La Coisa Mais Linda & Design

Written by: Alice Braglia

‘La coisa mais linda’ is a brand new Netflix show, set in Brazil in the late 1950s, that follows the story of a young lady who gets abandoned by her husband. Left alone in San Paolo with a child, she decides to go to Rio de Janeiro to look for her husband. When she finds out he ran away with another woman without saying anything, she has the great idea of  taking into her hands the place he had just bought, and transform it into a night club, where they would play live music jazz and bossanova. Not just the story telling of the series is great, but also the aesthetics of it all make a real difference. I was fascinated by the photography, the setting, and the editing of the series; and let’s not forget about the costumes!

Set in the golden years of fashion, they couldn’t not nail it: they went for the pastel colors and sophisticated shapes of the 50s, pairing it with the voluminous hairstyle and definite, elegant makeup. The women on the show look flawless and their look is always in line with their character.

The apartments are the classical aesthetics of the middle class of that time, modern and kind of minimal but in style. The post production they did on the shots is what really gives an atmosphere to the show: always keeping the tone warm, especially on the beach where the main colors are orange and yellow, then toning it down to a cooler one for the club scenes set at night. Throughout the episodes it’s easy to find Wes Anderson inspired shots, not just in the symmetrical points of view but mainly in the pastel color palette they seem to stick to. The fonts they use are mainly seen in the night club as invitations or billboard, and you can tell they’re definitely inspired by the art deco of the 20s, probably to keep everything connected with jazz. The music of course also plays a very important role, playing in the background most of the time it helps setting the tone.

I find this theme to be a trend now, both in photography and movies/series, but I admire how they didn’t end up doing just another vintage looking mini serie, they managed to make a pleasant show worth watching both for the story and the production.

I definitely recommend watching the show not just because it’s great but also because it can be really inspiring for the artistic choices they made!