For Clueless costume designer Mona Might, there’s a psychology to crafting a personality’s wardrobe. “I feel authenticity is without doubt one of the most necessary issues once you design costumes, to ensure these characters really feel actual, and never similar to speaking Barbies,” she tells Refinery29. “You need the viewers to depart the theater and really feel like, ‘There was one thing about that character that felt like me.’”
For a movie as far-fetched because the 1995 basic, starring Alicia Silverstone as a spoiled Beverly Hills highschool scholar, grounding the characters in actuality was essential. Sure, these prosperous youngsters had entry to runway vogue and daddy’s bank card, however May additionally wished to painting women who liked the mall and have been youthful and vibrant.
Whereas Might — whose guide The Style of Clueless is popping out in October — had no thought what a cultural phenomenon the film, which celebrates 30 years this month, would grow to be, she knew the costumes have been essential to the storytelling. From the introductory shot — which confirmed a montage of glitzy excessive schoolers poolside, cruising in high-end automobiles, and buying of their best threads — vogue was the main target. “It was colourful, it was California, it was high-fashion, it was teenage enjoyable. It needed to instantly seize your eye,” she says.
Pulling collectively 1000’s of costumes — 63 of them belonging to Cher (Silverstone) alone — on a $200k funds was no small activity, in line with Might: “[We had to find] each headpiece, each backpack, each pair of sun shades, every bit of bijou seen. I don’t even know the way I did it, critically, however we simply went for it.” She emphasizes that the movie was made within the mid-‘90s, earlier than social media made it straightforward to find and entry vogue. “It was just the start of computer systems and cell telephones, so my analysis was totally different. Folks behaved in another way. There was a sure form of innocence to the time as effectively,” she says.
Due to that, Might felt it was necessary to ascertain sartorial social cues (ie: graphic tees for the skaters, uncovered slip and stockings with runs for a scattered instructor, and so forth.), as effectively carry consideration to culturally related designer labels (the Calvin Klein slip gown that Cher’s dad refers to as “underwear,” and “completely necessary designer” Alaïa gown) to the viewers not aware of Melrose Avenue.
As a result of the solid was pretty unknown on the time, there have been no large “PR machines” sending bins from vogue homes to decorate the actors. Nonetheless, Might enlisted luxurious labels for seems to be comparable to Cher’s iconic yellow plaid skirt set by Jean Paul Gaultier, together with items from Fred Segal and Anna Sui. She additionally pulled items from secondhand shops, military surplus retailers, and then-popular mall manufacturers: Physique Glove, Roxy, BCBG, Hole, American Rag, Esprit, Vertigo, and Moist Seal (RIP). By combining designer names with mall mainstays, Might says she was capable of carry out the multifacetedness of every character.
“Dionne [played by Stacey Dash] is a very good instance of that. She wears plenty of various things, from high-end Chanel to the leopard jacket that was thrifted and the vinyl skirt that was from a rave retailer on Melrose,” Might explains. Cher additionally embodied the juxtaposition, sporting preppy co-ords as a lot as she did cap-sleeved clothes, whereas additionally dipping into the tender grunge seems to be fashionable on the time, like her layered black sheer high and chunky jewellery. “She’s not only one form of lady. She’s good-hearted, discerning, however will also be a little bit of a imply lady, too.”
Might believes the model holds strongly three a long time later as a result of, in some ways, the cult basic was forward of its time. The film was nuanced in its portrayal of teenage women, who have been fashion-obsessed and naive, but additionally quick-witted and opinionated. There was a complexity to them — one Might felt a duty to translate by way of their clothes. “It was onerous to make that film,” she says. “[Director] Amy [Heckerling] mentioned that many studios handed on it as a result of they didn’t need women to speak like this. They wished films about boys. It was necessary to introduce younger women talking that manner: being good, being confident, and realizing what they need. Good women deserved good garments.”
Might made positive that the outfits mirrored every of the characters’ personalities: Dionne’s daring equipment and prints spoke to her spunky persona, Cher’s meticulously coordinated sneakers and outfits spoke to her perfectionism. In the meantime, Tai (Brittany Murphy) had an evolving wardrobe — which went from dishevelled flannels and graphic tees at first of the movie to Cher-approved plaids and eventually a contented grunge-meets-girly medium — that spoke to her journey of dropping, rediscovering, and coming into herself.
With so many characters to decorate, the seems to be needed to work collectively as effectively, like Cher and Dionne’s coordinated faculty seems to be. On one hand, it delivered to thoughts a well-known situation of phoning your buddy to plan outfits the night time earlier than faculty and, on the opposite, it symbolized that the 2 have been counterparts. “All through the movie, I wished to guarantee that they have been equally trendy, equally necessary,” says Might.
On condition that the movie was set in Southern California, Might felt it was necessary to additionally painting the numerous subcultures, from the luxury higher echelon to skaters, stoners, and the business-casual children who took themselves too critically. Although they have been all dwelling on this platinum bank card world, Dionne’s and Murray’s model, for instance, was culturally related for Black American youngsters on the time, with the Kangol hats, leopard print, and gold jewellery. Might achieved this authenticity by working with every actor to construct the character’s wardrobe collectively.
Sprint, for instance, was barely older, from New York, and had a powerful sense of private model, which performed an enormous position in setting up her character’s look. In flip, in line with Might, “Murray [Donald Faison’s character] needed to look actually good too, as a result of she would by no means date a slacker.”
The identical care was prolonged to Christian Stovitz (Justin Walker), the suave switch scholar from Chicago, who we later discover out is homosexual. Might wished the clothes to guide together with his persona and pursuits — like vogue, which resulted in him carrying hats, a blue tuxedo, and slicked-back hair — and never be a reductive model of what a homosexual character may “look” like (which wasn’t a given on the time for the business).
The style in Clueless cemented Might’s signature model throughout all her works — which later included different cult classics like Romy and Michelle’s Excessive Faculty Reunion and By no means Been Kissed — and gave the film its endurance. It’s the rationale why not a single Halloween goes by with out a Cher and Dionne recreation, why clothes collections in 1995 and thereafter exploded with Clueless-inspired threads, and why 30 years later, we’re nonetheless celebrating the movie that launched Alaïa into lots of our vocabularies.
“It’s simply unbelievable that this film has lived in so many individuals’s hearts. It’s modified them and made them really feel good. I’m so proud, I’ll have a pink bow on my grave.”
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