Maia Simsbury, the aspiring talent manager played and written by Rachel Sennott on HBO's I Love LA, is a familiar working-girl archetype on paper. She's 27 but she still has an entry-level title (and salary). She's put in the hours for a promotion, but her boss, Alyssa, (played by Leighton Meester) shuts down her ask to finally graduate from her assistant role. It's all very 9 to 5 in theory. But set against a backdrop of influencers, ad campaigns, and raucous late-night parties, it's not so corporate in practice.
Maia spends I Love LA's eight-episode first season chasing success in a version of LA you won't recognize from reality TV. And, while wearing the opposite of heels and a cinched blazer dress. "It's not Kim Kardashian's LA," as costume designer Christina Flannery explains to Marie Claire. Rather, it's an LA populated by a new generation of strivers (at best) and clout-chasers (at worse), dressing the part in a range of It bags and vintage grails you'd more likely find on Depop than at a department store.
