Images and descriptions of Faye Wilder’s clothes pervade the novel. This recurring imagery acts as a motif, which symbolizes the falsified identity Anna is trying to don to gain acceptance. Anna initially discovers the power of clothes to control others’ perceptions of her when she spends time with Faye in Saint-Tropez. During this trip, Faye voluntarily dresses Anna up in her clothes so she looks more presentable at various social functions. Anna enjoys Faye’s pampering because she feels like a different person when she’s wearing articles from Faye’s expensive collection. She also likes the way Faye and her friends regard her when she’s dressed like them. Therefore, Anna starts to borrow items from Faye’s closet when she moves into the Wilders’ Highgate home. She justifies this repeated behavior by telling herself that Faye has “no attachment to them,” as clothes are “only things to her, and she [has] more things, and other things, and newer things” (160).

The clothes also allow Anna to maintain her facade. She doesn’t want Theo or Tess, for example, to know that she doesn’t live in Highgate or come from money. The clothes are a costume that authenticates her fraudulent identity as a young member of the elite upper class. Further, Anna always feels more confident and assured when she’s wearing Faye’s clothes; her altered self-regard in the clothes underscores Anna’s association between money and power. As long as she is wearing Faye’s designer clothes, she thinks people will respect and value her.

Faye’s clothes also capture The Seductive Power of Wealth, as they both draw Anna in and end up exposing her. At first, Anna is mesmerized by the simultaneous decadence and accessibility of Faye’s expansive wardrobe. However, the more cavalier she becomes about wearing the clothing, the more she endangers herself to Faye’s ridicule and criticism. Indeed, once Faye catches Anna in one of her dresses at a party, she humiliates her in front of her friends and shatters Anna’s facade.