Revisit North Shore High School 20 years later, and you’re bound to find a very different group of “Plastics.” The modernized version of the iconic 2004 teen film is also written by Tina Fey, but, as the tag line says, it’s “not your mothers Mean Girls.” Co-directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., the film stars Angourie Rice as Cady Heron, Reneé Rapp as Regina George, Bebe Wood as Gretchen Wieners, and Avantika as Karen Shetty (née Smith). The only difference? The story is told from the perspective of Damian Hubbard (Jaquel Spivey) and Janis Ian ‘Imi’ke (Auliʻi Cravalho), a.k.a. “the coolest people you will ever meet.”
Of course, fashion is still very much a part of the narrative, and as Jayne and Perez Jr. note, early aughts style has made a comeback, so it was fun to weave in reemerging trends. “We pulled a lot of references from what teens are actually wearing to school,” Jayne tells ELLE.com. “Although the Plastics are a group, they’re each distinct characters, so we let their personalities lead.” Costume designer Tom Broecker adds that he did try to drop some Easter eggs from the original movie (more on that later…), but maintains that this project was its own entity. His go-to labels, he says, were Miu Miu, Valentino, The North Face, Converse, Off-White, and The Frankie Shop. And while Broecker pulled plenty of sneakers, UGGs, and Crocs, the Plastics preferred heels.
Ahead of the film’s release, we asked Broecker and some members of the current cast to discuss the style in Mean Girls, favorite fashion moments from the 2000s, and whether fetch can, in fact, happen. Keep scrolling for their answers.
Angourie Rice (Cady Heron)
“We tried lots of other versions of the pink shirt look, but the vest trumped them all. It was also one of my favorite costumes to wear because it was so comfortable. As we see [Cady] change on the inside, her outside appearance changes, too. Her journey can be charted through her behavior, and also through her style. For Cady, fashion is a way to fit in, and then a way to signal to everyone around her that she has replaced Regina. That’s something that happens in real life, too. We use clothing to signal to the world who we are.”
Reneé Rapp (Regina George)
Broecker used Regina’s half-chain, half-pearl necklace to reference the typography of the original “R” necklace worn by Rachel McAdams in the original movie. “The great thing about this character as played by Reneé is that it has the duality of gender. What is more feminine than pearls, which have now been co-opted by men? The gold chain brought a masculine edge too.”
Bebe Wood (Gretchen Wieners)
“For me, Halloween is an opportunity to embody a favorite character from a film or book that I love. Or, like Cady, I enjoy dressing up as something creepy. Gretchen’s ethos for Halloween is, ‘If you don’t dress slutty, you’re slut-shaming us,’ so, really, I was just incredibly excited to give that a try and be a slutty cat.” Wood describes her character’s aesthetic as “bitchy schoolgirl,” and especially loves how the fashion in the film works as a storytelling tool. “You know exactly who the characters are the moment that you see them just by what they wear,” she adds.
Avantika (Karen Shetty)
“By virtue of the bold pink hue, the outfits I wore still retain this sense of simultaneous innocence and sex appeal, girlhood, and fun that is so consistent with both Karen Smith and Karen Shetty.” By playing the Plastics, “You really get a peek into their headspace, emotional growth, and confidence just by paying heed to the kind of attire they tend to dress in,” Avantika adds. “It creates this subconscious visual storytelling that I feel is really special, and essential to Mean Girls, which portrays young women, a demographic that is often stripped of their individuality and uniqueness by broader society.”
Jaquel Spivey (Damian Hubbard)
“I feel that the fashion in the film shows you who these characters are and what they are about. You get to know these people by what they choose to wear and how they strut through the world in it. It was exciting to give Damian different colorful looks that may or may not have followed trends, because he marches to the beat of his own drum.”
Auli‘i Cravalho (Janis ‘Imi’ke)
“Above all, I love the inclusive and gorgeous representation in our film, and that certainly extends to fashion. Gen Z is loud and proud about wanting (read: needing) to see ourselves on-screen, and our film is colorful, musical, queer, and, yes, fetch, just like any high school of today.”
Busy Philipps (Mrs. George)
Philipps hilariously describes the modern Mrs. George’s wardrobe as “#aginghotly #notaregularmom.” Pulling from a wide range of inspiration, including real-life Instagram mom accounts, and, of course Amy Poehler’s original portrayal, she worked with Broecker to give a proper nod to the iconic Juicy Couture tracksuit moment in the original. In fact, designer Suzie Kondi crafted a pink velour set in a slightly different silhouette that Philipps describes as “the exact right thing for Mrs. George to wear.”
These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.