Mona May is Like, a Totally Important Designer!
The legendary costume designer tells me about her new book, The Fashion of Clueless
As I wait for Mona to answer my video call, I find myself wondering what kind of hat she’ll be wearing. Then I think, maybe she won’t be wearing a hat at all…
As if!
Moments later, she appears on screen in a two toned fedora. Mona May always wears a hat. Both of us have a naked dress form just over one shoulder, their matching canvas bodies an instant connection between us. As it turns out, I actually have a lot in common with one of the most iconic costume designers in Hollywood. We’re both missionaries of tailoring, deep appreciators of 60’s fashion, devoted collectors, and, most importantly: we both love clothes. Mona is passionate and talkative, laughing often and waving her hands as she speaks. At one point in our conversation, she loses her train of thought. “Wait… what was I talking about?” she asks me. “Shit.”
An hour flies by as we talk about her work, obviously starting with Clueless but getting sidetracked by The Haunted Mansion and Stuart Little 2 and Never Been Kissed. The impact of her costume design can’t be overstated. This year marks 30 years since the release of Clueless, and not a single one of those has gone by without a brand new group of people reaching for Cher’s yellow plaid. Mona’s new book, The Fashion of Clueless, celebrates the colorful legacy of what just may be one of the most influential fashion films of all time.
This interview has been edited for brevity.
Mona: It was really fun to have someone on Clueless who really let me be the wild card, to bring all these fun things to the table. [Director Amy Heckerling] never shut me down, she was like great! what else you got there?
Alex: I feel like you can really see that in the way everything turned out. You can sense that you put so much of yourself into it, that you were able to have that creative freedom.
That’s how the whole movie was, it was really amazing. It was 1995, I was very young. Most of the cast was very young. We were kind of all newbies. It was Paul Rudd’s first movie!
He’s such a baby in it!
He was such a baby in it. We were just so excited, having this amazing director at the helm, who wrote a fabulous script, who was so creative. I think for all of us, [Heckerling] allowed us to grow into the artists that we are now, in a way.
It was very lucky that one of the first movies for me, my first big studio film, was Clueless. It kind of shaped me as a designer. I think that when you really look at my work over the last 30 years, there is a lot of color, there is a lot of this joie de vivre, this whimsy. I think that [Heckerling] opened me up to it. She kind of gave me permission. My friends laugh, you know, they say the genie came out of the bottle!
Looking back on the legacy of Clueless 30 years later, do you have memories of feeling like wow, we’re working on something really special here?
I think we knew we were working on something special because we had such an amazing time. We hoped. But no one can foresee anything, I mean - we couldn’t even imagine that something could live for 30 years. Women who were teenagers seeing the movie then are mothers now, and their children are seeing the film. That to me is amazing, that it’s so generational, that there is a whole new fanbase for the film.
I actually just showed my sister Clueless for the first time! She’s 11 years younger than me, she’s 23. It was so fun watching her react to it. She absolutely loved it, and thought that the costumes were really incredible.
See, I love that. I love that! And I think the movie is really about friendship, it’s nostalgic in a way for when things were so much simpler. What I love about this movie is that they are not mean. Cher always means well, even though it doesn’t always come out right. [laughs] She’s a good girl, they all are.
And Tai’s story, I mean, Brittany Murphy was just a brilliant actress. Her story of finding herself was beautiful, from being the mini-me of Cher to really becoming authentic to herself. I love those stories. I’m really lucky to work on many of those movies - Never Been Kissed was like that. Drew Barrymore’s character really kind of starts out in one way, and in the end when she’s waiting to get her kiss, in her pink chiffon dress, she’s completely different.
I think that’s the best part of my job as a costume designer - to really tell the story through costumes. When you’re looking at a character, and they come out on the screen, within ten seconds you know who they are because of what they’re wearing. Are they happy? Are they sad? Where did they come from? Are they rich? Are they poor?
And every day we represent ourselves with our own clothes. Our moods, our sexiness, or whatever it is, each day we tell a story about ourselves and who we are.
That’s so true. I always get so frustrated when people are dismissive of fashion. Even if you say you don’t care about what you wear, like - you could wear a white t-shirt every day, but that’s still so intentional. It says so much about you.
Exactly. And when you’re saying you don’t care, that says something too. It’s fascinating, really. Clothing is just so amazing, color is so amazing. I mean like the yellow suit in Clueless, it’s not just a yellow suit.
Oh no, definitely not. You’ve claimed ownership, almost, of yellow plaid!
[Mona laughs]
Everyone thinks of you, and the movie, when they see it.
Right. And then it’s like, why yellow plaid? It wasn’t like I just arbitrarily decided okay, I’m gonna put yellow plaid right here.
There was nothing on the ground to relate to. When we went to high schools, everybody was wearing grunge. I had to invent this whole world. My guideline was runways, but you can’t just take runway clothes and put them on 16-year-olds and make them seem like real, authentic high school girls.
