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If you grew up obsessed with it legal blonde If you’ve spent the past 20 years wondering how Elle Woods became Elle Woods, this episode is for you. Sarah Bybrow is a costume designer Elle,new legal blonde In this prequel series, we go back to 1995. Elle, then 16, moved from Bel Air to Seattle, wearing pink and plaid and trying to figure out who she was. For the latest episodes of Who Wears What PodcastBybrow talks about how she sourced more than 70 looks for young Elle, how she used different shades of pink to track Elle’s emotional movements throughout the season, how she found enough plaid to dress up all of Seattle’s high school students, and how she found the iconic pink heart shoes.
Scroll down to read an excerpt of the full conversation.
(Image credit: Kimberley French/Prime)
When did you specifically know that you wanted to work in fashion or costume design?
I always wore clothes. When I was really young, around 13 years old, I was about the same height as I am now, not that tall. He is about 5 feet 3 1/2 inches tall. I was scouted to model, so I modeled for a very short period of time, but then I realized that I wasn’t growing at all. But I loved sets and everything involved, so I went to fashion school. After that, I started working in retail at a clothing store for a while and had my own modeling business. Side clothing line.
In fact, one day I was working and a friend of mine who worked on the production side came over and started buying lots and lots of everything, like 3 of the same shirt. When I asked her what she was doing, she said her designer friend needed help and she didn’t know what she was doing. I told her to give my number to the designer. I was always willing to help. About a week later, I got a call asking if I wanted to come work on the show, and the work just snowballed from there.
(Image credit: Jessica Brooks/Prime)
Can you tell me how you got that pink dress for your entrance to Elle’s Sweet 16 party?
That pink dress is very special to me, in fact, it might be my favorite dress of all season. Sophie de Rakoff, who designed the original film, and I got together just to talk about this character while we were preparing the show. It was very important to me to understand why she and Reese chose for the film, so we sat down together and actually designed that dress side by side. This was before the costume team started, and it was just the two of us sketching and showing each other photos. It took me about 5 iterations to land on one, but when I finally did, I knew I had it.
We brought it to the production team, directors, and creators, and everyone in the room immediately said, “That’s exactly the dress.” Just what we wanted. That was a very special moment because this movie is so iconic. It meant everything to justify it. In a way, Reese was passing the torch to Lexi to lead Elle Woods into a new generation, and I felt like Sophie was passing the torch to me and asking me to take it and run with it.
(Image credit: Provided by Sara Byblow)
Were there specific parameters for building her wardrobe beyond feminine silhouettes?
Elle Woods is a singularity, who she is, eclectic in a way, so there weren’t really any parameters. If you look back at the movie, she wore all kinds of clothes. I don’t think Elle has ever looked at a designer and thought, “I have to wear it because it’s this designer.” She is attracted to anything that makes her feel good. That was our goal when we sourced. There are archive pieces from designers all over the place, but there are also vintage items found in places where I don’t even know the brand. I just knew this was Elle Woods-ish. There are also contemporary pieces and pieces made especially for her. It wasn’t about needing an exact designer piece, it was about going on a treasure hunt to find what felt true to her and putting the pieces together from there.
(Image credit: Jessica Brooks/Prime)
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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