Poppy's 'People We Meet on Vacation' Costumes Combine Vintage, Rom-Com References, and Emily Henry Easter Eggs

People We Meet on Vacation isn't necessarily a fashion book. Protagonist Poppy Wright's narration barely glances at her closet. The most readers see amounts to "an unwieldy collection of vintage clothes" in the travel writer's New York apartment or a "highlighter orange bikini" for a sunbathing session in Palm Springs.

The majority of her internal monologue is instead dedicated to describing places she's visiting (from Croatia to Tuscany to Nashville) and people she encounters—most importantly, her best friend and eventual love interest, Alex Nielsen. That slow burn, platonic-travel-buddies-to-lovers relationship playing out across sun-soaked destinations made this Emily Henry novel a best-seller and shoe-in for a Netflix adaptation. And the author's quick outfit descriptions provided just enough color for costume designer Colin Wilkes to bring Poppy to life.

Preparing for the film, Wilkes lined up enough outfits for each of the character's passport stamps—plus a few hundred extra. "I think my camera roll has about 1,600 outfits that we tried on, I'm not even joking," she says on a call just before the movie's January 9 premiere. Those were narrowed down to "about 60," then 40. All hoped to capture Poppy's spirit in outfit form.

"While taking cues from the books, we really wanted to be true to the story in our own way," Wilkes says. "This plot really changes, but I wanted to carry a lot of the same elements."

The first essential book-to-screen detail: Poppy and Alex's personality dynamic—she's a walking, talking kaleidoscope, he's the human embodiment of ironed khaki pants—needed a complementary, contrasting wardrobe. Wilkes said another romantic comedy set the visual blueprint for her pair.

"In When Harry Met Sally, there are moments where they're so visually contrasted, it really helps tell the story. I wanted that to be a big piece of how we're telling the story between Alex and Poppy," she says. "You always see them next to each other in a frame, and there's this disconnect [in] how they look."

From their first meeting, Poppy (played by Emily Bader in the film) can always be found in chunky, layered necklaces and a T-shirt with crochet vest over the top. Alex (Tom Blyth), meanwhile, sticks to plain T-shirts and neutral shorts. As they travel the world together, Poppy goes all-in on embracing the local dress code (or her idea of it). Alex, for the most part, stays in his neat and tidy lane.

Over the decade of trips People We Meet on Vacation covers, Wilkes also wanted viewers to see Poppy transform.

"I had really dialed in the arc and how each moment was informing the next. In ten years, that tends to be an area of time where you're exploring yourself, and then you become a little bit more sensible and grounded once you have the job and you move to a place like New York," she says.

Present-day Poppy arrives in Barcelona for a wedding (and a reunion with Alex) in a white tank top, linen shorts, and pristine Away luggage. She's a veteran writer at the fictional travel site R+R; she can pull off stain-magnet clothes at the airport and confidently choose a personal item that's both airline-compliant and chic. But in flashbacks, her wardrobe is more eclectic—and in-line with a tourist's understanding of the destination.

As Poppy travels onscreen from a Canadian hiking trip to a Tuscan villa to the streets of New Orleans, "there's this embellishment we have in terms of what she's wearing," Wilkes says. "She's dressing for the fantasy and the persona of the vacation."

"When I was thinking about the vacations," she continues, "I think about how we create memories, how colors become so vivid, and everything looks fresh and new. Then, in thinking about Poppy, she is really kind of romanticizing these places."

For instance, her Tuscany wardrobe is inspired by countryside films of the 1960s. Her New Orleans sequin top and platform metallic heels, on the other hand, have an early aughts-meets-Mardi Gras bent. She's not packing for practicalities like the weather or her itinerary—she's packing for an imagined lifestyle she'll embrace when she gets there.

Readers who paid close attention to the novel will find callbacks to Poppy's on-paper wardrobe. In the book, she wears vintage red cowgirl boots on the road to Nashville during her annual summer vacation with Alex. That honky-tonk trip didn't make the final script, but Wilkes found a way to tie the item in: Movie Poppy wears similar red boots for her first time meeting Alex, on an uncomfortably long ride from Boston College back to Linfield, Ohio.

"There's all these Easter eggs for the readers that we wanted to put in, also just to stay true to who Poppy really is in the book," Wilkes says.

In another pivotal moment—a rehearsal dinner in Barcelona—Wilkes paid homage to Poppy's original look by trading the novel's "seventies green jumpsuit" for a backless, satin chartreuse dress.

"I wanted it to be green, but I thought that the chartreuse would be an awesome parlay into something that could be really iconic," she says. "It's also a nod to other rom-coms like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, these moments where we're seeing Poppy in this new light."

There isn't an itemized shopping list for viewers who want to give their closets a Poppy makeover. Wilkes intentionally relied on secondhand and vintage to source many of the heroine's one-of-a-kind outfits. Pieces that come from the retailers like & Other Stories (for her flight to Barcelona) and Ronny Kobo (for her wedding guest dress) are long sold-out.

"In terms of where the fashion of it all sits, Poppy is a style chameleon," Wilkes says. "We wanted to be able to take enough risks that felt distinctive and unique. That's why we used a lot of vintage, because I wanted it to feel like she's borrowing from all different eras and still making bolder choices."

Poppy and Alex's eventual HEA (that's genre-speak for "happily ever after") comes with a slight mellowing of our protagonist's exuberant palette. It's visual shorthand for how they're learning to lovingly compromise—and, in Poppy's case, be honest about her vision for her life. (Spoiler: It's not living out of a suitcase as a travel writer anymore.) Side by side with Alex, "there's a little bit more of a softness between how they look together," Wilkes says. "They aren't so contrasted."

Early on in the novel, Poppy says: "Like a good book or an incredible outfit, being on vacation transports you into another version of yourself." When she finally figures out what she wants after the flight home lands, she doesn't need the fantasy closet of a 24/7 traveler—being herself is enough.