You're unlikely to spot a Versace or a Valentino in Disturbing Behavior, Halloween: H20, Urban Legend, or I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. That's because Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Katie Holmes, Jennifer Love Hewitt and the other stars of these youth-market slasher films wear the same labels everyone in their audience likes to wear.
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No question about it: big fashion designers have muscled their way back into Hollywood with big-buck success. Through a combination of diplomacy, wheedling, seduction and tolerance for movie-star greed, fickleness and vanity, couture houses have taken over the Oscars and turned more than a few major movies into minor runway shows. But truth be told, film costume design these days is influenced far more by the mall than by Milan. Aside from the occasional retro kick one gets from watching Gwyneth Paltrow haute couture'd to the gills in Great Expectations or A Perfect Murder, or the full-on joy of a rare occurrence like the Prada-meets-Nike look of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, there's been a seismic shift from the old moviegoing days when women went to high-style Hollywood films to learn how to dress up. All that swank was sublime, but no one in the real world could possibly afford to wrap themselves in Givenchy. Even the knockoffs were often prohibitive. Today there are plenty of high-end numbers gorgeously scattered through Hollywood product, but the biggest fashion story is elsewhere.
In the edgier, logo-conscious era of the late '90s, the fashion dynamic between what's on-screen and what's on the bodies of the moviegoers is ultra-symbiotic--and movies targeted at youth audiences are the best proof of it. The current spate of slasher movies shows how it works: a savvy costume designer observes the style codes of teens and twentysomethings, astutely works them into the film's look and, with Tinseltown alchemy, creates a potent new fashion statement that is buyably sub-couture.
We can pretty much thank the modestly budgeted blockbuster shocker Scream for this revved-up cycle of symbiotic fashion influence. Scream itself wasn't styled for particular impact, but it was so successful it set up the opportunity for Scream 2 to be a fashion bonanza. The sequel was shot and showing in theaters within six months, making it possible for costume designer Kathleen Detoro to create a look that throbbed with accessible nowness.
"The producers and the director wanted to make Scream 2 more fashiony than the first movie," says Detoro. "And anyone who actually wanted to go out and find this stuff could find it in stores.
"We all read fashion magazines and W to see what's supposed to be the hot trend," continues Detoro. "But you've got to be in the malls--the great playground of high school and college kids. I live in Santa Monica and can go into some of the funkier shops on the Third Street Promenade like NaNa, then go right to the Gap. I look everywhere, I shop everywhere--the Venice boardwalk included. Being in this world, you see that one little interesting thing on someone, a kind of boot, say, or the way they tie their shoelaces or don't tie their shoelaces or have no shoelaces at all."
Neve Campbell, who'd become a star off the success of the first Scream, was the centerpiece of Detoro's style strategy for Scream 2. "The filmmakers wanted sleeker silhouettes and darker coloration, because of the ordeals the characters had been through. Neve had really worked out since the first movie. Her body was more streamlined and stronger. We put her in some ready-to-wear D&G instead of Dolce & Gabbana's couture line, and in pants from Laundry by Shelli Segal and also from Vertigo--classic, boot-cut pants that stayed away from bell-bottom stuff. Lucky Brand makes very cool, hip jeans in lots of styles to fit everyone, but Neve has very long legs, so we had Lucky make jeans for her." Ask anyone who loved Scream 2 what article of clothing they remember, and they'll answer: Neve Campbell's blue suede jacket. Detoro laughs at the mention of it. "From that jacket alone, I got so many calls--from journalists, producers, everybody. There wasn't time to design a jacket and have it made, and we wanted a vintage look, but we couldn't really choose vintage because we needed multiples, so it was D&G. Her other leather jacket, the brown one, was DKNY."
