The Fashion Behind Clueless
By Ela ’24
Our school doesn’t have a uniform. Some people spend a lot of time on their outfits and some don’t, and we might not really think about how much our outfits can say about us.
Everyone knows the movie Clueless that came out in 1995, but few people actually know the story behind the film. Clueless was inspired by the book Emma by Jane Austen that was written in 1815. We can see that the storyline is the same, but Clueless is just a modernised film of the book. The movie being a modern take on the book also impacts the costumes and the outfits worn in the movie.
The costume designer Mona May was also the costume designer for Never Been Kissed and Enchanted. May disliked the grunge fashion that was getting popular in the 90’s and that’s why she didn’t want the main characters like Cher and Dionne to wear something in that aesthetic; she wanted them to look put-together and polished. “It was just dreadful, the plaid shirts and baggy pants, and the girls looked so masculine. There was really none of the girliness,” May said in an interview with Vanity Fair. Her goal with this film was to change the grunge aesthetic. May questioned “How do we really find the look for the girls to emulate, to be girly again?” She also talks about her goal being making girls present themselves to be a little bit more feminine so she made the mean characters wear very feminine outfits.
Tai Frasier
We can also see that May doesn’t like this effortless look by the outfit change that Tai gets after her make over. When Tai first comes to school we can see her wearing a lot of flannels and loose fitting outfits but after her makeover she starts wearing more tight-fitting clothes and a lot of chequered designs which is a Cher and Dionne statement. Looking at Tie’s first outfit in the film, we can see that she is wearing baggy jeans, sneakers and an oversize t-shirt and a plaid button-up which is a contrast to the rest of the girls’ outfits in that scene. Seen for the first time in outfits that are not “fashionable” in the other girls symbolises how much of an outsider she is.
We can also see from the first scene that Tai and her love interest’s outfits are very complementary to one another in terms of style, revealing how Tai and the love interest are meant to be together. We can also see that before her makeover, Tai wears a lot of cotton and solid print to represent her more easy going characteristics.
After Tai gets a makeover, the outfits she wears epitomise the aesthetic that she’ll be wearing for the majority of the rest of the film. The outfits are far more stereotypically feminine than before but because of the design of her top being childish which plays into her character’s goofy nature and the materials of the outfit being soft shows that she is still comfortable and approachable. During the film we can see that even though her style is changing because of the friends she still keeps changing her hair and accessories in a subtle, nonconforming way, to make the viewer remember that she is not 100% transformed yet into her friends’ image. We can also see that when she dresses herself she wears the outfits that she would wear before the makeover so we can understand if Cher and Dionne dressed her or if she dressed herself.
Overall, from May’s outfit choices, we can see that the current trends have an effect on people’s styles. With more variety of fashion for everyone we can see that even though people still get affected by trends there are so many that they can pick whichever one fits their style. From Tai, we can see that outfits you wear can affect your personality if it’s not your own style. We all know that when we first see someone we notice their outer appearances and therefore they try to understand a little bit more about that person with their outfit causes and therefore I do really think that people should wear whatever they feel like.
Photo Sources:
https://etcanada.com/photos/383950/the-stars-of-clueless-where-are-they-now/#image-15700
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/06/clueless-clothes
The Halcyonite 
Leave a comment