Warning: This post contains spoilers for Tell Me Lies seasons 1–3, including the series finale.
Tell Me Lies is officially coming to an end with season 3, and what better way is there to celebrate the show's finale than by breaking down some of the key sartorial moments from the season and unpacking all the secrets hidden in the show's clothes with Emmy-winning costume designer Charlotte Svenson?
Since its premiere in 2022, Tell Me Lies, led by IRL couple Grace Van Patten and Jackson White, has been one of the buzziest shows on TV, and it all came to an end in the season 3 finale titled "Are You Happy Now, That I'm on My Knees?", which premiered on Feb 17. 2026. “What an episode,” Svenson tells Teen Vogue, Zooming in from California a week before the fated day. “I don't mean to toot our own horn, but that is the craziest episode I've ever seen on television. Literally, I get goosebumps.”
The show has been building up to this moment for years, and Svenson has been there each step of the way, crafting a quintessential wardrobe that has as many followers as the show itself. “The thing I'm most proud of is that, for the look of the show, we really struck a chord with what is happening now with fashion in Gen Z and the revival of Y2K by doing it justice with the nostalgia of the time, and creating this timeless look even though, technically, it's now almost 20 years old," she says.
Just as the characters have come a long way, so have the costumes. “Each season has come with its own separate issues, especially season 1, just thinking about the girls entering college and coming in from high school. None of these girls had had losses of innocence or had any real style at that point. Grace [Van Patten], Cat [Missal], and Sonia [Mena] can all pull off fashion so well. So, not having everything be a moment was the hard part in the beginning. Now, we get to have a little bit more fun in season 3.”
Below, Svenson breaks down some of the key looks from season 3 and unpacks all the secrets hidden in the clothing—from the girls' everyday looks to Lucy's bridesmaid bag.
1. Bree and Pippa's everyday looks
Early in the season, we still see the girls wearing everyday clothes in the 2008 timeline, with some items serving as a bridge between seasons 2 and 3, like Bree's American Rag jacket here which appears in both seasons. It pairs perfectly with the vintage Banana Republic bag Svenson found.
“We knew it was going to be the first day of school, so we really wanted to have an impactful moment," Svenson says. “We also knew that Bree was going to be roaming the halls and maybe seeing Oliver for the first time. We wanted it to be the exact opposite of what she was doing [prior], showing a lot of skin. But now she is not. So we knew it was going to be like a full scarf, whole shebang moment.”
As far as Pippa's look, Svenson was trying to ground the character and connect her storylines. “She's coming back a renewed brunette, from a moment of a really bad summer. Wrigley's brother died; [she's] holding his hand through that. And what are we going to see on the other side? Her being really armored and very put together. It's a new version of herself, because that's always happening with Pippa. It's always a new version.”
That put-togetherness was achieved with vintage Frye boots, a vintage Coach bag, a Narciso Rodriguez skirt, and a new Acne top worn over an Emilio Pucci sweater that has been part of Pippa's closet for a while. “She actually wears it in a scene in her dorm last year, but we don't really see it on camera; it's gorgeous. It's like this butterfly lace top.”
2. Lucy and Bree's night out
One of Svenson's favorite looks of the season is Lucy's vintage Dolce & Gabbana jacket. “In season three, it's a show about coats,” Svenson continues. “We're loving the fur-trim jackets. You get to really play into realism in a way that's helpful, so I don't try to be too precious about if they're wearing the same jacket again, as long as it's not with the same jeans, same shoes, same shirt. I think it helps ground the show in reality.”
Bree's look to complement Grace featured a vintage GAP leather miniskirt and a top from the Canadian brand Dynamite. “What was interesting about working in Canada is they didn't have the mall brands that we had during the 2000s,” Svenson says of the production move from Atlanta for season 3. “They don't have a lot of Ralph Lauren or vintage Abercrombie running the streets. They had their own versions like Mexx, Dynamite, Parasuco… Canada had their own thing going on, so it was fun discovering these brands [for the show].”
3. Bree's “one of the girls” uniform
In keeping with the jackets, Bree in episode 2 also gets a D&G moment of her own in the vintage red number, which is complemented with a '90s Betsey Johnson top and Sam Edelman ballet flats.
“This really was taking the best of what Lucy was doing and [giving] Bree's take on it,” Svenson says. “During that time, there weren't a lot of versions of style. What was cool was what was cool. If you wanted to be cool, you had True Religion, you had Tiffany's, you had David Yurman, you had the fur-trim coat. So, how do we do that and service Bree's story? Because she is a thriftier person and obviously went outside her class and socioeconomic status.”
4. Après-ski bonanza
The après-ski looks are perhaps one of the most talked-about looks from Tell Me Lies season 3, and they are an amalgam of all of the resources Svenson tapped for the show. Lucy's look is a mix of vintage Bebe sourced from Statuette in Canada, vintage fur-trimmed Nine West boots, a brand-new Jaded London top, and a vintage Victoria's Secret bombshell bra.
