a comedy series, and Debra Hansons and Darci Cheynes, who won for outstanding contemporary costumes - because this show is a fashion triumph, manifested most in O’Hara’s exuberant character Moira Rose, that brings joy to dark times.

If you haven’t already tuned in to Schitt’s Creek to get through 2020, now’s the hour. I guzzled all six seasons, plus the documentary special, Best Wishes, Warmest Regards, on Netflix during lockdown.

Schitt's Creek Catherine O'Hara emmy - Invision
Schitt's Creek Catherine O'Hara emmy - Invision

The show charts the fall and then rise of the Roses, an ultra rich American family akin to the Hiltons or the Kardashians, who, having lost everything, are exported from their grand mansion to the fictional small town of Schitt’s Creek with nothing but their phenomenally expensive wardrobes to remind them of the glory days.

The Roses’ powerful friends forget them as they bed down in the rickety local motel, floundering. It’s a snobs meet hicks scenario, elaborated over six seasons of sophisticated comedy, flecked with heart-rendering moments.

For many, my all-time favourite character Moira Rose is the standout hero of the show: an eccentric, egotistical former actress with an accent that swings between that of Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. She is the matriarch of the Rose family, wife to businessman Johnny and mother to David and Alexis. And it is her wardrobe and wig collection, that thrill beyond measure.

O’Hara wears looks not inspired by the catwalk, but straight from it - and they are unfailingly bold. Fashion followers will recognise the Altuzarra gingham suit she bid farewell in on the very last episode; the sculptural, frilled and striped Alexander McQueen dress she wore ahead of the premiere for her so-bad-it's-good movie The Crows; and the wet-look leather MSGM tea dress with added lace shoulder pieces and a bull ring stitched into its centre.

With each of these looks comes a new wig, ranging from her signature blonde bob to a bubblegum pink crop (for murder mystery night) and wild brown corkscrew curls (which she thinks will appeal to an LGBTQ+ group in her battle to be elected for town council). “It works for fashion reasons, it works for hiding or revealing what I’m feeling,” O’Hara explained. “It’s a protective helmet.” Her collection - mes bébés, as she refers to them - is mounted proudly on the wall of the family’s motel room just as a stag might be displayed in a hunting lodge. She is hanging on by a wig and a cuff and she knows it.

Moira, better than anyone, is a master of expressive, literal dressing. She breaks down in the first scene of season six, crawling out of the cupboard - where she was hiding - in an unkempt, shaggy white wig and a loose black shift dress with a childlike white collar, looking utterly unravelled. One piece of good news later and she’s back dressing as the star she so aspires to rediscover, stepping out in a glittering silver MSGM skirt.

And O’Hara’s scene-stealing vision for Moira Rose is rooted in reality. She was first inspired by pictures of the socialite and fashion designer, Daphne Guinness, heiress to the brewing dynasty and friend of influential designers Phillip Tracey and the late Alexander McQueen and Isabella Blow, and wearer of dazzling couture.

As Moira’s character becomes louder and more exaggerated from season one-to-six, her fashion comes on the journey, more inventive and outrageous from episode to episode. The final season is a victory lap - ‘peak Moira’, as fans clamoured on Twitter.

The crescendo is glorious. Moira floats in to officiate a wedding in the final episode dressed as the pope, in a dramatic white Alexander McQueen robe with golden gloves and a bedazzled mitre, which was conjoined to a blonde wig that was so long it fell to her thighs. All you can do at that point is smile - this is fashion at its most fun.

In some ways, we are all a bit Moira: just as she was plucked from her life of luxury and dropped into a small town, the whole world has been forced to embrace a jarring new normal, no doubt with more surprises to come. Whatever is next for this turbulent year, I’ll be dressing to take it on with a brand new philosophy - asking WWMW? That's 'what would Moira wear', naturally.

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