Mean Girls (2004)

Fashion is a big part of teenage life and careful attention was paid to the wardrobe in the film. Costume designer Mary Jane Fort was in charge of making certain that the costumes reflect each character’s personal style and feelings while exemplifying what is up-to-the-minute in high school culture.

With more than 40 different costume changes for Cady and more than 30 for each of the three Plastics, Fort acknowledges that keeping each girl looking different and fresh was, at times, a challenge. However, because in the script The Plastics have made up their own rules for dressing and acting — for instance, on Wednesdays they only wear pink — Fort was able to take things a step beyond the normal fashion statement.

"I was able to do fun stuff with them, dress them in the latest trends and really punch it up fashion-wise,” explains Fort. “Everything they wear is shinier, more sparkly and prettier than what anyone else wears. They’re trendy and they’re rich and they can afford what they see in the fashion magazines, so I really got to go all-out.”

According to Fort, Cady and The Plastics may be the fashion trendsetters in the film, but the other characters also make their own fashion statements. “As creative as Regina is with her wardrobe, Janis is equally creative. The two just have totally different viewpoints of what one should look like,” observes Fort. “While Regina is on the cutting edge of the latest trends, Janis creates trends of her own — she cuts her clothes up, pins them together, wraps them around, and basically becomes the fashion-minded Regina of the artsy world.”

As individualistic as each clique’s fashion is, one sad fact remains: No matter what group a high school girl falls into, at one time or another, she may find it “fashionable” to be mean.

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