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00:00Hey guys, it's Alana from Page Six Style, and we have an incredibly special guest with us today, Mona May, the visionary costume designer behind Clueless, Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion, Never Been Kissed, so many incredible movies that I love.
00:15Mona, the last time we sat down together was for Clueless' 25th anniversary in 2020. Time flies. We're now at the 30th anniversary. I did tell you at the time that Clueless is the reason I wanted to get into fashion, and you probably hear that every single day of your life, I'm guessing.
00:31I do, and I love it. I mean, it's so special, you know, that your work, that my work can inspire others. It's just incredible.
00:39Absolutely. It changed a lot of lives, and some of the amazing fun facts about the costumes are in your new book, The Fashion of Clueless, which is amazing.
00:49I read it cover to cover in one sitting, and we were talking about this before. I've seen Clueless probably 500 times. It is an ultimate rewatch for me, and I still learned a lot of new things about the costumes.
01:03There are fun facts that I learned for the first time, and so I was thinking today, last time we sat down, we kind of went costume by costume, and you shared some of your favorite memories of them.
01:14Today, I was thinking we would go into some of the fun facts in the book, and you could explain them for our audience.
01:20I love it.
01:20The first is that Cher has 63 costumes in the movie, which is a whole lot of outfits. Do you have a personal favorite?
01:29It's such a hard question. I mean, the yellow-planned suit forever will be in our memory, and I think it's cover of the book.
01:36I do love the Alaya dress, and especially because I got to design the jacket that's a Mona May original in the purse, which is kind of like a very special moment, you know, in a movie for me, and also, you know, introducing Alaya to the world.
01:52I mean, nobody knew about Alaya, so this is like so fantastic, and she kind of was so grown up in that outfit.
01:59I just really love, you know, Alicia as Cher, forever beautiful.
02:03I want to back up for a second and go to the yellow-plaid suit. Also, you talk about how that was not the original, that was not the first choice for the scene.
02:12So how did you land upon that amazing Jean-Paul Gaultier suit?
02:15Well, you know, as a costume designer, I have to figure out what the outfit is going to be. First day of school, you know, she's the queen bee.
02:21There's going to be, you know, we're going to be outside in a quad with a lot of greenery.
02:25There will be a lot of crossings in front of her, so me and Amy were discussing, Amy Heckling, the director, you know, I mean, she's got a pop.
02:33And, you know, we thought about, okay, what is it going to be?
02:36I was like, you know, suit, plaid, of course, Catholic girl uniform, you know, something kind of grounded, but then, you know, on steroids, which share with a lot of money.
02:45Vivian Westwood is one of my favorite designers, you know, so I was thinking, okay, tartan.
02:49And so I started looking, I found something beautiful that was blue, blue tartan, you know, and I was like, oh, she's Alicia, she's going to look so perfect in it.
02:56And I found a red one, red and black, plaid.
02:59And then out of the corner of my eye, you know, at one of the Beverly Hills stores, I saw the yellow and I was like, just popped.
03:04I mean, it just took me by surprise.
03:06I was like, it's not even a great color for blondes.
03:08Right.
03:08Right?
03:09But I was like mesmerized.
03:11I had to get it, brought it into the fitting.
03:14Here's Tro's Alicia in her, you know, sweatpants with her dog.
03:17She was already an activist.
03:19Could care less about the clothes, but she had to learn to be Cher, you know.
03:22So we get her in there.
03:24We try the blue one.
03:25It's beautiful, but it just doesn't have the oomph, you know.
03:27We try the red one.
03:28Immediately, Emmy heckling goes, no, no, no, this is our Christmas color palette.
03:32We can't use it in the first day of school.
03:33Sunny California.
03:34Yeah, you know, fall palette, darling.
03:37And then there comes the yellow.
03:40And it was like that moment when she put it on.
03:42It truly was like the ray of sunshine.
03:44You know, she was the queen bee.
03:46And it was perfect.
03:47And she felt so good in it.
03:49And, I mean, there was no going back.
