The butterfly effect isn’t just a middling metal band and a terrible film: it’s also the idea that small things can have massive unforeseeable consequences.
For example: that a mid-tier teen film could destroy the prevailing youth culture and replace with something that was to determine youth fashion for the next 20-plus years.
In 1994 the prime look for young people was jeans, sneakers, t-shirts, flannel shirts: stuff that looked like it was picked up at second hand stores, largely because it was mainly picked up at secondhand store. Grunge was fashion as a rejection of fashion.
And we know the exact date that grunge was killed: 19 July 1995.
That was when Clueless was released, a mid-budget teen movie plonking Jane Austen’s novel ‘Emma’ into an American high school setting and giving Earth what would turn out to be a lifelong crush on Paul Rudd.
But the other thing it did was turn preppy mall fashion into The Look For Young People. And the weird thing about it was that it was all down to a tight budget and the genius of costume designer Mona May.
Had Clueless been a bigger budget film the rich girls – led by Alicia Silverstone’s Cher – would have worn designer outfits. That was the original plan, but there wasn’t enough cash for that.
Two decades after the movie May was interviewed for Harpers Bazaar about the film and explained that “It was a combination of what we could find and who’s going to lend us something. It wasn’t like it is now with product placement and integration. Getting a dress from [Azzedine] Alaia was a big thing. It was so organic how it worked out.”
While May used mall pieces as the basis for many of her outfits, what was amazing was the way that mall fashions started following Clueless‘ design – especially May’s European touches, like knee-socks and collars.
And it’s endured: a few years back Vogue did a breakdown on how it’s still shaking through fashion today, from Kayne’s kicks to Rihanna’s bucket hats.
So yes: 90s female youth fashion, and the rise of everything from Sportsgirl to H&M was inadvertently invented by a costume designer without enough money to do her job. From little things…