Sydney has emerged as the top city where a high-earning marketing executive can come closest to affording her lifestyle, with professionals earning around $7,000 (about R117,000) able to comfortably cover a city-centre apartment, regular dining out and beauty appointments — estimated at about $4,000 (about R66,860) in total.
Source: Netflix.
The gap only appears when you add designer outfits, as it leaves you about $1,300 (about R21, 729) short. This means you could match Emily's daily routine in Sydney, just not her Chanel and Valentino wardrobe.
2. Los Angeles
Next on the list is Los Angeles, where marketing executives earn around $7,560 monthly. Copying Emily’s luxurious lifestyle in LA, including constant dining out and regular beauty maintenance, comes to roughly $4,780. With this, you can still keep about $2,800 left over each month. But the challenge comes when you start matching Emily’s fashion choices too, as this can push expenses to $9,080 and create a $1,520 gap.
3. Tokyo
Tokyo ranks third among cities that make an Emily-like life more realistic to afford. Marketing managers here make around $4,130 monthly, nearly half what those in Sydney earn.
But Tokyo is also much more affordable, even when renting central apartments ($1150) and having hair and nails done frequently ($70). So following Emily's daily lifestyle here costs around $2,540, leaving about $1,600 to spare. The gap only appears once you try replicating Emily's fashion looks at $4,299, as you'll fall $2,710 short.
4. Vienna
Vienna is the next city where Emily's lifestyle becomes somewhat achievable on a $4,658 salary. Regular café visits, restaurant dinners, and beauty treatments like Emily’s total $3,181 here, leaving you with about $1,500. However, this is not enough to cover for a wardrobe like hers. Getting luxury outfits in Vienna will send the expenses to almost $7,500, leaving you $2,821 short of getting the full Emily in Paris experience.
5. Toronto
Toronto completes the top five, offering more affordable luxury living than New York or LA. Downtown rent and regular dining with cocktails stay within a $3,500 budget here. And professionals earning $4,716 can handle this comfortably, even keeping about $1,200 each month. But like every city in the top rankings, that extra leftover disappears once you factor in Emily’s wardrobe. These high-end pieces can add $4,300 to monthly expenses, taking you $3K over budget trying to dress like her.
Joosep Seitam, co-founder of Icecartel, commented on the study: "Emily in Paris sells a lifestyle fantasy that simply doesn't exist anywhere in the real world, not even in Paris itself. The show presents constant designer fashion as normal for a marketing professional, which is completely disconnected from actual salaries and living costs. That said, Sydney and LA still come close to making such a lifestyle possible. But even they fall if you try to add thousands of dollars in expenses for luxury clothing.”