Once Scream 2 proved that young audiences want their shockers fashion-smart as well as scary, other thrillers followed suit. For this summer's Disturbing Behavior, in which straight-arrow teens of a Pacific Northwest town turn out to be not as natural as apple pie, costume designer Trish Keating zeroed in on real-world high school cliques for inspiration. "If you want to set a style trend in a movie, you take a risk it'll get rejected and make the whole movie look 'off.' A big consideration for every article of clothing in this movie was, Will it be accepted in this genre? Hanging out at malls and schools around Seattle, Portland and Vancouver while preparing the movie told me that kids everywhere see the same styles and trends, and all want to emulate what they see on TV and in movies. The availability of pretty much everything we use in the movie ensures that they can do that."
Keating first mastered the codes of high school cliques. "I took roll after roll of pictures, because the whole theme of Disturbing Behavior hinges on the fact that high schools have different social groups. Young people at this age have an incredible need to belong. Even if they are rebels, they want to belong to a group of rebels. Every school has its goths in black, wearing crosses and all sorts of silver jewelry; motorheads who are into their cars and bikes; microgeeks into computer stuff and chess; the really popular skateboarder types; the heavy metal types; and a whole group of earthy, planet-oriented kids, the eco freaks." The look of the clique that Disturbing Behavior features most prominently--sinister straight kids--got invented solely for laughs and scares. "This group is very Ivy League," explains Keating, "and for them we shopped the Gap and Club Monaco."
The two biggest stars of Disturbing Behavior, Katie Holmes of Dawson's Creek and James Marsden of Second Noah, got special treatment. "They had to have allure and sex appeal," says Keating. "We had to create the leather jacket Katie wears, because we needed a double, but the jeans are Gap, the tank tops are Calvin Klein, and lots of the other stuff is just pop brands I don't remember. James wears a custom-made leather jacket that we created together, but it resembles J. Crew's leather straight-cut jacket. We also ordered him henley tops and pants from the J. Crew catalogue, and we put him in a lot of Calvin Klein T-shirts he liked the fit of. His jeans are mostly Diesel."
The late-summer Halloween: H2O is another mall-made movie, even though costume designer Deborah Everton claims, "I hate to shop and I avoid malls." This reinvention of the Halloween movie franchise is set in a boarding school where a group of students are terrorized while their classmates are off on a camping trip. "What made H2O especially fun," says Everton, "was that the kids wear uniforms. Having gone to boarding school myself, I know that you do all you can to turn that uniform into a personal expression. I had some of the girls wear pants as part of the uniform instead of a skirt, and I varied the skirt lengths for the others. We also used stockings, socks, Hush Puppies--anything to give each of the student characters some personal expression. I even put jewelry by Sonya Ooten on some of the girls. The biggest mistake I've seen on movies featuring young characters is treating teenagers as if they're of one mind."
Not all of H2O is in uniform. "For the scenes out of uniform, I used mostly American Eagle Outfitters for the guys, a fantastic line of very basic, very stylish, really nicely cut, cool stuff. Both Josh Hartnett [of TV's Cracker] and Adam Hann-Byrd [of The Ice Storm] wore pretty much American Eagle Outfitters right to the toes of their boots. We tried as much as we could to stay away from oversized jeans, because that look just dates so. For Michelle Williams [another Dawson's Creek doll], I chose a pair of cotton Lycra Only Hearts pants, an American Eagle Outfitters top, a nice hooded sweater by BCBG Max Azria and a BCBG pullover. I wanted her to wear a pair of Betsey Johnson tie-dyed velvet hip huggers, but she didn't feel comfortable in the tie-dye look or the color, so I switched it for a more hip-hop, black outfit. For Jodi Lyn O'Keefe [of TV's Nash Bridges] I chose a red floral Vivienne Tam top, a great, almost Olive Oyl kind of dress from She by Sheri Bodell, and some terrific Doc Martens."
One of the cool things about H2O is that, in addition to its choice cast of teens, it stars Jamie Lee Curtis as a grownup Laurie Strode, heroine of the first two Halloween outings. "The clothes that bring Laurie Strode to the '90s are conservative," says Everton. "They're classic almost in a Hitchcock sort of way--a charcoal Donna Karan sweater, Guess? jeans. Laurie is head of the boarding school, and I basically shopped Nordstrom for her Calvin Klein blazer and Nickels shoes. I'd say her look in this is not Sears, not Barneys, that she's womanly, not a siren." H2O also features Curtis's mom, Janet Leigh, whose impeccable credentials as a heroine-in-jeopardy include that memorable role in the classic that's now being remade, Psycho. No mall melange for her--she sports "a custom-made Oscar de la Renta leather purse that cost a fortune and was based on the black purse that her character stuffed the stolen money into in Hitchcock's Psycho."
