Art, Love and Majesty: Summer project: Clueless

If I could I would…Clueless.

Created at a time when teen comedies appeared to live and die in the 80’s; Clueless brought a fresh take on teenage fashion in the 90’s. Loosely based on Jane Austen’s novel ‘Emma’, Amy Heckerling’s fashion-forward, cool, witty comedy was an unexpected hit, which has influenced generations since it’s 1995 opening.

Fashion became a central character in the movie, which unwittingly, had a huge impact on the fashion industry of that year, and has continued to inspire designers to this day, as evidenced by Alexander Wang’s argyle twin-sets, featured in his spring 2014 collection. Mona May was the costume designer; she was inspired by the 60’s and 70’s ‘cute-sweater’ and plaid-mini era. Her vision was to bring back the fun and feminine to the clothes that girls were wearing at the time. She wanted each character to have their own individual personal style.

The Dolce and Gabbana plaid skirt-suit was undoubtedly the most iconic outfit that Cher Horowitz’ wore and, along with her 64 other costume changes, made her a style icon. She has inspired women to take fashion risks and gain a more personal sense of style.

The clueless character’s final looks could not have been completed without the genius help of the hair and makeup team; hair stylists Nina Paskowitz, Barbera Olvera and D.J Plumb, and makeup artist’s, Alan Freidman, Geri B. Oppenheim and Cynthia Hernandez had one week to prepare their final looks for the film. Mona May had done most of the research preparation, so the make-up artists and hairstylists only had to create looks that complemented the costumes.

Working with such diverse characters meant that the beauty team had to be very experimental and creative and they, along with Mona May, have helped make Clueless truly iconic, and forever timeless.