Fashion in Film: Mean Girls
- Autumn Burnes
- May 2, 2023
- 8 min read
Welcome to girl world: where hoop earrings are Regina’s thing, “fetch” isn’t going to happen, and most importantly, on Wednesdays, we wear pink. Mean Girls, the 2004 chick flick, is recognized for its dramatized portrayal of teenage social life, high-school clique hierarchy and iconic lines. However, Mean Girls is also widely renowned for its fashion. The costuming is as important in any film as the storytelling. Let’s look at the clothing choices by The Plastics (Cady Heron, Regina George, Gretchen Weiners and Karen Smith) and how the characters’ fashion choices reflect their personalities.
Costuming in contemporary films tends to be grossly overlooked. In recent years, the films that most often receive Oscars or accolades for costuming are period pieces, like Little Women (2019), or movies with lavish costuming, like Alice in Wonderland (2010). However, it is just as arduous to achieve great costume design in a modern movie. Mary Jane Fort, the costume designer for Mean Girls, is one of the most renowned costume designers of our time. In an interview with Vanity Fair, she states that a costume designer’s job is to “work very closely with the actors to help them become the character.” For the costuming in Mean Girls, Fort and her team took inspiration from yearbooks in the 2000s. They looked at what children and girls wore in high school and applied the fashion to the film, which is why the outfits in Mean Girls look like something actual teenagers would wear. Fort even applied this concept to the actual “costumes” in the movie, like the Christmas talent show outfits and the Halloween costumes. They look homemade or cheap, similar to what teenagers would be able to afford. Fort also explains the importance of each Plastic having their own style and how it reflects their personalities.
Let’s start with Cady, the new girl at North Shore High School. In addition to being in a new school, Cady is also in an entirely different continent, having lived in Africa for all of her life. She’s put in a place that’s completely foreign, down to the cliques, social life and fashion. At the beginning of the movie, Cady wears primarily masculine clothing with darker, muted tones and colors, like blues, grays and greens. She’s dressed simply and hasn’t yet developed a sense of style. Sitting with the Plastics on her first day, it’s obvious that Cady sticks out because of her fashion choices; she wears jeans, a flannel shirt and a handmade bracelet from her mom. The other plastics wear skirts, sweaters and lots of accessories. Despite sticking out at the beginning, Cady goes through the most significant style transformation out of any of the characters in the film. We see her change from drab clothes, to Plastic clothing, to developing her own style at the end of the film.
As Cady spends more time with the Plastics, we see her slowly transform her wardrobe to fit in with her new clique. She starts wearing more form-fitting tops, unlike her loose flannel from the beginning. Her color palette also changes to pinks and reds, a stark contrast to the masculine colors from before. She starts better abiding by the rules of the Plastics. While she still dresses casually, it’s obvious that her time with the Plastics has rubbed off on her fashion.
The turning point in both Cady’s fashion and personality happens when she realizes that Regina lied about liking Cady’s bracelet, the handmade one from Africa. She stops wearing the bracelet, completely disregarding her previous life as she becomes more bitter and ambitious in her takedown of Regina. As she wears more skirts, heels and jewelry, she starts acting more aggressive and mean, just like Regina. Her personality matches Regina’s similarly to her fashion. Cady starts wearing initial necklaces, tracksuits and hoop earrings, despite them being “Regina’s thing.” Cady wears the hoop earrings when she feels most powerful, like when Gretchen tells Regina she can’t sit with them at lunch, when Cady kisses Aaron Samuels and at Cady’s house party. Not only is Cady wearing pink hoop earrings at the house party, but she is also wearing a choker made out of a strap from her bracelet. Cady is, quite literally, destroying the person she was.
It’s not just Regina’s style that Cady has taken style inspiration from; it’s all of the Plastics. In their famous walk down the hallway, Cady wears jewelry like Regina, a skirt that Gretchen would wear and a color palette similar to Karen’s. Despite her style changing, Cady has yet to develop one personal to herself. She is a conglomerate of all of the Plastics.
At the end of the movie, after the events of the Burn Book and as the former Plastics have reconciled with their time as a Plastic, Cady’s style changes yet again. She sports bootcut jeans, a light pink top and heeled boots. She’s finally developed a style for herself, taking her knowledge of fashion from the plastics. She finally knows how to shop for something that suits her, is polished and finally thinks for herself when shopping.
Gretchen’s style is the most unique out of all the Plastics. She constantly features argyle, plaid and Burberry accessories. Her school uniform, conservative looks show just how seriously she takes the rules of the Plastics. Gretchen constantly abides by the hoop earrings rule, abstaining from wearing them since they are “Regina’s thing.” And, when Regina wears sweatpants on Monday, Gretchen yells “you can’t sit with us!” due to the rule that the Plastics can only wear track pants on Fridays. Being part of the Plastics has sealed itself in part of her identity. In many ways, being a part of the Plastics has overridden her identity. Part of Gretchen’s character is that she is Jewish, likely the only Jewish character in the movie. Gretchen reveals to Cady during the middle of the movie that, for Hanukkah, her parents gave her a “pair of really expensive white gold hoops,” but she had to pretend like she didn’t like them since hoop earrings were “Regina’s thing.” Up until the end of the movie, Gretchen never wears hoops. Gretchen’s lost identity also shows during Halloween with her full-body catsuit. While the catsuit does cover almost her entire body, it is very form-fitting and extremely shiny. The suit is made of plastic; Gretchen Weiners is, quite literally, a Plastic, and she wants to make sure everybody knows.
