Mean Girls is a movie that completely changed teen movies and has had a lasting impact on fashion. Today many people still try to recreate their outfits because all their wardrobes have a timeless style. This is one of the main issues with the costuming of the new Mean Girls movie because their outfits are styles that are trendy with Gen Z but they are all put together in a way that doesn’t feel authentic instead it looks like they are all wearing costumes. This doesn’t work when portraying the plastics because they are not supposed to look like everyone else, they were dressed in a hyper-feminine way that was not supposed to be realistic instead they should be aspiring.

When talking about the style in the new movie for mean girls the costume designer Tom Becker said he took inspiration from what teens are wearing to school. In the 2024 movie, we see the plastic wearing sneakers instead of heels and we see them in more casual clothes.

Another major change in the styling is that Regina is wearing pants more often than wearing mini skirts like in the 2004 version. Still, this change was done because Renee felt more comfortable in pants but because they wanted Regina to be attractive to both women and men. In an interview, Brorcker said  “Renee has this masculine and feminine sexiness about her. In talking and working with her, the directors, and Tina, we decided this was the Regina for Renee. She felt great in pants and played that sexual duality just incredibly” This explains why Regina looks different from the costume designer trying to update their style but this change also makes Regina look more like a normal teenager.

The new Mean Girls don’t set trends

This doesn’t work as well with Regina the character, changing Regina to wear pants is not the problem but the way they style her wearing cargo pants and a mesh top that is easily found online because she is meant to be unattainable and shows they are wealthy and trend setters but in the new styling she doesn’t represent that as well.

 The other major change in 2024 is that the plastic won’t dress as similar to Regina as they did in the 2004 movie, they have a more personal style but they are supposed to be clones of Regina and try to be as close as Regina as possible which doesn’t translate as well with styling being so different from Regina. The fact that something’s changed to adapt to make it more appealing to Gen Z is not the problem of the styling but the fact that they changed it in a way that did not fit the characters. The clothing and styling looked like regular teenagers but the representation of the plastic was not supposed to be regular. Furthermore, the movie being a musical would have benefited by taking something unrealistic yet memorable choices like wearing heels daily to school.

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