Bree's central piece is a “really old” Forever 21 top that Svenson lugged from the US with her. Pippa's is a mix of vintage Diesel and DIY ice-cube earrings, with pieces sourced from Amazon. Molly, on the other hand, wears a Pucci-inspired look. While Diana's top, inspired by '90s Ralph Lauren, was sourced from King Lis via Depop.
5. Lucy's video
Lucy's tape look is probably the most pivotal piece of clothing for the whole season. It set the tone from the get-go. It was in the trailer. It's the start of the show. It's the moment that they talk about for most of the season. So, it's only natural to wonder: Why a red top?
“We got in a little bit of a [debate] over this look,” Svenson shares. “The director, Ed Lilly, who is a friend of mine and a brilliant director, really wanted that shot of the confessional tape to feel very static and very gel-like. I had a different take on it, which was like I knew that this was going to be a moment for the show, that it was going to repeat many times. I wanted it to be a color. I knew that the background was going to be really faded, but this felt so right for her.”
“I feel like red is used in this show a lot to notate really big moments of just emotional turmoil, like a gray area, if you will,” she continues. “For Bree, for example, in season 2, going to the bar with Oliver over the holiday for the long weekend, she wears red. The red underwear in season 2, it comes up a lot. I think red is a color that we all think of when we think of just bold, especially this shade. Cherry red one is such a great notation of the time, and it's just visually so striking.
"I also think that the juxtaposition between the adult decision she's making, with this sweet lace top, is so amazing and stunning. I think it really ultimately worked for the show, but it was a little bit of a tiff.”
6. Lucy's “sad pink sweater”
Another one of Lucy's outfits depicting that dichotomy between adulthood and innocence is “this sad pink sweater,” as Svenson puts it. “It literally looks like a deflated balloon,” she says with a laugh. “Because it had been packed away for so long, there was no life left in this sad little bow…I honestly think this says everything we need to know about Lucy."
This “deflated” pink look is a stark contrast to the other pink look we see Lucy in this season, which is actually in a throwback pic during Bree's exhibit, which Svenson concocted as a little easter egg: emotionally and psychologically a reflection of her past self.
“People have started catching onto this, in the exhibit from episode 7, where she's wearing that pink sweater. This is predating Stephen, and she looks really happy. [Seeing the photo], she's in this really dark outfit, and Jackson or Stephen's illuminating in the corner, and she's looking at herself pre-Stephen. I think that's another really great moment.”
7. Lucy's “revenge" dress
In contrast to the previous red look, this look for a date with Alex finds Lucy regaining control—or trying to. It's the character's take on the classic revenge dress.
"Because I grew up during this time, the show is very visceral, and I see myself in a little bit of all these characters. I had a moment. I came back from Christmas break, and it was when Hervé Léger was so hot. I remember my college roommate gifted me a dress that looked exactly like this for Christmas, and it was my revenge moment. I went to the bar, and I was between boyfriends. I wanted to be dating this one guy, and I just broke up with this other guy," Svenson shared. “And, having this personal moment with a dress like this at a very similar point in time, I knew it was going to be the moment.”
8. Diana's something borrowed
Despite their relationship being hidden, Diana is straight-up borrowing clothes from Pippa for her season 3 wardrobe. As Svenson confirms, this Jonathan Simkhai cut-out knit top actually appears for the first time on Pippa in season one.
While Pippa's style then was very casual, Diana put her own preppy twist on it. “Diana wears it with this little plaid, vintage Abercrombie & Fitch skirt," Svenson says.
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9. Pippa and Lucy's bikinis
One of the 'fits that made a splash—quite literally—were the bikinis, with fans trying to figure out just how long Lucy wore hers for, and we have the answer.
“People don't think we're shooting this for over two days, and they're in the pool for 12 hours, and they're getting out and in, so, you really have to have at least five of every bathing suit, so that they're not walking around with wet bathing suits all the time if they don't have to be,” Svenson says, adding that bathing suits, for that reason, are often source new. In this case, they came from ASOS and Triangl, respectively. She paired them with Lucy's skirt, which “came at the umpteenth hour,” was sourced from Etsy from Ukraine, while Pippa's was from Miss Sixty.
And, now, if you were wondering why Lucy did not change out of her bathing suit in the following scenes, the mastermind beind it is one person and one person only: Grace Van Patten.
“Grace was the one [to suggest her not changing],” Svenson says. “In my costume designer brain and then the brain of the showrunner, she showers and then goes over to Alex's house. So, in my mind, she was not in the bathing suit. But that morning that we shot it, Grace was like, ‘Okay, hear me out. What if she never takes off the bathing suit?’ And it's, again, dipping our toe into what we did season 2 [when she doesn't change her underwear between seeing Stephen and Leo].”
“Grace is such a genius. Honestly, all of her thoughts about her character are so well presented, and she really takes this character to a different level," she adds. "I think this was a moment that she was really able to speak up and be like, ‘This is what I know about the character.’”