The movie also argues that Gretchen’s identity is almost entirely lost. When the Plastics have kicked Regina out of their clique, the rules become more relaxed. Gretchen, nominated for Spring Fling Queen, has to pick out a dress for the dance.The dress she chooses is purple and floral, completely unlike anything Gretchen has worn in the past. Gretchen doesn’t know how to style herself without rules to follow, since that’s what she’s been doing for most of high school. At the end of the movie, when the other former Plastics have developed their own sense of style, Gretchen goes through the biggest style change. She’s become a member of a new clique, the “Cool Asians,” and dresses like the rest of the clique members. While the other former Plastics have learned something from their experience and developed their own style, Gretchen still doesn’t know how to dress for herself. She dresses to fit in, just like she did with the Plastics.
Karen’s style happens to be my personal favorite. She’s also a Plastic and one of Regina’s best friends. She’s known for being a little slow, naive and the girliest out of all the Plastics. Her clothes reflect her naive and childlike nature, especially considering her hyper-feminine style, silhouettes and color palate. Karen primarily wears blues and pinks, notably pastels. Her excitement and loyalty to those colors might explain why she was the one to deliver the famous line, “On Wednesdays, we wear pink.” And, on Wednesday, Karen is covered head to toe in pink, from the baby pink sweater to the pink glitter stilettos. Even on the other days of the week, Karen is often spotted wearing some form of pink.
Karen’s silhouettes also play a key role in reflecting her personality. Perhaps the outfit that displays this the most is her Halloween costume. Karen’s costume parallels Gretchen’s costume; where Gretchen is a cat, Karen is a mouse. In addition, Karen’s silhouette is completely opposite of Gretchen’s. Instead of wearing a tight, plastic bodysuit, Karen wears a loose, tulle dress with a babydoll silhouette. On her waist, she features her signature color with a satin pink bow. The outfit is a little childish, but that reflects who she is. Not only does her costume reflect her personality, but the matching of Karen’s costume and Gretchen’s tells a deeper story, one of cat and mouse. Playing a game of cat and mouse describes behavior in which someone tries to control other people. That game is exactly what Regina plays with Karen and Gretchen.
At the end of the movie, when the former Plastics have developed their own style, Karen’s remains mostly unchanged. She still wears similar colors and clothes. Karen likely never pretended to be someone she wasn’t. She genuinely liked the Plastic way of dressing, and even at the end of the movie, she never separated from her love of beauty and femininity.
Regina is the school’s resident “it girl.” Her wealthy parents, sex appeal and ability to capitalize on the insecurities of other girls allowed her to become her school’s “Queen B.” Rich, manipulative and witty, she is the head of the school’s “Plastics.” When we first see Regina, she’s in her gym uniform behind the school. While her clothes aren’t altered compared to the other Plastics (Gretchen wears her shirt cropped and Karen wears her shirt sleeveless), she’s being carried on the shoulders of other boys in her gym class. It shows that she doesn’t have to alter or change her clothing to show her social status, she’s already at the top. Her status is displayed by the boys carrying her and her wedged sneakers, physically heightening her above the other girls. Upon first meeting Regina, she sits among her best friends at the Plastics table. She’s wearing her “power suit:” black knee-high boots, a pink shirt with an upturned collar and a black sweater. By sitting in the middle and wearing a more mature outfit, the audience and Cady immediately recognize her as the one in charge.
The subtle hint of pink becomes Regina’s trademark throughout the movie. Even though one of the rules of the plastics is “on Wednesdays, we wear pink,” during the Wednesday scene, Regina is wearing the least amount of pink. She wears a white tank, a black shirt and a pink cardigan, and she takes the cardigan off the moment she steps inside her house. By removing the pink cardigan and wearing only a little bit of pink, it shows that the rules of the Plastics apply the least to her. She sees the rules as something she can just remove and disregard.
Later in the movie, as Cady dethrones Regina as the school’s “Queen B,” Regina’s style loses its polished look. While her outfits are still put together and retain some aspects of her style, like the hoop earrings, the hints of pink and the heels, the style itself changes wildly. Regina has changed both physically, mentally and stylistically. Her change in status, popularity and weight is reflected in her unpolished looks.
At the end of the film, when the girls have moved on to different cliques and developed their own styles, Regina, like Cady, has reconciled with her past. She wears a grey shirt with a pink heart, displaying her connection to her past life. While Regina is down-dressed, she still holds onto some of the values from her former Plastic life.
Each Plastic has her own style and personality, and it’s instantly recognizable at a glance. The costuming in Mean Girls tells as much of a story as the script, and while the movie is famous for its drama and impact on teenage girls, it should also be recognized for its innovation in contemporary costuming.
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