Movie Where the Mom Wears Pink Fluffy Dress
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An Inside Look at the Fabulous Aughts Fashion in 'Senior Year'
Costume designer Salvador Pérez walks us through all of Rebel Wilson's perfectly retro outfits.
By Marah Eakin May 19, 2022
For costume designer Salvador Pérez, working on Senior Year was a reunion of sorts. He had worked with director Alex Hardcastle on The Mindy Project. Plus, the film also marks his fourth movie in 10 years with star Rebel Wilson. "Rebel and I are great collaborators," he says. "She knows that I know how to make her look her best."
Of course, helping Wilson "look her best" in Senior Year meant that Pérez had to come up with just the right outfits from a pretty ridiculous time in fashion: the early '00s. Wilson stars as Stephanie, a 38-year-old who spent 20 years in a coma and is now awake and desperately clinging to her high school identity — and the accompanying era-appropriate outfits. To get the look, Pérez mined vintage Delia's catalogs and resale shops looking for JNCOs and chunky black heels, all in an attempt to capture what it looked like to be a teen in 2002. He also outfitted hundreds of extras for a climactic prom scene and created custom pieces for Wilson's re-creation of a famous music video.
Below, Pérez tells Tudum how he pulled it all together, one adorable and/or awkward outfit at a time, and guides us through the fabulous fashions of Senior Year.
Young Stephanie's bowling-party dress
Tell us about the inspiration for this Pretty in Pink– style confection. I [paid $100] for a Delia's catalog I found online, and it actually was from the summer of 2002 — like, literally it was that year. [But then] I saw this dress in [a JC Penney catalog] and decided it had to be the dress that her sweet mom would have bought, thinking, "Oh, it's fun. It has a little bit of sparkle." Then I found lace with little silver dots on it, and matching tulle and taffeta, too. So, I just had to make this, like, sad party dress, because they're not supposed to be cool kids yet.
The hair really adds to it too, with those sad plastic clips. I found those at Claire's. The whole process was about trying to find good bad-clothes and -accessories.
Young Stephanie's peppy and perfect cheerleading uniform
How much say did you have in the cheerleading colors and outfit? The colors were dictated by the location because the school already had those colors, so it was always going to be green and white. But I said, "please add gold," because I needed another contrast. Also, my high school was green and white, so I always try to make my school colors green and white as an homage to my high school. If you look at Veronica Mars, which I also did, you'll see it's the same color combination.
[To get the uniforms,] I found a cheerleading company called GK Cheer. Bless them, because it was the middle of cheerleading season, and they still made them for me. They actually made three sets, because, remember, there's the flashback set, a contemporary set and the flashy dancing ones. It was a huge order.
The uniforms had to do certain things. We had to get two sets [for the dance number] — they had the set they danced in, and then they had the set that ripped off. The ones that get ripped off are two sizes too big, and I put industrial-strength magnets on them. We used to do Velcro and snaps, but magnets are so much easier, and the reset is almost instant. My cutter-fitter has been with me for years, and we've done this many times... but of course, doing 40 was a pain in the butt.
Stephanie's Juicy tracksuit
This velour tracksuit really takes you back to the early '00s. It's classic. Thank God Juicy Couture re-issued this so I didn't have to go out and make it. They just literally re-issued that. The fit was a little different, though, so we had to fudge it. We had to buy three or four to mix and match.
Stephanie's sweet jammies
Where did you snag Stephanie's adorable pajamas? It was important to us that viewers believe she's wearing clothes that her old self wore, so I needed to find something that was cute and short but that had enough stretch that you believe she can get into it. I believe these are Donna Karan. I took into consideration that everything had to be a little ill-fitting, because she's bigger now than she was as a teenage girl. My philosophy is that the first clothes she wears were all in her closet already — her dad didn't go shopping.
Stephanie's first-day back fit
It feels like you can see Stephanie growing up through her outfits over the course of the movie. That was very thought out. We did a whole chart of how, when she first gets [out of her coma], she's still wearing literally what she would have worn when she was a kid. At a certain point you have to realize you dress funny, so we slowly transition. That being said, even when she's wearing contemporary clothes, she still wears them in ways that her old self would have worn them.
There's a shot of Rebel and Angourie [Rice, who plays Young Stephanie] dancing at the end of the movie, and they're both wearing this outfit.
It's so funny to see how a tank top's fit can change throughout someone's life. Rebel was really brave about it. She was like, "Don't make it flattering. Make it funny."
Stephanie's "learning to use a phone" tee
Was this long-sleeve shirt vintage or modern? It's great. This shirt is literally from Delia's. They were bought out by a company called Dolls Kill, and they made reproductions of Delia's clothes but under the Dolls Kill label. A lot of the modern period outfits came from Dolls Kill. Luckily, that whole collection that year was a retro collection. I was so excited. I was just like, "Let's get it all."