03:51It truly was that special moment that we felt like we've landed on that character for the first day of school.
03:57It was perfect.
03:57I love it.
03:58It matches her personality, too.
03:59She's so sunny and optimistic.
04:01Yes, yes.
04:02Absolutely.
04:03And here we are 30 years later with the cover of the book, which is just quite amazing.
04:07The number of Halloween costumes I've seen.
04:09Girls in the black and white and the yellow plaid together.
04:12I mean, Kim Kardashian did it with North.
04:16I mean, it's just quite amazing.
04:17The ultimate stamp of approval.
04:18Yeah.
04:19And in the book, we have a great picture of Donald Faison's daughter who also wore the Dion costume.
04:25That was really cool.
04:27And, I mean, you know, Halloween is coming.
04:28We're going to see a lot of shares.
04:30Even as young as like eight and babies, people dress them as the characters with the little hats.
04:36Fashionistas in training.
04:37Okay, the Jean-Paul Gaultier suit you bought, but I also know that a lot of the, you speak
04:43about this in the book, a lot of the costumes are actually vintage or thrifted because you
04:47didn't have a designer budget to work with, right?
04:51Yes, yes.
04:51I mean, it was a very interesting film at the time.
04:53It was the 90s.
04:54And there was not really movies about girls.
04:56When Amy Heckling wrote the script, no one wanted to produce it.
05:00They said, oh, if you put boys in, we'll shoot it for you, you know?
05:04So not till Paramount, Sherry Lansing and Scott Rudin, you know, gave Amy the chance to direct
05:11it.
05:12It was like that moment for us to have the girl movie.
05:17And the story was so interesting because you never seen high school students dress like
05:23this, you know?
05:24And that was really something that Amy wrote in the film.
05:26It was based on Emma, Jane Austen, you know?
05:29So it's like now in Beverly Hills with all the rich girls having daddy's credit cards,
05:33you know, being able to totally wear whatever they want.
05:36And that was pretty amazing, you know, how fresh that we were able to create something.
05:41And at the time, too, everybody was wearing grunge.
05:43Yes.
05:44So I didn't really, you know, I didn't have a blueprint how to make these costumes and
05:48then with little money.
05:49So I had to be very scrappy.
05:51I had to like, you know, get some designer where I could, borrow the Alaya dress.
05:55I didn't even, couldn't even afford to buy it.
05:58We'll get to that in a minute, yes.
06:00That's the whole thing.
06:00So I had to go high and low.
06:02I had to go to thrift stores.
06:03But, you know, everything that was in the movie, and I think that's something great for
06:07the audience to know, too, that even if it comes from a thrift store, alter it.
06:11Make it work for you, you know?
06:13Make it really tailored.
06:16And that's when it looks expensive.
06:17Totally.
06:18There's a particular red vinyl miniskirt that Dion wears that I always loved.
06:23It's so short.
06:24I can't believe she's wearing it to school, but I always assumed it was Versace or something
06:28like that, but that was a thrifted line, right?
06:31Yes.
06:31And, you know, a lot of stuff also came from Melrose.
06:33Melrose Avenue in L.A. was huge at the time.
06:36That's where everybody went shopping.
06:37So there were like a lot of stores for the raves.
06:40Yeah.
06:40So that's where I shopped as well for all the fun stuff.
06:43Oh, I love that.
06:44For her as well as Amber stuff, you know?
06:46But, you know, the story behind that skirt is so cool because...
06:49Tell me.
06:49...Stacey Dash, you know, she came from New York, and she was a little older than the other kids.
06:54She already knew.
06:54She was like punk rock when she came.
06:56She knew about fashion.
06:57So when she got into the fitting room, she was already sassy.
07:01She knew how she wanted that character.
07:02She was telling me, you want to make it short?
07:04And I was like, come, you're 16.
07:06You're in high school, you know?
07:08But we did it with her, and she really could carry it off, you know?
07:12Oh, it was amazing on her.
07:13And like, you know, the leopard coats that were like vintage.
07:16And, you know, I don't know if you know this, that purse she always carries, that little
07:19black purse.
