Dakota Johnson's 'Materialists' Outfits Are a Perfect Match for Her Romantic Journey

Warning: This post contains mild spoilers for Materialists.

Celine Song's A24 romantic drama *Materialists* opens with an outfit worthy of the Dakota Johnson Style Hall of Fame. Never mind that it's not technically Dakota onscreen. She's in character as Lucy, a matchmaker focused solely on finding the best partners for her clients and perhaps a suitor for herself. (Her baseline dating criteria? "Extremely rich.")

Our heroine is speed-walking into work, where she'll deftly pair up singles and pop champagne to celebrate a ninth engagement secured on company time. She's suited up for the business of romance in a slightly oversized blazer and mini skirt, paired with Paris Texas boots and a swishy ponytail with bangs impervious to the New York breeze. No one has looked this good crossing a street onscreen since Andy Sachs succumbed to the siren song of a Chanel-filled closet for her The Devil Wears Prada makeover montage. And, would-be audiences knew it months before Materialists even made it to theaters.

Photos of Johnson's outfits began circulating online while the film was still in production over a year ago. Paparazzi snapped the actress mid-kiss take with co-star Pedro Pascal and lighting up a cigarette with the third corner of the love triangle, Chris Evans. It didn't matter what she was wearing in character: Another Tomorrow skirts, Dôen dresses, Nike sneakers, or that aforementioned skirt suit, by way of Aritzia. It sold out.

Costume designer Katina Danabassis didn't mind the outfit spoilers circulating online. Instead, she was excited by the wave of commentators thirsting for designer credits with each new photo. She acknowledges that some of the fanfare comes from having a client with a massive street style pedigree. "I mean, it's Dakota Johnson. She's gorgeous," Danabassis says. "She wears clothes very well. So, she was a beautiful mannequin for us to get to give a little sneak preview."

Danabassis is speaking to Marie Claire from her office, where she's already at work on another project. Mood boards, too far away to suss out, lean against the back wall near a clothing rack. If the inspiration images for Materialists had still been there, they would encompass everything from resurgent menswear suiting to stills from the 1988 film Working Girl (starring Johnson's mother, Melanie Griffith).

Reading the script, Danabassis immediately had one suggestion for the director: "We have to put her in a skirt suit." It's modern, but it conveys confidence and strength—a combination aligned with Lucy's data-driven, all-logic approach to love at the film's start.

As the movie rolls on, Danabassis uses every outfit to show the audience what Lucy doesn't outright say. While the character admits to only making $80,000 per year—before matchmaking, she tried (and failed) to launch an acting acreer—she's a "luxury good" in the eyes of clients and Pedro Pascal's Harry, a venture capitalist who hopes to enter a "business deal." (Read: he wants to date her.) In Lucy's world of finance-backed courtship, everything from what you wear to how you speak enhances your perceived value on the dating market. And as such, an aesthetic anyone can recognize from the past half-decade of fashion discourse comes into play.

"That 'quiet luxury' thing very much comes into the fold," Danabassis says. "She's navigating the world of her professional life and meeting these potential clients. She's not a chameleon, but kind of has to go up and down [between] work and these public spaces. That's part of the reason why a very timeless wardrobe works so well for her." Relatedly, it's a "happy accident" that the Hereu tote Johnson carries for the entire movie is a version of a bag Succession's Shiv Roy owns in season four. Lucy isn't wealthy, but she's dressed to blend in.

The wardrobe department thought hard about just how luxurious Dakota Johnson's outfits could get as her character becomes more intertwined with the ultra-wealthy. "Celine does like things grounded in reality and then when we need to ramp it up, we ramp it up, and it's like we're working towards making iconic looks," Danabassis says. Occasionally, a high-end credit sneaks in—but for the most part, Lucy wears nice-but-within-reach brands like Simkhai and Nili Lotan.

"It is realistic that she would splurge on Gucci shoes or the Proenza dress, which happens to be an accessible price point for luxury fashion," Danabassis explains.

The costume designer refers to one Materialists look as the "hero dress": the strapless blue Proenza Schouler piece Lucy wears to a client's wedding. (And, it's prominently featured in the movie's promotional materials.) At the ceremony, she meets Harry, reconnects with her ex-boyfriend, John (played by Chris Evans), and assists a bride at a crossroads—all without a hair out of place.

It's the most colorful garment Lucy wears up to that point in the film, but it's not intended to stand out. "For a person who's maybe called in to speak to our bride who might be having a breakdown and might be having the time of her life—we don't know— she needs to be able to, again, go between different worlds of like very serious to super fun," Danabassis says. "The ultimate holy grail of her world is marriage, so she knows appropriately how to be comfortable, be safe, and also be chic, so she can do her job at this wedding."

The tone of Lucy's outfits shifts as she moves between tax brackets: she sports more blazers and all-black outfits when visiting Harry's world of fine dining and finance. In moments when she reconnects with John—or experiences flashbacks to their fights as a couple—she's in an entirely new palette. Dôen tops and dresses bloom with painterly florals, or she's laid-back in a white button-up shirt and jeans.

"The florals speak to that grounded quality of true love and what is not about money. It's about what's natural," Danabassis explains. The same extended metaphor—hard lines and severity for business, softness and curved edges for love—applies to Johnson's on-screen footwear. When Lucy's in the sky with Harry at his Tribeca penthouse, she's wearing heels. When John brings her back down to earth, she's in retro sneakers from Nike.

One of the most emotionally satisfying outfits— a Dôen dress and Nike sneakers for wedding crashing upstate— almost didn't happen. "There was an initial desire for Celine to have a floral dress at the millionaire wedding [in the beginning of the movie], and my instinct was for it to be the opposite," Danabassis says. "Luckily, it really ended up being the right feeling that we should save it for the country part."

Lucy has left the city after a set of romantic plans falls through. She pulls this dress out of a suitcase intended for a very different trip, paired with shoes that definitely weren't part of the original outfit, to sneak into a rustic wedding. Somehow, it seems she's where she's meant to be all along, and wearing what she's meant to, too. "It makes more sense in our story and it does actually translate really nicely to the arc and the character balance and imbalance between the two worlds," Danabassis agrees.

The arc of Lucy's search for love (or something like it) is summed up by her final outfit on-screen: a floral Reformation dress and Converse sneakers, with a gray knit tied around her waist. It's the aesthetic opposite of her first look, the kind of outfit any woman in the Materialists audience could wear to the theater or on a first date.

"I think that it's nice that there are costumes that are relatable to the human experience," Danabassis says. Unlike a love triangle between two of Hollywood's most handsome men, the Materialist's wardrobe is "not a fantasy. It's kind of aspirational, but actually available."