That's hot! The high street secrets behind The White Lotus resort-wear

If I asked you to picture your best-dressed self, you'd probably be on holiday, wouldn't you? Now imagine you have more money than you know what to do with. Now imagine there are 20 of you. This is what it's like outfitting the cast of The White Lotus, the hit HBO show currently approaching the end of its third and most popular season yet. Set in Hawaii, then Sicily, then Thailand, the backdrops are almost as gorgeous as the stars sitting in front of them.

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The fictional hotel's guests float around Four Seasons properties (with amended branding) wearing Gucci sun hats, Valentino mini dresses and Loewe sunglasses, like a resort collection sprung to life. And that's just one character.

But thank God! Costuming in recent cult TV shows tends towards the drab, with the suits and shirts of (undeniably brilliant) 2020s favourites Succession and Severance replacing the colourful costuming of the 2010s, which included the likes of Mad Men, Girls and Game of Thrones.

Checking in to The White Lotus is a "golden ticket", says costume designer Alex Bovaird, who is responsible for all three seasons of looks on the show. The show's opulence has increased with its viewership and, in turn, its budget. Back in the early days of season one, when episodes would average 544,000 viewers in the US, "the characters had two pairs of shoes", says Bovaird.

Four years later, the most recent episode of The White Lotus reached 4.8 million US viewers, making it the show's most watched episode ever, and the series has become an official business partner of the Four Seasons hotel group. "Now they have 100 shoe choices," Bovaird laughs.

The success of season two, which starred Jennifer Coolidge, Aubrey Plaza and Leo Woodall and won a Golden Globe for Best Limited or Anthology Series, meant the pressure was on Bovaird from the start. "[Creator] Mike White said, 'The next season is going to be bigger and better!'" So began a summer spent moodboarding, shopping and sewing. Bovaird sourced hundreds of clothes from England, where she was on set for another job, and shipped them over to Koh Samui in Thailand. Her first port of call is always taking inspiration from the real guests of the hotel, or other luxury hotels nearby.