07:19So that's also vintage.
07:20Oh, wow.
07:21Yeah.
07:22So it was fun.
07:22I mean, it was really fun to mix it.
07:24And I think what was fresh when the movie came out, because people didn't dress that
07:28way.
07:28Right.
07:28So it was like, oh, you can do jeans and a T-shirt and a, you know, expensive bag.
07:34Now it's du jour.
07:34High low.
07:35Yeah, high low.
07:36Everybody's having the Balenciaga bag with the ripped jeans and flip-flops, you know,
07:40and the $3,000 coat.
07:41Yeah.
07:41No, it paved the way.
07:44Another fun fact that I loved from the book is that Cher's computerized closet, which
07:47has been referenced endlessly throughout the years, I feel like there's so many apps now
07:51claiming to be Cher's, trying to achieve what you guys achieve with this movie, was inspired
07:57by a friend of Amy's wine collection.
08:01He cataloged all of his wines.
08:03And so, yeah, she was like, let's do it with fashion.
08:06Yeah.
08:06I mean, she's so brilliant.
08:08I mean, truly.
08:09Amy, you know, wrote all the language, you know, all the, like, just crazy cool ideas.
08:14You know, she's brilliant.
08:15And, yeah, she was like, Mona, let's do it with the clothes.
08:17I was like, okay.
08:19All right.
08:19So we had to catalog the clothes, you know, take all the pictures.
08:22And then we had these young kids who were like, I mean, this is before computers.
08:26Right.
08:27This is before cell phones.
08:28Everybody, please remember that.
08:30This is analog times, you know.
08:31Yeah.
08:32I mean, we were taking Polaroids on the set, you know.
08:35So, yeah, and we made it happen.
08:37I mean, it was really cool, you know, working with the computer guys and trying to figure
08:41out, you know, all the, all the backgrounds.
08:44And then, you know, of course, Alicia going, oh, my God.
08:46Right.
08:47And then we also had the mismatch.
08:49And we had the closet was kind of like dry cleaning.
08:54The revolving closet, yes.
08:54That was really pretty cool, too.
08:56That was the production designer idea.
08:58Okay.
08:58So I want to talk about the over-the-knee socks.
09:01I did not realize that those were inspired by cabaret, which is.
09:05Annie Heckling, again, loves the 20s.
09:06So cool.
09:07We are so connected on that.
09:08Yeah.
09:09Like the 20s.
09:10And it was, you know, it was a little risque.
09:12And that was something that was not a trend at the time.
09:14Not at all.
09:15Not at all.
09:15And so much fun.
09:16And, you know, it worked.
09:17Because I think, again, we really had to, if, you know, when I was preparing for this
09:22movie and looking at the research as a costume designer, you know, you go everywhere.
09:26And for me, it was runways, you know, what's happening six months ahead.
09:30But always had to have this kind of, you know, you have to siphon through this age-appropriate
09:36clothing.
09:37You know, and Amy wanted to be very sweet.
09:39We wanted to be very girly.
09:40You know, the antidote to all the stuff that we've seen in high school at the time, the
09:44baggy stuff, you know, and color and kind of the joie de vivre was very important to
09:48us, you know, to be like, oh, my God, let's be girls.
09:51Yeah.
09:52Celebration of girlhood.
09:54Yes.
09:54Yes.
09:54I loved the knee socks.
09:56I tried to pull them off as a kid.
09:57I was so into them.
09:59You did?
09:59You did?
10:00Where did you get them?
10:01Oh, my God.
10:02Probably limited to.
10:03Yes, of course.
10:04Contempo casual.
10:05Hello.
10:05Contempo casual.
10:06Oh, my God.
10:07Iconic.
10:08But I'm so glad that, you know, and that's the best part about the film, especially when
10:11it came out at the time, that people really, like, wanted to wear all the clothes.
10:16And there was no Amazon.
10:17You couldn't just click on and get all this stuff shipped to you.
10:20So it was like the research, like trying to find it and get the things.
10:23Putting your own spin on it.
