Costume designer Sara Byblow is in pink. I am too. We share a chuckle on our video call when I point this out. The colour feels appropriate, given that we are sitting down to discuss our favourite ‘Gemini vegetarian’, Elle Woods. The iconic heroine of the 2001 film Legally Blonde is starting a new chapter with Elle, a Prime Video original series that serves as a prequel. The show follows a younger Elle Woods (played by Lexi Minetree) as she leaves glitzy Los Angeles behind for grungy Seattle. Set six years before the hit film that starred Reese Witherspoon, the show chronicles Elle’s high school years.
Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde
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Special Arrangement
Much like the movies, pink (many, many shades of it) here is a main character, and Sara worked on designing a wardrobe for Lexi, as she struggles to fit into her new high school, the ensemble supporting cast which includes her very fashionable parents, a large contingent of high schoolers outfitted in blacks, greys and charcoal, and of course, her chic Chihuahua, little Bruiser, who gets his own Lacoste tennis outfit and Burberry raincoat. She recalls watching Legally Blonde years ago, and how every moment of the film stayed with her. “The scene where she runs into Warner at Harvard wearing a blue green cardigan that looks like a smoking jacket, and a hot pink shirt… it was just so creative,” she says, of Elle’s outfit in the iconic, ‘Like it’s hard?’ scene. The red Bottega bag Elle carries in this scene finds its way back into the prequel; her mother Eva is seen with the bag. Working on the spinoff meant delving into the script and stepping into the mind of Elle Woods, a Y2K icon who Sara says is someone who makes very conscious choices not just for herself and her actions, but her wardrobe as well.