10. Everyone's a goth at heart
Over the three seasons of Tell Me Lies, the characters have attended themed parties aplenty, but the goth Valentine's party might take the cake.
“The fun thing about the goth party was just that it was something that we hadn't done yet, which was what was happening at the time. Emo culture was penetrating everything: music, fashion, attitude,” Svenson says. “We hadn't really touched on that in the show, just because we haven't had a moment to. So, being able to do it was very fun.”
"Everyone loves the looks, which is great, but some people are saying, 'This isn't what emo was at the time.' I think those people are actually forgetting there was this fashion emo moment with I Hate Blonde and the rise of Jeffrey Campbell. There was a version of emo that was just really affluent girls pretending to be something that they're not. And that's what I really wanted to strike a chord with [for] these looks."
Bree's goth Valentine's look also doubles as the look for her first kiss with Wrigley, and the sweetness of the moment cuts through the leather and spikes of her Niihai boots with her “Girls love to have fun” heart-shaped embroidery on her moto jacket, which Svenson sourced from a Depop seller in Canada.
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11. Lucy's brief “in control” moment
Svenson's all-time favorite look from season 3 is this black-and-red number on Lucy, featuring a belt she made herself and a Dolce & Gabbana pointelle cardigan set that she wears to Bree's exhibit, which represents the character's calm-before-the-storm mindset.
“She thinks that she has more control than she does in this moment, and she ends up not having any control — surprise, surprise,” Svenson says with a laugh. “But, for her, it's still a moment of being powerful and feeling in control, and finally able to level out, where it's not provocative and showing a lot of skin. It's somewhere in the middle, where she's powerful herself and still looks sexy and great.”
“Meaghan is truly a genius because she has created so many relationships on the show. One of them, actually, being me and the writer. We started dating this season,” Svenson coyly shares. “Anyway, we got in a mini fight on set about this, but there's this jacket that she wears on top of this look when she's in Stephen's dorm. That's actually my jacket, and it's brown with a fur-trimmed collar. It's very Dolce '90s vibes.”
12. Lucy's go-to
In the realm of jackets, one takes the cake for Lucy, and it's this vintage XOXO faux fur jacket, which she sports twice throughout the season. “She has two moments wearing it in the season because we loved it so much,” Svenson shares. “I think of it as her college class coat because she wears this in this moment, and then with the sad deflated balloon sweater.”
It's ironic to think of Lucy having her grounding, anchoring jacket as well as her Marc Jacobs backpack with her during her spiraling moment, when she has no control over anything, but it's that dichotomy that Svenson finds the most appealing. Looking your best when you think you've got it all figured out, only to then fall.
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While everyone wears sage and neutral for the wedding, Diana steps out in red, which we see throughout the season, but really gets a moment to shine in the finale in all its glory, after breaking free from Stephen for good.
The reasoning behind the red? “Honestly, she just looks kick-ass in red,” Svenson says. “And it was, again, a story about a color and how we could pick her out from a crowd, because we have that moment of seeing her in season 2 and in season 3 again in the crowd, where they're looking at each other. I really wanted it to visually help the audience along with that.” Suffice to say, goal achieved.
14. Bree's bridal secrets
Bree's engagement party also acquires a new meaning this season, especially after seeing her have sex with Wrigley for the first time in this dress that we've continuously seen her wearing. Did Svenson know the dress was going to be part of a sex scene when she was first styling the character? “I'm sure I did not,” she says with a laugh. “Luckily, it had so much stretch for that moment, but we had no idea. We certainly didn't know when we shot it that we'd be shooting them in it for three seasons!”
However prominent Bree's engagement dress might be, it is not actually Svenson's favorite bridal regalia for Bree; that's reserved for her Sau Lee mini dress. “We took some embellishments off of it. It fits so well. I mean, Sau Lee does great designs, and it's so fitted and stunning and looks great.”
15. Lucy's final look
Who would have known that the dress that would end it all was with us all along? Despite giving us plenty of looks throughout the three seasons, Lucy ends the show in her sage bridesmaid dress, now with a small bag, tagging along just to be left on the side of the road.
“I knew I wanted it to be an antique brocade bucket bag, a drawstring bag. I remember sitting in that meeting and people having different thoughts. Again, I'm fighting with my girlfriend, sitting next to me. She's like, 'I don't know.' I was like, ‘No, this is the bag.’
"The purse was building on a story that was already in the making. And in my mind, it was her mom's bag that she gave to her just in those moments. I think it's so great to have just a grounding reminder of, like, ‘Oh, that just f*cking happened.’ And I think she's laughing about it because she's so [f*cked], but having that, again, grounding reminder that she can still be herself and there's a piece of it there.”
“It's great because it's not the moment of the scene. It shouldn't be, but it still stands out. And there are two Coke cans sitting in that little bag. That's why it stands up straight. Isn't that great?”
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