10:24The spaghetti straps over the T-shirt was another.
10:26Completely new thing.
10:27That you started.
10:28Yep.
10:28Like now, to this day, we still wear it.
10:31You can buy it together.
10:33Yeah.
10:33The pre-layered.
10:34The pre-layered.
10:35Exactly.
10:36But, you know, again, it was so fun because the whole gym scene, too, was like, you know,
10:40the reality of, okay, what do you wear in gym?
10:42Like, it's always the black and white, but then let's take it way further and really kind
10:49of like the cabaret lineup, you know?
10:51Well, and I always, I was always so obsessed with this little chain cell phone holder and
10:55water bottle holder.
10:57I thought those were Chanel, but you made them for the movie.
10:59Yes, I did.
11:00I did.
11:01It was so much fun.
11:01And, you know, the pagers and like all that stuff was just so cool and new.
11:06And, I mean, the cell phone holders, the water holders, you know, nobody, I mean, we really
11:12were bringing the runway to high school, you know, all the really high-end stuff.
11:17Totally.
11:17Not a lot of, you know, at the time you didn't have Instagram.
11:20You didn't, you know, people had to buy a special magazine that was like $80 to see
11:25what's happening in the runways in Europe, you know?
11:27So, it was a different kind of information.
11:29So, when the movie came out, we were the runway in a way.
11:33Like, you know, we were the first Instagrammers in a way.
11:35I love it.
11:36I love it.
11:37And now Chanel sells so many versions of that.
11:39Oh, God, yes.
11:40Novelty accessories.
11:42Something I didn't realize upon my many watches of the film is that you also incorporated little
11:47tributes to Jane Austen and Emma's style into the outfits.
11:53And now I see them, right?
11:55So, tell me a little bit about how you brought that sort of, you know, Jane Austen-era fashion
12:00into it as well.
12:01The girliness was of the time, you know, the little cap sleeve, which I am such a fan.
12:06Same.
12:06You know, and little empire ways.
12:08Yeah, with the little bow.
12:09That maroon dress that Cher wears and then amber.
12:12I love.
12:13But also, you know, the green one.
12:14I don't know.
12:15There's the green one.
12:15The shopping scene.
12:16The shopping scene.
12:16That's one of Alicia's Silverstone favorite outs of it's in the movie, actually.
12:20It's so pretty.
12:20Because it's so pretty.
12:21And, you know, it's great.
12:22It's timeless.
12:24I mean, I can, this is on the rack somewhere right now.
12:26Yeah.
12:27Because it just fits us well.
12:28You know, when we put something like that on, and I think that's kind of my philosophy
12:32on clothing, you know, for women.
12:35And they need to make you feel good, you know.
12:38And those are kind of the staples, the things that look good on any shape, any body, forever.
12:45You know, it's that little A-line skirt dress.
12:48My favorites all the way.
12:49Right.
12:50The favorite suet.
12:50It hides all the things that we need to.
12:52And the little sleeves.
12:53And, you know, the neckline can be lower.
12:55The neckline can be higher.
12:56So, again, you can kind of customize your own thing.
12:59Yeah.
12:59But it's those feminine shapes.
13:01And I think maybe the staying power of the movie, too, is because I'm using this kind
13:05of timeless shapes.
13:07You know, be inspired from the 1800s.
13:09Be inspired, you know, the 60s.
13:11Be inspired, you know.
13:13Everything's cyclical.
13:14Everything's cyclical.
13:15Yeah.
13:15The 20s.
13:16I mean, the over the, you know, so you mix it up.
13:18Yeah.
13:18Yeah.
13:19I love that.
13:20So, Dion wears 25 hats throughout the movie.
13:23Okay.
13:23Do you count it?
13:24I didn't even, seriously.
13:25Oh, yeah.
13:25It's in the book.
13:26And I was like, I was trying to go back.
13:28I was like, okay, the doctor, the opening.
13:29The opening hat, the Dr. Seuss type, like, soft one with the swirls.
13:33Yes.