So we had the fitting, here comes Alicia in her sweatpants with the dogs in tow, she’s already an activist and saving the world. She really didn’t care about the clothes. In the fittings she had to learn how to really dress as Cher, and be Cher. The costumes really inform the actor, and that’s what’s so fun in the fittings.
When she tried the yellow, it was unbelievable. She became Cher. The scene took place in the quad, outside, a lot of people crossing, so we needed something that would pop. And [in the yellow suit] she truly became the queen bee. It was like a ray of sunshine, the energy of the yellow.
I mean, you can’t imagine that scene now with anything else. That’s the only thing she could have been wearing.
Right?
In my research, I noticed that the yellow plaid suit has been attributed to two different designers.
Yes! There was some confusion that it was Dolce. It’s Jean Paul Gaultier Junior.
You have to remember - it was 30 years ago. The costume is gone. There was no cell phone, there was no computer. We were tracking things with a Polaroid, hand written notes. So like, who freakin remembers? Somebody probably said it in an interview, not knowing, and then you know how it gets spun and reprinted.
It’s crazy to think about it that we did all of that without computers, analog. The revolutionary thing was the closet! Amy knew someone rich that, at the time, had computerized their wine collection. She came to set and was like we have to do this, Mona, we have to photograph all of the clothes, we have to get a computer specialist to get this all done - and it happened!
You’ve mentioned that Alicia was kind of oblivious about fashion when you shot the movie. You’ve stayed friends, and she’s told you that she regrets not keeping anything from the film. Did you keep anything from the set?
[laughs] I have one thing. I have the hat, the big black hat! It was actually not even in the movie, but it was in the photoshoot with David Lachapelle. It’s the same designer, Kokin, who did the “Dr. Seuss” hat for Dionne.
Melrose was huge at the time - it was all of the rave stores, and thrift stores were booming at the time in the 90’s in Los Angeles. It was just a lot of vibrancy and fashion and street stuff, and for me, creating this completely new different world. I wasn’t walking up to the store and buying an outfit somebody already put together. I was buying pieces for something that nobody else had put together.
I had to go high fashion, mall, Contempo Casuals. Dionne had a lot of thrift store stuff like 1950’s purses, old leopard vintage jackets, with vinyl skirts that were like rave skirts. At the time, nobody dressed high and low. I mean think about things like the white t-shirt Cher is wearing to the gym, with a black tank top, you can buy that look together now as one piece. Nobody was doing that before. There are so many crazy cool things that I got to invent that are now staples in our fashion repertoire.
You’ve had such success doing an amazing range of genres and characters, and you’re really able to bring every single one of them to life in their own ways. But you also have these little hidden signatures throughout your work. Like, of course, you love feathers. Me too! I’m a big feather girl. I had feathers on my wedding dress.
Yay! [laughs]
Every time I see feathers on screen, I get so excited. You love hats, and Clueless obviously has some really amazing hats. I would love to hear more about how you’re able to honor your own tastes while still staying true to the storytelling and the characters.
I think that when you take a script, it kind of has to filter through your creative brain, your heart. So I think that it’s really important as an artist to really recognize what that is, what is your journey? Where did you come from? How did that influence you? Where did you live? What are your interests?
I kind of like the timelessness of fashion, I like the staples. I like the A-line skirts, the cap sleeves, the empire waist, the peacoats, the berets, I like things that are classic in a way. Not boring, but classic. The story is my blueprint, always, I have to take these characters and look at them deeply. I think Clueless is really beloved because the girls are so different. They’re authentic, you can emulate them, you want to be them because they’re real. I think this is really kind of the best essence of a well crafted character, that you can kind of understand who they are, and believe in them.
I think one of the best visuals you get of that in the movie is when they’re in gym class. You have them all lined up in a row like that, in this very minimal palette, and yet every single girl has brought her own very distinct style to it.
I mean, look at Amber! [laughs]
She has some of my favorite costumes in the movie, I have to say.
She was just so much fun, Elisa Donovan, she’s just a great human being. We really loved each other and trusted each other, she was like I’m game for anything. I love Pippi Longstocking, that’s like my favorite character, so I was like we have to do something! So we talked with the hair people, putting the little pipe cleaners in her hair, with the kind of a Missoni-esque outfit.
When you work with these actors, Drew Barrymore is like that too, and they’re just game to have fun. Mira Sorvino in Romy and Michele too, we just went crazy with those costumes. It’s so much fun for a costume designer to just go nuts! Let’s do it, let’s have this room filled with clothes, and try them all on, and create these amazing characters that people will love and want to emulate. 28 years later, for Romy and Michelle, 30 years later for Clueless, and people still dress like that for Halloween.
I’d love to hear more about your personal relationship with vintage. Do you wear a lot of vintage? Do you find that you pull a lot of vintage for costuming?