What happens when young stars don't groove to the instincts of the costume designer? Jacqueline Arthur Abish believes that when teen idol Devon Sawa sent her back to the drawing board during the making of yet another high school thriller, Idle Hands, it actually worked to the advantage of the film. "Part of the game for the costume designer is making an actor comfortable, so when someone comes in and says, 'This isn't what I was thinking of,' we definitely have to take that into consideration. The whole idea of the movie is that a bunch of stoner kids are thrown into a loop by this guy who has devil hand on him. Devon wasn't thrilled with the director's original idea of putting him in lots of green. I had gotten him 20 green shirts and 20 corduroy pants, but then he didn't feel comfortable in a washed-out green flannel T-shirt and cords, so I ended up putting him in a gray Gap T-shirt, baggy Gap jeans and Airwalks. He also wore Pacific Sunwear. Some of what we did on Devon has the same feel as the Venice Board-walk tie-dyed stuff I see so many kids running around in today--a bit stoner, a bit surf, a bit skate. But Devon's look is a little cleaner.
"I put Jessica Marie Alba [of TV's Flipper] in a lot of Rampage," continues Abish, "the kind of stuff you find in Macy's Juniors department. Although she does wear some great, higher-end leather pants from Diesel and a beautiful print nylon tank by Vivienne Tam, aside from those items, I mostly put her into sexy, cute, affordable things people can relate to, though we stayed away from being too trendy."
Later this year the sequel to the surprise hit of last year, I Know What You Did Last Summer, will hit screens with seasoned young-fashion savvy. The action for I Still Know What You Did Last Summer takes place in a tropical resort where the in-crowd gal played by Brandy has taken a bunch of her pals after winning a contest. "These movies tend to be action-oriented, so you can't just go for pretty or stylish because the characters have to do a lot of running, hiding and jumping," says costume designer Dan J. Lester. "These movies also tend to be confined to a few days' time so we tried to choose pieces that quickly defined the characters." On a similarly practical note, Lester comments, "We feature great-looking kids with great bodies, something that audiences like to look at."
Tropical resort location notwithstanding, I Still Know is not a candy-colored, jiggly Beach Blanket Bloodbath. "The director wanted to stay away from the bright, garish colors you normally see in a summer resort," explains Lester. "We went instead with burgundy and black-based clothes, even when we show the resort staff. That whole approach almost gives the movie the sensibility of a black-and-white movie."
The big draw here, of course, is the striking, likable heroine played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, whose career was sent soaring by the original film. "The look for Jennifer is classic, all-American, sort of a younger version of what you see in Ann Taylor. Jennifer is very tiny, a size two petite, so we had to find things that fit her. Basic stuff we got at Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Barneys and vintage places in L.A., like American Rag Cie and Jet Rag. We settled on various pieces from Laundry, some Guess?, a little French Connection, a little Club Monaco and we went a little bit upscale with a pretty spring dress from Armani." Then there was the bikini. "Love's got a fabulous body but she's very modest. She's big on top, so we had to do a little to work with the Evan-Picone bikini we got her."
Lester took the same care with the rest of the cast. "We put Brandy in a Missoni dress and a cowboy hat in one scene, and for another, we had some suede pants made to go with a Mossimo top. The character played by Matthew Settle is a guy who's interested in Jennifer's character and wants to help her forget the bad stuff from the first movie. He's supposed to be kind of in the background, so we purposely kept him down tonally in washed-out colors, like J. Crew or Gap. Mekhi Phifer, who plays Brandy's main squeeze, is supposed to be hipper, more urban, so he's in Donna Karan pieces and some Nike urban wear."