13:33She wears, like, a knit beanie or beret at one point.
13:36But do you have a favorite hat of hers?
13:38Well, it has to be the Dr. Seuss hat.
13:39The opening one?
13:41Yes.
13:41I mean.
13:42With the camellias.
13:43This camellias.
13:43It was so Chanel.
13:44I found that hat.
13:46And it's actually a designer that's still in business here in New York City, Kalkin.
13:50I love that.
13:51K-O-K-I-N.
13:52Please look him up.
13:52Yeah.
13:53It's fantastic.
13:54So, he made, you know, he made that hat.
13:56And I was like, I brought the hat to the fitting.
13:59And I was like, okay, Stacey, what do you think?
14:02And she was like, yeah, baby.
14:04I love it.
14:04You know, and it just, again, I think it's about the confidence.
14:08Because you can have someone wear this crazy hat, and it just looks like a costume, right?
14:13But then you take Stacey Dash.
14:15So much personality.
14:15She, I mean, when she comes out of that house in the morning, you know, to go to school
14:20with Cher, you're like, okay, this is the coolest thing ever.
14:23Right.
14:23And now that is a Halloween outfit.
14:26You can buy that hat on Amazon, which is crazy.
14:28It's wild.
14:29So, it's truly amazing, because it takes the actor, too, to wear it.
14:33Mm-hmm.
14:34A hundred percent.
14:35And to create something that iconic.
14:38Mm-hmm.
14:38It's really amazing.
14:41And as a costume designer, it doesn't happen often.
14:43Right.
14:43You know, it truly, those are the moments, kind of, in, like, the few movies throughout
14:47your careers that you can make a stamp, where now, you know, the Vogue world has these outfits
14:5130 years later strutting the runway at Paramount Studios.
14:54The opening outfits were on that runway.
14:56And it was such a moment for me, too, because, you know, the movie is now 30th anniversary,
15:00and we actually shot at Paramount.
15:02It was a parent movie.
15:03A full circle moment.
15:04So, it's a full circle moment.
15:06I mean, I truly had, like, a tear in my eye, you know, that, like, being there and just
15:09seeing them.
15:10And, you know, people just love the outfits so much.
15:13That there was so much cheer, too, you know.
15:15It was just wonderful.
15:17The hats are so good.
15:18Well, I'm a hat person.
15:20Yeah, clearly.
15:20I'm a hat person.
15:21There's also many berets in the movie.
15:23Which I love.
15:23I also bought berets after.
15:25Yeah, it's timeless.
15:26And I don't know.
15:27I also think of, you know, women dressing up.
15:32The gloves.
15:33The hats.
15:34To me, always, the hat brings something extra to the outfit, you know.
15:37So, think about hats, please, everybody.
15:40You know, try to incorporate.
15:41Consider the hat.
15:42Consider the hat.
15:42You know, and even if it's a cool cap or newspaper boy cap or, you know, not always
15:48the baseball cap.
15:49Right.
15:49Exactly.
15:50That's for the boys and their, like, baggy, you know.
15:52Exactly.
15:53That one scene where you get the glimpse of what fashion was actually like at the time
15:56versus the world that you created.
15:58You know, the hats to what was so amazing was Amy Heckling, too, allowing me to bring
16:02all of it.
16:03You know, sometimes you can't use hats in the movies because they go, oh, you can't
16:07see actors' eyes.
16:08Right.
16:08You know, so there's just a lot of limitations.
16:10There's shadows.
16:11Yeah.
16:11But she was such a fashionista herself.
16:14Yeah.
16:15You know, to allow us to just kind of go full on.
16:17Mm-hmm.
16:18Which is really fun.
16:19It's incredible.
16:20And I know we were going to, we have to talk about the Aliyah dress.
16:23That was, she wrote it into the script because it was such a special piece.
16:27Yes.
16:27So tell me, first of all, I read that you had to beg the Aliyah team to let you borrow
16:32that for the scene because it was out of your budget.
16:34Completely.
16:35Completely.
