90s Nostalgia: The Nanny

Nothing brings me back to my childhood quite like The Nanny. From her Chanelique suits to her sparkly gowns, Fran Drescher was the queen of 90's style, the woman looked amazing in everything she wore. After all, she was "the lady in red when everybody else was wearing tan." Her looks were always bold, colorful and carefree and matched her adorable, quirky personality.  I'm halfway through the series, and it still makes me laugh out loud. Fran's outrageous styles and BIG hair were just more reasons to love her, not to mention that annoying yet endearing high-pitched nasal voice!

All those 60s inspired head-to-toe prints, the go-go boots, the those one of's dresses; long story short, that nanny danced to her own music. Fran Fine’s larger than life image (Funny Girl meets The Sound of Music by one critic at the time) had a life-force all of its own on that show. 
"We used a lot of Moschino and Todd Oldham because they have a sense of humor," The Nanny's costume designer Brenda Cooper told the LA Times in 1994 of turning actress Fran Drescher into Fran Fine.
Well,  20 years later, her style now makes makes perfect sense to me anyways. Moschino in particular has always infused a spirit of fun into its collections. Just last season they had that fast food theme that everyone went crazy for!
But it wasn’t all Moschino because NO ONE did the high-low mix and match like Fran. While The Nanny's costume designer says it was actually Todd Oldham’s early 90s designs that inspired the whole Nanny character for them, other favorites of Drescher included Dolce & Gabbana, Norma Kamali, and everything from Neiman Marcus to Loehman’s, K-Mart, thrift stores and garage sales.... 

As the LA Times put it: The prototypal "Nanny" suit consists of a bright Moschino jacket (from the Cheap and Chic collection) worn over a black spandex, mock turtleneck top and black spandex miniskirt. And always, always, sexy high heels. The original “Nanny” shoe was a 4 1/2-inch pump by Charles Jourdan. Then Cooper found copies at J.C. Penney for $50 a pair. She bought all the shoes the store had in Drescher’s size and, each episode, she dyes them to match.

As the series progressed, Fran Fine’s look evolved in keeping with her character’s journey. After several years of living with the upper class Sheffield family on Park Avenue in Manhattan, Fran's once frizzy hair started smoothing out with bouffants, longer hair pieces and short wigs, while the eyebrows thinned considerably and the waistline shrunk even more. Fran slowly but surely shed her Single Jewish Girl From Queens Living With Her Parents skin and made the transition to Confident 30-Something Single Woman Raising Three Children Who Isn’t Going to Take Crap From Anyone, Especially A Man Who Told Her He Loved Her And Took It Back!!!! That was the most genius thing they did on the show especially after they started to refer to it as the thing.

I tried to find a modern version of Fran Fine on TV and I couldn't! And so until I find a new Fran, I’ll stick to my reruns.