Did you know that Paul Rudd wore his own jeans in the movie “Clueless”? Neither did I, until I attended a recent screening of the infamous film, held by the Savannah College of Art & Design at the Trustees Theatre, with special guest Mona May, the costume designer who worked tirelessly on the movie.
The film follows the life of a teenage girl, Cher Horowitz, living in Beverly Hills, California. She lives an ideal life, blessed with good looks and money; some might call her a little clueless. I watched this film for the first time in middle school, and all I remember is wanting to be exactly like Cher. She is popular, but not mean, beautiful and blonde, but not stupid.
Cher Horowitz is played by Alicia Silverstone, May describes her as an 18-year-old tomboy always accompanied by her two dogs. Hilariously, the designer reveals that Silverstone knew nothing about fashion at the time, her everyday uniform consisting of yoga pants and sweatshirts. On the other hand, her co-star Stacey Dash, who plays Cher’s best friend Dionne, came from the punk-rock scene in New York City and was somewhat familiar with current trends in fashion. May additionally explained that at the time, the preppy, girlish style seen in “Clueless” was not popular; the movie made it so.
Mona May additionally went into much detail about other cast members, like Brittany Murphy, who played Cher’s friend, Tai, whom Cher decides to give a makeover. May said that even at just 17, Murphy knew exactly what she wanted to do with her character fashion-wise. As I mentioned earlier, Paul Rudd, who was assigned the role of Cher’s love interest and ex-stepbrother, Josh, wore his own jeans in the movie “Clueless”, marking his first official role.
Furthermore, the costume budget for “Clueless” was quite low, just $200,000, hence the reason why Rudd wore his own jeans. May explains that most of the clothes in the movie were thrifted because the budget was so low, and then were tailored to appear designer, including the classic yellow first-day ensemble that Cher wears. One afternoon while thrifting, the designer revealed, she came across both a blue and red plaid set, then out of the corner of her eye, May spied the yellow plaid. Upon closer inspection, the ensemble was vintage Givenchy and much too expensive. She ended up buying it anyway, along with the blue and red. When trying on the pieces with Silverstone, May knew instantly that the yellow plaid was meant to be. In my opinion, the uniqueness of the yellow plaid is what made it so iconic and memorable. Red and blue plaid had been done before, but not yellow.
While at the beginning, when offered the opportunity to work on the movie “Clueless”, May admits that she was unsure about the project, but once she read the script, she was completely into it. Having known the writer and director of the movie, Amy Heckerling, for several years at that point, May expressed that she was pleasantly surprised by the script. The designer explains how Heckerling was refused by many production companies at first because they thought that the film needed more boys and that a movie about solely girls wouldn’t be successful. Especially back then, I feel that movies geared more towards a female audience with more female characters got lower ratings. You see this with some of my favorite films of the time, like “Miss Congeniality” (2000), which only got 41% on Rotten Tomatoes, and “Girl Interrupted” (1999), which got 53%.
Eventually, May explains, the film found a home at Paramount Pictures. She goes into detail about how no one expected the film’s success, launching everyone involved with “Clueless” into immediate stardom. May credits all of her later success on movies like “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion” (1997), “Never Been Kissed” (1999), and “Enchanted” (2007) to Heckerling and all of the people who made “Clueless” a hit.
As the talk came to a close, I concluded that the reason for May’s success was because of her work ethic and dynamic style. All of the traits the designer portrayed, as I see it, were apparent in the clothes she chose for “Clueless”. Whilst I know that May is mostly retired, I am left with the feeling of hope that this won’t be the last I see of her.
Words by Erika Marquardt
Graphic by Eve Friday