When we think of ‘90s style icons, so many come to mind. There’s Cher Horowitz from Clueless, Drew Barrymore with her slip dresses, Courtney Love with her babydoll grunge dresses, and the teenage witches from The Craft. But there’s one particular style maven seemingly omnipresent in our social media feeds: Fran Fine. The star of ’90s sitcom The Nanny, played by Fran Drescher, is famous for her bold, colorful, scene-stealing looks.
In the past few years, we’ve seen a surge of interest in the The Nanny, which aired from 1993 to 1999, despite the lack of streaming (a missed opportunity for Netflix and Hulu). The renewed interest is due in part to the popular What Fran Wore Instagram, Cardi B’s ode to Fran Fine fashion (and possible reboot starring Cardi as Fine’s daughter), and the ongoing cycle of fashion repeating itself. Many of Fran’s outfits—the checkered mini skirts, crop tops, furry coats, and thigh highs—could easily be worn today. In fact, we’re in a curious time when it comes to fashion, where many eras have cycled back and forth enough times over that pretty much anything goes. An army of Fran Fine-inspired outfits could probably flood the streets with nary a batted eye.
As with any iconic fashionable figure in film and TV, there is always someone behind the curtain, the architect of these legendary looks. For Fran Fine, it’s Brenda Cooper. The British-born costume designer brought The Nanny characters’ outfits to life—so much, in fact, that Renée Taylor, who played Fran’s mom, Sylvia Fine, told Cooper that she didn’t know who her character was until she dressed her.
Cooper worked on The Nanny for four seasons (and won an Emmy) before leaving to have children. Aside from The Nanny, Cooper has worked as a costume designer on other movies and shows (including Happily Divorced, which also starred Drescher) as well as a stylist, color expert (she has helped clients like Jamie Lee Curtis figure out their wardrobe color palette), and host of E!’s Fashion Emergency. Currently, she’s is working on a book proposal for a sort of style guide that incorporates the tenets Cooper uses to help empower women and their wardrobes.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Nanny, Cooper (who remains very close friends with Drescher) invited me to her home studio to see some of Fran’s wardrobe in person, rummage through stacks of behind-the-scenes Polaroids, and talk about the show’s most memorable looks.
HelloGiggles (HG): How did you start working on The Nanny?
Brenda Cooper (BC): I had met Fran previously on my second job, where I was the assistant to the designer Eduardo Castro. She was doing a short-lived series called Princesses with Twiggy and Julie Hagerty. She said, “If I ever get my own show, I want you to be the designer.” I had previously pursued a career as an actress that had gone nowhere faster than the speed of sound, so I had to get a job. I wanted to start a business and I was always great in putting clothes together. When I went from being on camera to behind the camera, I was—I don’t want to say the wrong word here—but a little bit alarmed with the approach to costume in film and television. To me, it was really, really important, but it didn’t seem in the hierarchy of Hollywood that costume designers were all that important. I was like, “Wow, if I’m going to do this show that Fran’s given me to do, I want to make a statement.”
HG: Were you given a lot of input as to how Fran’s character would dress?
BC: I didn’t get any direction, but I knew exactly what to do, and Fran just let me do it. I had taken some of the looks and one of the vests from Princesses—it was very colorful and it was form-fitting. That was the inspiration to create this character. I intentionally wanted to make a statement of style, wit, and humor, all combined. So I just started shopping for the show. It was intuitive, and it’s the way I work with clients today, just knowing…the way it should be. I wanted color, I wanted it to be sexy. And there was lots of color available in 1993. We would always shop in Beverly Hills. Going to Neiman Marcus was just like style heaven—all of the prints, the color, and Moschino, Cheap and Chic, and Dolce and Gabbana. They were all in there.
I’d just pull the stuff off the racks and load up clothing, and then go into our weekly Wednesday fitting. Even though you’re a designer, in a certain way you have your hands tied a little bit. Fran gave me my wings and she trusted me. We were a match made in heaven. She just let me do my thing, and that’s what the result was.