16:36So tell me about that and also how it ended up in the script with that iconic line,
16:39you don't understand this is an Aliyah.
16:40Well, that's Amy.
16:41That's Amy, of course.
16:43Get down on the ground.
16:44Face down.
16:46Come on.
16:46Oh, no.
16:47You don't understand.
16:48This is an Aliyah.
16:49Aliyah.
16:50I saw the dress in a store and I was like, this is perfect.
16:53Because it's a very sexy dress in a way.
16:57But, you know, the way that Aliyah uses fabric, it's very thick.
17:01Yes.
17:01So it's not a bodycon dress.
17:03Right.
17:03It's still fitted, but it feels tailored, which was very kind of classy for her.
17:08And that's why I really fell in love with it.
17:09And it was Christmas.
17:10It was red, of course.
17:11It had a beautiful neckline.
17:14Yeah, couldn't afford it.
17:15So we found somebody who speaks French.
17:17Again, analog times, pick up the phone or fax.
17:21Yeah.
17:22Oh, my God.
17:22Faxing.
17:23Talk to somebody there, you know.
17:25Ask them in French.
17:26Can we please borrow this dress?
17:28And, you know, again, this was no PR machines.
17:30Right.
17:30There was no people sending you clothes like now.
17:33And, you know, also we have ingenue actors.
17:36Nobody knew who we were.
17:37Right.
17:37You can't say we know this is going to be an iconic fashion movie.
17:40Exactly.
17:40You know, Alicia is going to be a huge star and Paul Rudd and everybody.
17:44But they agreed.
17:45They were so kind.
17:46He was such a beautiful man.
17:47You know, really supportive artist.
17:49And he sent us the dress.
17:51You know, I didn't even tell him that she had to get on the ground in the dress.
17:55Yeah.
17:55Because I was like.
17:55Minor detail.
17:56Minor detail.
17:57I'm like, Alicia, don't breathe.
17:59When you go down, I'm like, basically, you know, we're like blowing the ground off.
18:04I'm like, we can't snag it.
18:05We can't do anything.
18:05You can see she's kind of like holding herself just off the ground.
18:08It really is.
18:09She knew it.
18:10She saw me like heart populating, you know.
18:11But it was that moment.
18:13You know, we had to have it.
18:14And then, yes, Amy wrote it in the film.
18:16And it was like, you know, brilliance.
18:18And, I mean, same with Calvin Klein dress.
18:20You know, there was so much fun, too.
18:22So, in the book, it says the script for that just called for something inappropriate.
18:28And you took many fittings to land on that white Calvin Klein dress.
18:32So, tell me how you chose it.
18:33And also, do you remember some of the other looks you considered that didn't make the cut?
18:37Well, everything that we considered was a little bit too negligee.
18:41Got it.
18:41You know, a little bit too skin tone.
18:43Because, you know, first we kind of went into the, like, undergarment.
18:47And it just didn't work.
18:49You know, again, she's 16.
18:50She's going on a date.
18:51You know, as a costume designer, you have to think about the story, who she is, where
18:54it's going, what's going to happen, you know.
18:56And it just, everything else looked too sexy.
18:59You know, it was a cotton stretch.
19:01So, it wasn't shiny.
19:02Again, it wasn't too tight.
19:05And this cream tone was really important, too, I think, because it was kind of, like,
19:09innocent.
19:10Almost a little wedding-like.
19:11I mean, it was like, you know, it was a nurse.
19:12Very bridal.
19:13Very bridal.
19:13So, again, when she tried it on after, like, probably 20, 30 pieces and she was getting
19:19annoyed.
19:20You know what I mean?
19:20It's like, imagine if you have 63 changes, how many fittings you have to do.
19:24Especially for Alicia at the time, she was, like, not into clothes.
19:27Right.
19:27That's crazy, too, is that, you know, in the book we learn that her real lifestyle was
19:32so different from Cher's.
19:34And Stacy's, too, because she was, like, punk rock, right?
19:36Yes.
19:36And then she goes in and...
19:37Yes, but Stacy knew about fashion more.
