ELLE’s costume designer reveals the secrets behind television’s pinkest wardrobe.
There are few wardrobes in film and television as instantly recognisable as Elle Woods’. Twenty-five years after audiences first fell in love with the pink-loving law student, the new series ELLE returns to tell her origin story, and costume designer Sara Byblow had the enormous task of dressing one of pop culture’s most iconic fashion characters.
“It’s a dream come true,” Sara Byblow said.
“I saw this character on screen 25 years ago and absolutely fell in love with her. There’s this beautiful sense that Reese is passing the torch to the next generation. Those are big shoes to fill, wardrobe-wise and costume design-wise.”
Rather than simply recreating what audiences already knew from Legally Blonde, Byblow approached teenage Elle as someone still discovering her confidence.
“No person is the same at 16 as they are later in life,” she explained.
Instead, the costumes become part of Elle’s emotional journey, using colour to quietly tell the story long before the dialogue does.
“I always say I’m a visual storyteller,” Byblow added. “I can take a script and pull out the emotions, and my goal is for the audience to feel that through colour and texture.”
That philosophy shaped every shade of pink seen throughout the series.
At Elle’s Sweet 16 party, she’s completely at ease, surrounded by family, friends and confidence, so Byblow dressed her in an unapologetically vibrant hot pink.
As the story progresses and Elle moves away from home to Seattle, those colours soften.
“When she’s saying goodbye, she’s wearing this light pink sweater with soft pink cuffs. Even on her first day of school, she’s feeling her most vulnerable, so she’s in this soft satin pink.”
The intention was never for viewers to consciously analyse the wardrobe.
“My goal is never for the audience to watch and think she’s wearing that because of this,” she said. “I want them to feel the sadness or the vulnerability because of that colour journey.”
Finding those colours turned out to be a project in itself.
“I didn’t even realise how many pinks there were in the world until I started this show,” Byblow laughed. “Pink is a spectrum. There are so many different tones that we could play with.”
The attention to detail extended well beyond clothing.
Elle’s shoes were sourced from around the world, combining vintage finds, contemporary styles and custom-made pieces.
Some designs were completely transformed by the costume department. For the Sweet 16 outfit, the team created miniature versions of the heart featured on Elle’s dress and hand-poured multiple resin moulds until they achieved exactly the right shade and clarity of pink before attaching them to the shoes.
“There was a lot of consideration that went into every single piece,” Byblow said.
That level of craftsmanship required an equally impressive team.
Between 25 and 30 people worked in the costume department full-time, with numbers growing depending on each episode.
The team included assistant costume designers, specialist buyers, archive hunters, seamstresses, cutters, coordinators, shipping staff and an on set costume crew.
“It really takes a village,” Byblow said.
She also credits the wider production for helping shape ELLE’s visual identity.
“Our producers, showrunners and writers were all incredibly collaborative. Everyone worked together to tell the story we wanted to tell.”
One of the biggest surprises came from Reese Witherspoon herself.
According to Byblow, the actor has carefully kept the original costumes from Legally Blonde, something she describes as almost unheard of.
“She shipped over a ton of pieces for us to look at,” Byblow said. “I got to hold these pieces from the original movie.”
Rather than simply placing them back on screen, the creative team looked for more meaningful ways to acknowledge the films.
One of those subtle nods involves the famous Bottega red handbag seen in Legally Blonde.
Instead of giving it directly to young Elle, they gave it to her mother, Eva Woods, played by June Diane Raphael, treating it as an heirloom to be passed down.
“There are a few little Easter eggs throughout the series for people who are watching closely,” Byblow said.
Asked which look she believes could become as iconic as the famous bunny costume from Legally Blonde, Byblow didn’t hesitate.
The elaborate Sweet 16 dress remains her personal favourite after the enormous amount of work that went into creating it.
“That’s the dress where we meet young Elle Woods for the first time, so it’s incredibly special to me.”
But she suspects audiences will have another favourite.
“I think if anyone recreates an outfit, it’ll be the Nirvana T-shirt.”
The costume department produced seven separate versions before landing on the final design, complete with pink hearts replacing the eyes.
“As soon as we put the hearts on the eyes, we knew. This is it.”
