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Pierce Conran

3/5 stars
Lead cast: Shin Hye-sun, Lee Joon-hyuk
Luxury brands command dizzying prices the world over, but expert craftsmanship and rare materials account for only a fraction of the cost. For many people, the real value lies in the prestige of the brand names themselves, which act as symbols of wealth and class – wearable badges of social standing.
But sometimes, a gilded handbag alone is not enough. Sarah Kim, the protagonist of Netflix’s twisty new mystery series The Art of Sarah, ups the ante by crafting an entire luxury persona for herself: regional manager of the ultra-elite but fictitious fashion house Boudoir.


Sarah is played by Shin Hye-sun (Mr. Queen), who is no stranger to transformative, larger-than-life characters. The series begins with Sarah hosting an exclusive launch party for Boudoir, which has been taking South Korea by storm.
Following the party, Sarah disappears, and soon a body is discovered in a sewer beneath Seoul’s glitzy Cheongdam district, the city’s fashion centre. Although beaten beyond recognition, a tattoo and a one-of-a-kind handbag identify the victim as Sarah.
Detective Park Mu-gyeong (Lee Joon-hyuk, Love Scout) investigates, but the question soon shifts from who killed her to whether Sarah Kim was a real person.
Sarah initially appeared out of nowhere, sashaying into a luxury store and buying out stock. Word quickly spread among the glitterati about this enigmatic new figure on the scene, said to be the Asian representative of Boudoir, an incoming European label so exclusive only the upper crust were aware of it.

In this world of power and appearance, the sly Sarah finds it all too easy to manipulate people, dangling the promise of prestige in front of them. This includes ambitious fashion store and factory floor workers, but also nouveau riche figures such as a vain cosmetics brand CEO who desperately wants to be recognised by the old-money elite who look down on her.
Comparisons to Netflix’s Inventing Anna, about real-life con artist Anna Delvey, and the acclaimed K-drama Anna are inevitable, as The Art of Sarah explores how influential and mercurial the perception of social status can be.
The series does not hide the fact that Sarah is a fabrication, as it quickly brings us back to the painful experiences of the ordinary, debt-saddled woman she used to be, but through the complex web of lies that she spins, it highlights the fine line separating the reality and fiction of prestige.
Boudoir is an invention, yet it becomes such a successful one that it is difficult to distinguish between the real and the fake. After all, luxury brands only achieve their status after they have been embraced by the elite.

Illusion thus supersedes reality, a thought Sarah echoes via narration at the start of the series: “Truth, like light, blinds us. Falsehood, on the other hand, is like a beautiful sunset that enhances everything.”
Sarah’s long con is extremely layered and elaborate, a complexity compounded by a Byzantine narrative structure largely composed of flashbacks that fracture the timeline and frequently overlap.
This intricate construction is a mirage in itself, as the dense, breathless plotting leaves little time to consider whether all the pieces neatly fit together.
The backbone of the series is Mu-gyeong’s investigation in the present, but as procedurals go, this is a fairly superficial one. While Lee cuts a dashing figure, his character never comes together. He is aided by a frustrating sidekick, who happens to be a lawmaker’s son – but this is a superfluous addition.

Appropriately, the show is decked out in an endless array of glamorous bags and fashion, while the visuals and tone of the series, helmed by Extracurricular and My Name director Kim Jin-min, remain slick throughout.
Shin sinks her teeth into the many guises of Sarah Kim with relish through her brash, confident and versatile performance.
The Art of Sarah offers an intriguing commentary on modern society’s obsession with appearance, often at the expense of substance, but it suffers from wanting to have its cake and eat it too.
Lush visuals and a propulsive plot make the show diverting from start to finish, but look past the flash and you will notice a story that does not follow through on its thematic threads. Then again, in the world of The Art of Sarah, illusion is the endgame.
The Art of Sarah is streaming on Netflix.


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Shin Hye-sun stars as a luxury boss faking it in the elite fashion world whose sudden murder is investigated by Lee Joon-hyuk’s detective


Shin Hye-sun stars as a luxury boss faking it in the elite fashion world whose sudden murder is investigated by Lee Joon-hyuk’s detective.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Shin Hye-sun stars as a luxury boss faking it in the elite fashion world whose sudden murder is investigated by Lee Joon-hyuk’s detective

Shin Hye-sun stars as a luxury boss faking it in the elite fashion world whose sudden murder is investigated by Lee Joon-hyuk’s detective