The most fashionable TV shows you want to watch this summer

Do you like some style with your TV series? This summer's TV is replete not only with good plots, but the fashion is almost as good - if not more so - than the dialogue.

That's largely because today's costume designers are doing more than arming characters with the right looks. They are explaining their inspirations in behind-the-scenes recaps, creating Pinterest pages for their fans, and even designing collections based on their characters.

"Costume designers have an even greater impact and influence than they did just a few years ago," said Linda Kearns, president of the costume designer division at the New York entertainment consulting firm Matchbook Co. Kearns works with many of the industry's top costume designers. "Fans are able to engage directly with these talented designers ... and even have the ability to get the looks or similar looks to the ones these designers have created."

So, armchair fashionistas, stop mourning the loss of Jon Snow's man bun and Ceresi's quilted gowns of armor and start enjoying this summer's good fashion TV - one episode at a time, or all in one sitting.

Fashionably speaking: Grade A. Who wouldn't want everything that frazzled Upper East Side mom Jill Weber owns?

Written by Philadelphia-bred writers Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky, this show tops my summer fashion fun list.

Following in the footsteps of Sex and the City's Patricia Field, costume designer Staci Greenbaum treats Weber's lace-sleeved frocks and dramatic wool coats as the half-hour drama's own delicious characters.

It's hard not to covet the wardrobe of Weber - played by Jill Kargman - expertly tailored, if not a tad bit grunge. I must have the sleeveless, fit-and-flare red Valentino she wore in the first episode of the second season.

10 p.m. Mondays, Bravo

Fashionably speaking: B. Possessed preachers, it seems, have great hair.

On this creepy thriller, the Rev. Jesse Custer wears his coal-black hair perfectly styled. Played by Dominic Cooper, Custer leads a small-town East Texas congregation, yet costume designer Karyn Wagner never puts him in anything other than a black suit that looks very much like a Thom Browne that he wears with a matching shirt featuring silver points on the collar. That has got to be the sign of a bad guy - or maybe not.

9 p.m. Sundays, AMC

Fashionably speaking: B-plus. It nails the perfect look of millennial criminals.

Seventeen-year-old Josh Cody lives in the underbelly of a beach community in Southern California with his tattooed, if not-as-well-dressed surfer-dude uncles. As Cody works to fit in with his new criminal environment, we see his look morph from ratty T-shirts and no-name shoes to one that includes lots of John Varvatos and Scotch & Soda.

"You want the guys to feel tough and hard," said Lyn Paolo, the show's costume director, also known for creating Olivia Pope's angelic look on Scandal. "But you want the audience to fall for them. You don't know if they will murder you or marry you."

9 p.m. Tuesdays, TNT

Fashionably speaking: A-minus. A 1930s-inspired A-line - even in a town invaded by alien ants - is always appropriate. Always.

We meet Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Laurel Healy at a swank, inside-the-Beltway party in a chic, Sportmax A-line sheath. That means that well before we learn that Washington is about to be attacked by brain-eating ants, we witness that Healy - a young, aspiring film director-turned-top-political aide - can really dress.

"I wanted her to look like an outsider," said BrainDead costume director Daniel Lawson, who famously worked on The Good Wife. "So I put her in really well-made pieces that have a twist."

Lawson also used fashion to identify those whose brains are bug-infected by transforming them into thin politicians dressed in 1950s pastels.

"We are playing with this idea of what is beautiful can kill you," said Lawson.

10 p.m. Mondays, CBS

Fashionably speaking: B. It serves as a primer on how to play respectability politics when planning to join a megachurch.

Lady Mae Greenleaf - well played by Lynn Whitfield - knows how to wear a magenta suit and to hide her scowling eyes with a wide-brimmed church-lady hat.

9 p.m. Wednesdays, OWN

Fashionably speaking: A. It's hard to tell where the reality part stops and the scripted show starts.

Nobody who works on this show about a Bachelor-esque reality TV show is nice. Like, nobody. That must be why costume designer Cynthia Summers dresses Quinn and Rachel (Constance Zimmer and Shiri Appleby) in black. Nice Helmut Lang black, but black nonetheless.

The reality TV stars haven't yet had the life sucked out of them - especially the bachelor character, fictional NFL player Darius Hill, played by handsome B.J. Britt. So he shows up in sharp suits with printed shirts, bow ties, and pocket squares - as if he's a walking billboard for SuitSupply.

10 p.m. Mondays, Lifetime

Fashionably speaking: A. The 1970s is one of fashion's coolest eras ever.

Maybe it's our obsession with all things old-school funk. Or maybe it's because Jaden Smith is one of the musical drama's stars, and we know his style reputation. But the fashion world is eagerly looking forward to Netflix's new series, The Get Down, about the emergence of hip-hop in the '70s.

"Most of what I used in the series is vintage," said costume designer Jerianna San Juan. "Vintage Halston. I went through DVD archives. Some pieces I designed myself. We made jumpsuits."

It's likely that what we see on this show will be what we'll be buying for fall. And that is the best nod you can give to a costume designer.

Netflix, starting Aug. 12

ewellington@phillynews.com
215-854-2704
@ewellingtonphl