Jason Isaacs, left, Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sarah Catherine Hook and Sam Nivola in Season 3 of “The White Lotus.” Composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer announced he will not return for the show’s fourth season. Credit: Fabio Lovino/HBO via TNS
Set on the tropical island of Koh Samui, Thailand, the third season of HBO’s “The White Lotus” delivered a blend of luxury and Thai cultural fashion.
The latest season continues the series’ signature formula, bringing together guests and staffers from various socioeconomic backgrounds at a luxurious resort, where underlying tensions, personal conflicts and cultural ignorance unfold against a lavish backdrop.
With Season 3 officially wrapping up Sunday, members of Ohio State’s film and fashion community are examining how the wardrobe helps advance the plot and reinforce the show’s core themes.
Mekhiya Martin — a third-year in fashion and retail studies, as well as co-director of design for Ohio State’s Fashion Production Association — said she personally noticed a resurgence of popular styles from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s.
“[The show’s designers are] playing a lot with color, and bold patterns and stuff like that, like swimwear and vacation luxury wear,” Martin said. “I think that that’s gonna start coming back, especially this summer.”
Martin said she noticed less integration between luxury and culture compared to previous seasons — during which fashion more so reflected the setting, namely florals in Season 1’s Maui, Hawaii location and minimalism in Season 2’s Sicily, Italy setting — and instead saw a sharper emphasis on the wealth disparities among the characters.
“The main message I took was noticing the guests’ disrespect of the Thai culture, even though they spent all this money to get there, while the workers remained grounded in tradition,” Martin said.
In keeping with the theme of wealth disparity, Martin said Alex Bovaird — the series’ main costume designer, who earned Emmy awards for her work on the show’s first two seasons — intentionally portrayed the hotel guests not as individuals engaging with the local culture, but as oblivious, entitled Americans who show little appreciation for their surroundings.
This is sharply contrasted with the wardrobe choices for the resort’s staff, Martin said.
“I can definitely tell that the workers are not as wealthy as the guests, with them being in the most traditional, casual clothing, and the guests having none of that cultural authenticity,” Martin said. “Most of the characters are not respecting the culture this season; they are kind of just like, ‘We’re American, and we are here. That’s it.’”
Martin said only one character was partially excluded from this portrayal in the third season: Piper Ratliff (Sarah Catherine Hook), who traveled to Thailand due to her interest in Buddhism and the possibility of entering a monastery.
“Her character specifically dressed more modestly compared to everyone else because she was there for the religious aspect,” Martin said. “She didn’t show as much skin and represented moving away from the spoiled girl family dynamic.”
Matthew Swift, Ohio State’s director of film studies, said with a show like “The White Lotus,” which changes locations each season, the costume designers ultimately face the unique task of capturing the essence of each setting in a new and striking way through clothing.
“The biggest challenge for these designers is trying to create this location through the wardrobe and trying to get a feeling for viewers of actually being there,” Swift said.
Swift said the show’s costume design plays a key role in its intentional portrayal of both the appeal and the unease tied to resort settings. Though “The White Lotus” showcases stunning landscapes of beautiful destinations, he said it also subtly reveals the disruption and displacement that often accompany the wider tourism industry.
“There’s like a pointed effort to try to make you feel like these people, the characters, we’re displacing into this area of locale,” Swift said. “They’re trying to focus on this resort town, and in a way, show how resorts exploit the environment in the end.”
