7/100: 13 Going on 30 (2004)

98 minutes in heaven

13 Going on 30 (2004)

Costumes by: Susie DeSanto

Directed by: Gary Winick

This movie be for you if: you’re a sucker for a gleeful dance number, you fantasize about a walk-in closet full of Fendi baguettes, and you always make a wish at 11:11.

Where to watch: Netflix, also available to rent on multiple other platforms

This movie came out the year I turned 13. I’m now 30(ish). Revisiting 13 Going on 30 for the first time as an adult was charming, nostalgic, and mildly unsettling. The costume design is just as much fun as I remember, and Garner and Ruffalo were a magical pairing. The romantic storyline itself? Sketchy, at best. This is definitely a movie firmly planted in a bygone era, only possible with an audience ready to ignore the major issues with a child-in-an-adult-body romcom. I’d like to think this wouldn’t fly today, but who really knows anything about anything anymore.

So let us suspend reality, sprinkle ourselves in magic dust, and get into the whimsical costume design of 13 Going on 30.

The fabulous 80’s-meets-Y2K world of 13 Going on 30 was brought to life with the help of costume designer Susie DeSanto.

Fashion cycles have reached superspeed in recent years thanks to rapidly shifting technology and culture, but throughout most of the 20th century, style moved on a 20 year cycle. The 20 year gap between the 1980’s and 2000’s meant there was a strong 80’s influence on Y2K fashion, making the two eras the perfect counterpoints. 13 Going on 30 starts in the late 80’s with spandex and side ponytails, jumps to the early 2000’s with Miu Miu and stilettos, then slowly finds itself somewhere in the middle as our characters discover their own balance.

13-year-old Jenna in 80’s polka dots

30-year-old Jenna in 2000’s polka dots

Jennifer Garner stars as Jenna Rink, an awkward teenager in 1987 who magically finds herself thrown into her own future. In the year 2004, Rink is a stylish NYC fashion editor, the career du jour for rom com starlets of the early 2000’s (and why so many women my age grew up dreaming of working in print media!).

Baby Brie Larson and baby Ashley Benson as 80’s teens

Rink’s 30-year-old closet was full of designer clothing, key to the lifestyle of someone in the fashion industry elite. DeSanto crafted a style for the movie that was chic but playful, expertly crafting a tween fantasy told through an adult wardrobe.

“It speaks to a time in fashion when things were more feminine and weren’t deconstructed yet,” she said in a 2019 interview with InStyle. “People were really wearing a lot of color.” The 13 on 30 wardrobe included labels like Marc Jacobs, Fendi, Prada, Miu Miu, Chloé, and Nanette Lepore.

One of my favorite Jenna Rink looks!

Garner in a Chloé top, Fendi bag, and (of course) some Razzles

I couldn’t find any definitive leads on who made the pink slip - La Perla? Victoria’s Secret? But the silk eye mask definitely looks like Pucci

DeSanto told InStyle that the film’s numerous Fendi baguettes made their way into the film courtesy of director Gary Winick. “He grew up on the Upper West Side, and his mom was quite the fashionista,” she said. “So he really knew his handbags.” The purse was hugely popular in the early 2000’s largely thanks to Carrie Bradshaw’s extensive collection, so it made sense that a fashion editor like Rink would also be a fan.

Fendi was the first luxury brand to lend pieces to Sex and the City, and it proved to be a brilliant marketing move that paved the way for a growing industry of on-screen brand gifting.

According to fans, Carrie is seen with 19 different Fendi baguettes throughout the series

While working on 13 Going on 30, DeSanto met someone from Fendi who similarly insisted for the film “‘You must use our purses. Pick whatever you want.’” That connection resulted in over 30 genuine Fendi baguette bags on set, most of which can be seen displayed in the scene in which Jenna first steps foot in her dreamy grown-up closet.