19:40Alicia was, like, completely not into it at all.
19:43That's so crazy.
19:43She was in her, literally in her sweatpants and her flip-flops coming to fittings, you
19:47know.
19:47Oh, my gosh.
19:47But, again, as an actor, you have to go through this process to learn who you are as the character.
19:55And she learned.
19:56Alicia started wearing the clothes, understanding how to walk and, you know, be sheer, flip
20:00there, all of that stuff.
20:02You know, it's so...
20:03Costume informs them so much, the actors.
20:06And to this day, she's front row at Fashion Week, so clearly it made an impact.
20:09I know.
20:09I know.
20:10I want to talk about Paul Rudd, who apparently brought a lot of his own clothes and wore
20:15a lot of his own clothes in the movie.
20:17Was that for budget reasons?
20:19Was that for the character?
20:20Okay.
20:20This was so cool doing this book, truly, because it was this conversation with actors.
20:25Yeah.
20:26I'm, like, with Alicia, I'm still working with her.
20:28You know, Stacy I talked to, Alicia Donovan, but with Paul we don't talk often, you
20:32know, he's somewhere off in the big movies.
20:34So when we got to talk, he reminded me of it.
20:37I didn't even remember that.
20:39He's like, Mona, do you remember?
20:40I brought all my jeans and my boots and it ended up in the movie.
20:43I was like, you're right.
20:44Yeah.
20:44Because I was so on a budget.
20:46And he was just that guy in a way, you know.
20:48And those are the guys you still see in the, you know, plaid shirts, T-shirts and baggy
20:53jeans.
20:53Totally.
20:53But we got to do the fun T-shirts with him.
20:55Yeah.
20:56You know, again, kind of telling the world who he is.
20:59You know, the breast cancer awareness T-shirt that was so popular at the time.
21:03My ex-boyfriend gave me a T-shirt of, like, some cool underground club in Austin.
21:07You know, so we kind of...
21:08You're like, Josh would know about that.
21:09Exactly.
21:09You know, so that was really fun.
21:10So those are kind of the clues about his personality.
21:13And, of course, you know, the reading Nietzsche.
21:15Yes.
21:16Which he read at the time anyway.
21:18Like, he maybe had the most in common with his character of anyone.
21:22I know.
21:23Paul Rudd.
21:23The best.
21:24I mean, you know what?
21:25It was so much fun working on that movie because we were so young.
21:29I mean, it was my first big feature.
21:31That's crazy.
21:32It was Paul Rudd's first movie.
21:34I mean, Alicia's done some stuff, you know, and she came out with the big Aerosmith.
21:37But she's done some shows.
21:40I mean, Brittany Murphy, you know.
21:42She was 17 when she came onto the set.
21:44And she was so effervescent and beautiful and so kind of smart already, you know, about acting.
21:50And she knew about the character when we were in the fitting.
21:53She's like, Mono, don't make me pretty in the beginning.
21:55I love that she specified that.
21:57She was like, no, I need to look really dweeby at the start.
22:00Yes.
22:00So you can see the makeover.
22:01Yes.
22:02Yes.
22:02And kind of really, you know, become the mini-me Cher, you know, and her little plaids.
22:07But they were from Contempo Casuals.
22:09Which also gets a shout-out in the movie.
22:11Yes.
22:12And, you know, and then finding herself in the end.
22:14Kind of the tomboy but more feminine, you know, when she's at the skateboarding park in her little T-shirt.
22:18She's wearing skate brands, which I never noticed.
22:20She has, like, Roxy and Union Day, I think.
22:22Yes, yes, yes, yes.
22:23Which is, like, a way to, it's like an Easter egg of how she has found her way back to Travis, the skater boy.
22:30But now she's feminine with her little feminine necklace.
22:33Yeah, the little pigtails.
22:34Yeah.
22:34And I love Cher outfit, too, because it's kind of softer at the end, too.
22:38She's wearing a sweater, still white shirt.
22:40But now it's a sparkly sweater, softer.
22:42So, you know, all that kind of uptightness has gone.