When you see the high school or the party at the bowling alley, we dressed all those kids in '90s clothes. We went on thredUp and bought every pair of low-slung, wide-leg, flared jeans possible. I probably bought 150 pairs of pants. You can't cheat the pants. You can cheat a polo or you can cheat a little top, but you couldn't cheat the pants.
Style by Yaz
All of Yaz's [Joshua Colley] outfits in the movie are really great. Oh my God. We had so much fun with Yaz's outfits. In the fittings, when he'd come out, we'd be like, "Yaaaaas!"
Here's a funny story: This jacket is a knockoff of an Alice + Olivia piece. Then, he came to the fitting and he brought the real one, like, "I think this would work for my character." I was like, "Oh, my God," and then I held ours up. We knew instantly we were on the same page. It was such a kismet moment that his friend had the real one and I bought the knockoff.
For all of his clothes, I went to the Saks designer clearance rack and just bought fabulous pieces. Everything came from the women's department, because we wanted it to be androgynous. We had fun with it, and he was so game.
Senior Year goes "Crazy"
Tell us about re-creating Britney Spears' "Crazy" video. That must have been fun. Oh my God, does [Rebel] not look amazing? Like wow, wow. The thing is, it's supposed to be a fantasy, so I was like, "Let's make Rebel look as good as possible." I happened to find that sequined fabric at Fine Fabrics in Atlanta that was the exact color, and so I made a top, and she just looked amazing in it.
Did you mimic background looks from the original video or just find inspiration in them? I did a little bit. Like, I really did pops of color. In the original, it really was the case that every single person was in a crop top, so I did that where I could, but I also wanted my leads to pop, so that's why [Colley] has a sequin on. We had fun with it.
Stephanie's sweetheart sweater set
The outfit Stephanie wears on her date with Seth is a show-stopper. That is also from Dolls Kill, but you'll never find it like in the movie, because that red trim is not that way normally. It was the interfacing to the sweater. We added the shoulder pads and then we took the interfacing out and recut it.
It was very hard to make. I think I bought four to end up with two. Luckily it was cool enough to wear this look, because the outfit is very hot. It's thick angora, so you can imagine what it's like to wear that in the heat.
A little Easter egg: Every project I've done [with her], Rebel has worn a heart. It started on the very first Pitch Perfect. I bought her a T-shirt from Delia's with a rainbow heart on it, and she [makes a heart with her hands] in the movie. Then, on the second [project,] I found another one and by the third one, it was like, "Well, we have to do a heart. It's a tradition, Rebel. We always have to put a heart on you."
Stephanie's pink prom perfection
The prom dress is such a moment. We designed this dress to look like something her mom would have bought her back in the day. I had to make this for the first day of shooting, and I think I had three days to make this dress. She came in and we shot the scene, and I had to make the dress right away.
After we started shooting, Rebel was like, "Oh by the way, it has to rip off." I was like, "It has to do what?" Luckily, it had that empire waist seam, so I just said, "Okay, we're just gonna cheat and make it so that seam makes it a two-piece." That was all after the fact. I did not design this dress to be ripped apart. When I found that pink satin, there was just one bolt of it. Thank God I had just enough, because I had only planned on making three dresses.
Anything else we should know about the prom? That had to be a massive undertaking. We had 300 extras, and I dressed 285 of them. Because they're not real teenagers, they're adults playing teenagers, they don't have prom clothes. Luckily, I had just done the Never Have I Ever prom, so I knew where to get all the dresses and all the suits. I literally bought the prom in two, maybe three days. I just knew where to go.
What can you tell us about Lance's [Michael Cimino's] prom outfit? It's definitely a cut above a normal tux. I had to buy four suits to make Lance's suit. It was just a regular tuxedo with pants. I bought extras, and I made the vest and that accordion kilt. The joins are zippers. You don't see the detail of it, but it's a completely custom piece.
If you remember, you meet him in a kilt. He dresses sort of androgynously. Knowing what the dance was going to be, I made the kilt open in the front, so she could lift him. It was just crazy.
Stephanie's graduation getup
Finally, what can you tell us about Stephanie's beautiful red graduation look? I got this dress at Ted Baker. It just had this cheerleader vibe. It needed to be stretchy, and I had to find multiple, and it had to be long enough. There were a lot of parameters, and we tried on several dresses. At the last minute, I needed to add a cardigan. I found these cardigans at Farfetch that were the exact shade of red, and there were two of them, so I snatched them up.
Source Images: Boris Martin/Netflix
Source: https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/a-guide-to-every-fabulous-look-in-senior-year
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