Another much-anticipated late '98 entry into the young shocker sweepstakes, Urban Legend, is set at a college where Jared Leto and Alicia Witt, among others, begin to believe that apocryphal campfire horror stories are coming true. "The idea," declares costume designer Mary Claire Hannan, "was to do very hip, trendy, happening clothes on a cross section of characters who are very smart, very aware, and represent a spectrum of the young generation who will all go in different directions with their lives." For Jared Leto's character, Hannan designed a look that would underscore an interest in journalism. "I created a backstory for him where he was kind of an activist and idealist, carrying on his family's tradition by wearing his father's old college sweaters from the '60s and a vintage Vietnam-era army jacket, all of which I got everywhere--on Melrose, at army surplus stores, at vintage stores like American Rag Cie and Jet Rag, and at costume houses in Los Angeles and Canada."
Leto's character stands apart from the party guy played by Michael Rosenbaum, who wears custom-made "10-year-old-looking fraternity shirts," and a beat-up motorcycle jacket and motorcycle boots from vintage stores, and new jeans from BigStar. Joshua Jackson, who plays the skateboarder-type student, wears Mossimo, Stussy and Burton.
According to Hannan, the producers requested that the women in the movie "look very stylish, each in her own way, and very sexy and appealing to the audience." Alicia Witt gets to bite into a juicy character Hannan describes as "apparently more stable and pulled-together, with a very 'straight' silhouette. I dressed her more 'standard American girl' generic, in lots of soft cotton--Gap, Banana Republic, and, particularly, specially fit Replay jeans, because Alicia, like most other girls in the movie, has just an incredible figure and I couldn't use a more generic 'college' jean." As the plot thickens, says Hannan, Witt's character "gets more and more paranoid, so the colors of her clothes get brighter, while her silhouette gets tighter, more tense, sexier, less cotton and more Lycra. That means you have to go to higher designers and lines, and I used lots of Donna Karan and Calvin Klein."
Rebecca Gayheart, whose character the designer describes as "less uptight and more sporty than Alicia Witt's" is supposed to be the healthy, well-rounded girl on campus who seems to get along with everybody. "I mixed cute little sporty T-shirts and tops from Fred Segal with Nike pants and Replay jeans," explains Hannan.
In one scene, Hannan makes Gayheart appear older than her college years by dressing her in a sexy black top and matching cardigan. But although the pieces look expensive, both are from the racks of Urban Outfitters. On a different note is the edgy sexpot college radio DJ played by Tara Reid [from The Big Lebowski]. "Tara is a stunning, voluptuous girl and she's great in the part," says Hannan. "Every one of her outfits is a new 'scene' because she's always 'on,' a starlet in her own campus world. She begins at the radio station in a very bold vintage 'disco' outfit but in class she wears a creation by Todd Oldham, who this year used lots of darker, autumn shades with a little bit of edgy gold threading running through the fabric. Her shoes are platforms that I got in a gothic clothing store in Canada."
If it seems that Hannan and a few of the other costume designers have managed to slip a bit of high fashion into their slasher films, it's not a mistake. Hannan believes that the symbiotic subcouture reigning at the moment won't necessarily go away, but will be joined by a greater resurgence of designer duds. "We glamorized gangster movies, and now we're doing it with horror movies," she asserts. "Though it's not like movies 20 or 30 years ago--today it's a more shoot-from-the-hip, get-the-audience-to-relate-to-it approach. I worked on Pulp Fiction and Uma Thurman was very high style in that. Sharon Stone and Madonna are constantly going for a more high-fashion look. Gretchen Mol in_ Music from Another Room_, which I worked on, is very Grace Kelly--tight cashmere sweaters, long, 'pencil' skirts out of the romantic, sexy '50s. The big difference is that now, you show high style on an Uma or Sharon and, in the same frame, there are more edgy, urban characters as well." One way or another, Hannan believes, "more and more, audiences are going to see beautiful-looking people dressing really well." They just won't be able to go buy that look for themselves.
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Stephen Rebello interviewed Jenny McCarthy for the August '98 issue of Movieline.