22:46Yeah, she softens as her personality changes.
22:49Maybe my favorite fun fact from this book that I did not know is that Cher wears a sparkly hair clip in the college party scene that you see when she's driving home with Josh.
23:00That exact clip was later used on Amanda Bynes in She's the Man, which is amazing.
23:06Yeah, the hairstylist repurposed the hair clip and apparently Amanda Bynes is a huge clueless man.
23:11Yes.
23:12It's so crazy.
23:13I mean, you know what, it's like how it lives on.
23:16I love that.
23:17That's so cute.
23:17It's so good.
23:18It's such a good little Easter egg.
23:19Last question.
23:20So we have to talk about Miss Geist's wedding gown from the final scene, which you designed yourself.
23:25Yes, yes.
23:26But it was not the easiest thing for her to wear.
23:29So tell me why.
23:29Well, you know, we love Miss Geist, right?
23:32Yeah.
23:32And she's like this craziest cookie character and was so fun working with twin Kaplan.
23:38You know, I kind of exaggerated her color, you know, the rip in the stocking, you know, it was always kind of fitting.
23:46Everything was not really great.
23:48Yeah.
23:48So, again, we had a lot of place to work from to do the makeover.
23:52And, you know, as the movie goes, she's getting a little better.
23:54Then she wears these little, you know, 40 suits, really cute.
23:58You know, she has the most petite, perfect body.
24:00And when we started talking about the wedding, Twink was like, okay, I want to show my body off.
24:05Like, I want to really, you know, I want to show off that Miss Geist really has got, you know, the sexy on.
24:12And we started designing it.
24:13And she wanted it super fitted.
24:15Right.
24:15With the high collar neck, with the open.
24:17I mean, truly, it was like my seamstress, Zoya, who was like architect from, we had to construct it, you know, and it fitted her.
24:25She couldn't even eat, literally.
24:26Oh, my gosh.
24:27And sit.
24:28So we had this leaning board from like the original movies, you know, when they wore the gowns.
24:34Yeah, like a corset.
24:36So she had to kind of lean with the arm set in the dress so it doesn't get ruined.
24:40I mean, it was worth it because she looked so good in that gown.
24:43And the little fascinator, very French.
24:45You know, it was just, you know, the wedding was the end.
24:48It was so, like, the most fun moment.
24:51Again, it's about femininity, celebration of life, you know, friendship, all of that.
24:56You know, when everybody's talking about getting married, the girls, and, you know, you have to catch the bouquet.
25:01And you see Amy in that scene?
25:03Yes, yes, yes.
25:04And I know you also have a cameo in the movie that some folks might not know about.
25:10Are we going to really say it?
25:11Can you share?
25:12Yes.
25:13Oh, my God.
25:14I was the masseuse.
25:15Fabian the masseuse.
25:16I was the Fabian the masseuse in the white turban.
25:20Yes.
25:20Because Cher has a lot of tension in her back from dealing with so much stress.
25:23Very fun.
25:24And it was great because, you know, we became close, so it was, you know, I was able to massage her.
25:29It was very comfortable for Alicia and Amy was like, and you have that accent.
25:34I fit the role.
25:34I fit the role, the Eastern European, you know.
25:37Yeah, I love it.
25:37But it was so much fun.
25:39I mean, it really, you know, we are still such close-knit friends in a way because that, you know, we were so young.
25:46And then when the movie came out, it opened all the doors for us, you know.
25:50So there was just this moment in our lives that changed everything.
25:54It was the turning point.
25:54It was the turning point, you know.
25:56So there was just this connection, like, I mean, truly talking to everybody and Donald and Breckenmeyer, you know, and Jeremy Sisto in the film and Stacey and Elisa, Donovan.
26:06It was like we just, it was just like yesterday, you know.
26:10Well, Mona, thank you so much for spending your morning with us.
26:13Everyone needs to check out this book.
26:15I'm due for my 500 and second Clueless rewatch.
26:20Enjoy and dress up like Clueless for Halloween.
26:23Thanks, guys.
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