Before The Shards became a television series, it was a 2023 novel by Bret Easton Ellis, the author best known for American Psycho. Set in Los Angeles in 1981, the story follows a fictionalized teenage version of Ellis during his final year at an elite private school. His glamorous, carefully controlled world begins to unravel when a mysterious new student enters his social circle while a serial killer known as the Trawler terrorizes the city. Blending coming-of-age drama, psychological suspense and horror, the novel explores obsession, paranoia and the darkness hiding beneath the polished lives of wealthy Los Angeles teenagers.
The FX adaptation brings that seductive and unsettling world to the screen, with Kaia Gerber starring as Susan Reynolds, a popular and seemingly composed member of the story’s central friend group. The role feels like a natural next step for Gerber as she continues moving from modeling into acting. Her familiarity with fashion, beauty and celebrity adds another layer to a character who appears to embody the effortless perfection of the group’s privileged world. In The Shards, however, appearances are rarely trustworthy, and Susan exists within a story where beauty can conceal secrets, create power and make danger easier to overlook.
The series also gives Gerber an opportunity to merge her growing acting career with the fashion identity audiences already associate with her. Her press-tour wardrobe has introduced the project through polished, glamorous looks that complement the story’s atmosphere without feeling like literal 1980s costumes. The outfits capture the broader mood of The Shards: elegant, nostalgic and slightly mysterious. For readers of the novel, the adaptation offers the chance to see Ellis’s hazy and disturbing Los Angeles brought to life. For everyone else, Gerber may be the familiar face that draws them into a story where everything looks beautiful just before it begins to fall apart.
Until next week — stay chévere