I would love to use more vintage [for film]. It’s very difficult to use in movies because we have to bring a lot of clothing into fittings, you have to try it and make sure it fits. Usually you can’t return vintage, so we actually use costume houses as “vintage stores.”
I personally love vintage, I have some really great pieces. I love the vintage color combinations, vintage fabrics, things that really were made to last. It’s different now, everything has more polyester, you really have to pay your price to get something really well made. I’m glad that you’re a vintage dealer, because it’s preserving history. [Otherwise] some of those pieces may be gone forever.
I’m a consultant on the Romy and Michele Broadway [musical], and the producer reached out to me and was like do they have the costumes still? I would love to showcase it, maybe in the lobby of the theater. But it was over 20 years ago, it probably disintegrated! Maybe it was given to the Disney costume house, and some people rented it, I don’t know. Fabric doesn’t last forever, it’s organic matter, usually.
Especially older pieces, from when there were way less synthetic fibers. And you’ve got actors that are sweating in it, moving around.
And there’s moths, too!
Oh god, the moths! My worst enemy. Don’t get me started.
It’s very, very interesting, to preserve the past. I’m glad that it can live on screen. Sophia Loren, the LBD in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Scarlett O’Hara, Marilyn Monroe in her white dress. Those kind of memorable, beautiful clothes, we can still revisit them [through movies], and hopefully they will teach us something.
Like you said, most of those dresses are gone, who knows what happened to them. But they live forever on the screen, and we get to experience them again and again because people like you were able to capture them.
I’m so happy. It’s a great legacy, it’s a great medium. And now with the book, hopefully that will be another thing people can enjoy the movie with.
Was there anything that didn’t quite make it into the book that you were really hoping to share with people?
I can always write more, as a costume designer you want to write more about the process. This is more of a coffee table book, it’s more pictures. It talks a little bit about the process, but it’s visual. It’s about interviewing the actors, speaking to them about how my process with them was, creating the characters. Very much behind the scenes - Paramount even found continuity photos, Polaroids, from 30 years ago. I can’t believe they survived!
I have one last question for you! I’ve been watching all of these incredible movies while working on the 100 Fashion Films Project. Obviously Clueless is a big one, whenever I talk to people about my project, it’s always one of the first movies mentioned. So I would love to know - what are your top five favorite fashion films?
Definitely Breakfast at Tiffany’s. And My Fair Lady, I love the hats. Sweet Charity is super fun, with Shirley MacLaine in the dancing costumes - I remember seeing the movie as a child, and it made me go wow! It really made an impression on me when I was younger. Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which is also very artsy, really interesting French film.
That’s four, you’ve got one more.
There’s so many!
You could also include one of your own, if you want!
Enchanted. I’m so proud of that film. I just love the way the story unfolds. This is like a dream job - you’re sitting and drawing all of the character costumes and making everything, from the dresses to the boots to the tiaras. When I saw the movie on screen, I cried. I didn’t even know it was in me, all of this design, and this beauty.
What’s great about filmmaking is that it’s truly a collaborative process, being together with other creatives. Exchanging ideas, flowing, having the director’s vision, but then implementing yours, but then working with the actors, and the lighting, and sets. It’s very fun. I hope we don’t lose that, because things are changing, with the business, with AI. I really hope that we can keep that process, because that, to me, is what’s so beautiful.
It’s kind of agony sometimes. It’s like oh my god, is this the right pink? Is this the right moment for this dress? For example, when Cher is in her little driving [test] outfit. I don’t really use much grey in the movie, or black. There was no brown, of course. It was such a significant moment for her to be kind of confused and sad, the outfit was so perfect. You knew by the outfit that she was lost, that she’s not herself, not completely.
Totally, you can feel it while she’s getting dressed in that scene. In the beginning, she has her computer program, like you said, there’s that sense of control. Then fast forward to the driving test, and the clothes are everywhere, and she’s like “where’s my white collarless shirt from Fred Segal?!”
[Mona laughs]
It drives home the point of how important clothing and dressing is. It really shapes her character, how impacted she is by this feeling of I can’t find the top I want to wear. We’ve all been there, with the pile on the floor!
It’s so true, it’s so relatable. I think that’s why the movie is so loved, a lot of it is so relatable. We love the characters - I love the characters. And I think we can all continue loving the characters through the book.
The Fashion of Clueless by Mona May (with Monica Corcoran Harel) is available now!
As always, I highly recommend supporting your local independent bookstore. If you’re purchasing a copy online, I recommend Bookshop.org.
You can keep up with Mona on Instagram, catch one of her book signings or events, and learn more about her work on her website.
Fabulous interview, Alex, thank you! I love every movie mentioned here and so fun to hear from the one and only Mona May! 💕 The yellow check is something I always look for when I’m thrifting!