There was a baby pink (red) carpet. Hundreds of tiny fruit tarts. Selfie mirrors that read “Haute girl summer.” And lots of berets.
On Wednesday night, about 500 people showed up at the ornate Egyptian Theater in Hollywood for the season premiere of “Emily in Paris,” the tale of the young American marketing savant turned influencer, played by Lily Collins, now in its fourth season. (Part 1 is streaming on Netflix, and Part 2 will be available on Sept. 12.)
“The show has created its own little Emily-in-Paris-verse,” said Lucien Laviscount, who plays Emily’s boyfriend, Alfie, and wore Dolce & Gabbana.
“It’s that little bit of light, that little bit of love, that little bit of je ne sais quoi,” he added.
But as the new season picks up, the main relationships of the show are in shambles. At the end of Season 3, Camille has just called off her engagement party turned impromptu wedding in the sun-dappled town of Champagne, in northeast France. In a dramatic turn at the altar, she proclaims she can’t marry Gabriel because he has obviously been in love with Emily since the moment they met. Emily is left at the wedding by Alfie, a good guy who has always felt like her second choice. And though Camille doesn’t say it at the wedding, she is pregnant with Gabriel’s baby.
“I think Emily wants the best for each of these people that she’s met,” Ms. Collins, who wore custom Giorgio Armani. “In some weird way, it works at the beginning for all of them to be in some version of a friendship-relationship dynamic.”
Of course, as the season unfolds, the dynamics become more complicated.
“She finally explodes a little bit, but she wants the best for everyone,” Ms. Collins added. “And she really loves all these people, so she’s figuring it out as she goes along.”
In interviews on the pink carpet, several of the writers said they had been itching to move beyond the Emily, Camille and Gabriel love-triangle plot.
“I pitch a throuple story line once a season,” Joe Murphy, one of the show’s writers, said.
Alison Brown, another writer for the show, joked that ethical nonmonogamy would probably work on the show as another as one of Emily’s marketing campaigns.
“Listen, if we can figure out how a polycule can sell a product, she will be in a polycule,” Ms. Brown said.
Still, Darren Star, the creator and executive producer of the series who was behind “Sex in the City” and “90210,” said the new season is trying to embrace more nuanced connections.
“I think the relationships get more real,” Mr. Star said. “The characters go from infatuation to seeing each other in a more realistic way.”
That’s not to say that the show’s less realistic plot lines have gone out the window. The first episode opens with a TikTok video in which Camille’s brother Timothée is trying to cancel Emily. (“Hi, guys, let me tell you about how this woman ruined this family’s life,” he says with a group photo from the wedding in the background.)
The outfits are also still maximalist, and Emily wears black and white look to a masquerade ball this season that makes her appear a little like a sexy Hamburglar. Emily has also, somehow, meddled her way into getting Gabriel’s new restaurant on track for a Michelin star. And her best friend, Mindy, played by Ashley Park, has just found out that her band will be France’s submission to Eurovision, the global song contest that helped establish the careers of ABBA and Celine Dion.
In an interview before the screening, Ms. Park, who was very ill earlier this year, said that she unfortunately did not get to watch much of this year’s Eurovision contest, but that Ms. Collins had shared highlights.
“Lily and her husband, Charles, were watching Eurovision,” said Ms. Park, who was dressed in Lever couture, Jimmy Choo heels and Pandora jewelry. The couple told her that Windows95man from Finland “was incredible,” she added.
She also said she was able to work this season with Kyle Hanagami, the popular YouTuber and choreographer who has shaped several Eurovision numbers.
After the screening, the crowd moved to an outdoor space next to the theater that was filled with towering green hedges, vaguely European statues and pink furniture. Bartenders served wine and cocktails, including an espresso martini called the Hot Chef and a tequila drink called À la Plouc — referring to Emily’s old office nickname, which is used to describe a person lacking sophistication.
Guests sampled appetizers and small plates including beef and Gruyère sliders, salmon tartare cones, lobster rolls with french butter and crepes. Though the D.J. played a mix of American and French pop, there wasn’t much dancing. The crowd, a mix of industry workers and lucky influencers, dutifully circled the party to take photos against all of the different backdrops.
They snapped photos in front of a massive gold hot air balloon — a reference to the campaign that Emily and Alfie become the face of during their breakup — and a replica of Gabriel’s bright red restaurant, L’Esprit de Gigi. A hall of pink-tinted mirrors reading phrases like “Ready for amour?” and “We’ll always have Paris” also beckoned people to take selfies.
The stars of the show mostly remained in their velvet-roped V.I.P. areas, chatting with friends and taking celebratory photos. Just like Emily at the show’s many luncheons and balls, it seemed they were tastemakers very much there to work.
