On the press tour for Elle, Prime Video's series imagining the high school origin story of Legally Blonde's Elle Woods, newcomer Lexi Minetree has been paying faithful homage to the original Delta Nu and eventual Harvard Law School graduate, Reese Witherspoon. Working with stylist Molly Dickson, Minetree has sourced Witherspoon's personal archives for both her premiere outfits (like a Marc Jacobs midi) and some of Elle's original costumes (like a sequin Dolce & Gabbana dress, tried on a fitting-room scene during the 2001 film). "I knew that I really wanted to pay respect to Elle Woods and her style," Minetree told Marie Claire, "because she is a fashion icon".
Between the red-carpet callbacks and a teaser trailer full of hot pink bikinis, peony feather pens, and '90s back issues of Cosmopolitan, viewers may expect Minetree's outfits on Elle to be just as faithful to the source material: all fuchsia and sequins, all calling back to Elle's anti-Ivy League wardrobe from the movies. By Elle's palette in the pilot, it's clear anyone who thinks orange is the new pink is definitely disturbed. But as series costume designers Sophie de Rakoff and Sara Byblow shared in an interview with Marie Claire, the wardrobing goal was never to exactly replicate Legally Blonde's outfits.
