The 'Elle' Series' Outfits Aren't Just Rebooting a 'Legally Blonde' Wardrobe
Costume designers Sophie de Rakoff and Sara Byblow treated the Prime Video prequel like its own fashion entity.
On the press tour for Elle, Prime Video's series imagining the high school origin story of Legally Blonde's Elle Woods, newcomer Lexi Minetree has been paying faithful homage to the original Delta Nu and eventual Harvard Law School graduate, Reese Witherspoon. Working with stylist Molly Dickson, Minetree has sourced Witherspoon's personal archives for both her premiere outfits (like a Marc Jacobs midi) and some of Elle's original costumes (like a sequin Dolce & Gabbana dress, tried on a fitting-room scene during the 2001 film). "I knew that I really wanted to pay respect to Elle Woods and her style," Minetree told Marie Claire, "because she is a fashion icon".
Between the red-carpet callbacks and a teaser trailer full of hot pink bikinis, peony feather pens, and '90s back issues of Cosmopolitan, viewers may expect Minetree's outfits on Elle to be just as faithful to the source material: all fuchsia and sequins, all calling back to Elle's anti-Ivy League wardrobe from the movies. By Elle's palette in the pilot, it's clear anyone who thinks orange is the new pink is definitely disturbed. But as series costume designers Sophie de Rakoff and Sara Byblow shared in an interview with Marie Claire, the wardrobing goal was never to exactly replicate Legally Blonde's outfits.
Lexi Minetree borrowed Reese Witherspoon's 2014 Stella McCartney Met Gala gown for the UK premiere of Elle (left, center left); she also sampled Witherspoon's Marc Jacobs dress from the 2001 Legally Blonde premiere for a talk show appearance (center right, right).
"Everyone is very, very familiar with the Legally Blonde aesthetic and the universe," says de Rakoff, who designed costumes for both the original Legally Blonde and its 2003 sequel. "So you don't need to put a hat on a hat. Our approach to [Elle's styling] always was: only if it works for the character, and if it helps propel the narrative, as opposed to just putting things in for the sake of it."
"We didn't want to replicate," Byblow agrees. It wouldn't make sense for a high-school junior version of Elle to pack the same clothes for law school a few years later, after all. (One constant is that Elle is a certified shopper—so aside from a few special pieces, her closet would naturally evolve.)
Set aside expectations that the series will perfectly encapsulate '90s Bel-Air style, too. "Sophie and I both were so adamant from the beginning that we are not a documentary. We're not saying that we're based specifically in the '90s," Byblow says. "We are living in our own Legally Blonde universe, so it was more so about finding pieces that felt like our character." Meaning: While there are a few vintage pulls here and there, Elle's final edit mixes up archival finds with custom-made pieces and items from right now.
If exact '90s collections and Reese Witherspoon's original wardrobe weren't the starting point for imagining Elle as a teen, what were? The costume designers say they spent hours mood boarding, thinking of women who would inspire Elle's nearly-unwavering optimism and her sense of style: Goldie Hawn for comedy, Claudia Schiffer for modeling. "The biggest thing was always just building out the world around her before we ever touched any piece of clothing," Byblow says.
Once the costume designers had a sense of Elle's starting point, they could begin exploring how her wardrobe would evolve. The script provided a roadmap: After a litigious mishap at her father's plastic surgery practice, Elle and her parents move from Bel-Air to Seattle. It's an outsider versus insider set-up that's made all the more stark when Elle arrives for her first day of school with a pink Gucci backpack and matching mini dress. Obviously, she's sticking out in a sea of grunge plaid shirts and baggy cargoes.
Pay close attention to the shades she's wearing. "The soft pink satin that we see on the first day of school reflected that vulnerability and being that fish out of water in Seattle," Byblow says. "Elle has her own moments of changing and evolving throughout, [which] you'll see through texture and color."
The centerpiece of the series, however, isn't saved for Elle's move to Seattle. It's the first full look viewers see: a hot pink mini dress for Elle's Sweet 16 birthday party, set with a giant, baby pink bow on the neckline. "[We] put so much thought and intention and love into this one particular costume, because it was a proof of concept of so many things for us," de Rakoff says.
Pink in any shade is shorthand for "Elle Woods"; this pink shows the character in her element. At home in Bel-Air, "She is her most confident, grounded self. Having her in this texture and this hot pink really was supposed to sell the fact of that confidence," Byblow says. "That color tone, specifically at the start of the show, was really important to us in telling that story."
The day Lexi Minetree tried on Elle's birthday party dress is the day de Rakoff and Byblow knew their costuming approach captured the essence of everyone's favorite lawyer-in-training—even with their tweaks and re-imaginings for the prequel.
"I remember when we were doing the camera tests, and [Lexi] walked onto the stage with the perfect camera makeup, the dress, the shoes...it really was a moment," de Rakoff says. "It reminded me of doing the camera test with Reese, when she had when she came out in the Jackie O outfit [for Legally Blonde 2]. You could see it in the camera lens, who that character is." No objections.
