“You can be smart, you can like pink, you can do anything you want” – transforming Lexi Minetree into Elle Woods with Jennifer Powell

At 36 years old, I’ve lost count of the amount of times I watched Legally Blonde growing up. Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair found themselves in so many of my favourite films, feeling like part of the furniture.

When you hear of a prequel to something that you love so much, you always wonder how it will serve to honour the original. But when I immersed myself into the teenage world of Elle Woods this July, I was transported back to my childhood. There were so many comforting references that I hadn’t thought about in so long, like all of us knowing the dangers of substance abuse from when Jessie Spano was revising for her exams in Saved by the Bell. I wrote a review of the show itself for Stylist magazine which I would love for you to read (and Reese liked it on Instagram so I had kittens)!

One thing I loved about Elle is that it was light, fluffy and fun, but anchored by deep moral lessons. There were so many tender messages rooted in the visuals, like how you can never judge a book by its cover or that feeling great in yourself doesn’t always equal vanity.

To get to the heart of a show I enjoyed so much, I spoke to Jennifer Powell, makeup designer for Elle’s pink and plaid Seattle adventures.

Creating a world of 90’s nostalgia

Set in 1995, Elle takes us back to Elle Woods’ teenage years. Jennifer was the perfect person to story tell this era through makeup because she lived it the first time around.

In my early years I was working at a little makeup shop in Vancouver and we sold to people in the local film industry. We had Visiora by Christian Dior, Ben Nye, Joe Blasco, all the classics. Then we had this modern little makeup line in the corner called MAC.

I used to order 12 Spice lip liners, 6 Nutmeg lip liners and 6 Vinos and hope it wasn’t too much. Although I was never officially a MAC girl, the names are all in my Rolodex of memories now. MAC shades are a universal makeup artist language. If someone says Cork, Wedge or Espresso as a reference I know exactly what they mean. Satin Taupe, Nylon, Swish… it’s all in my head.

I told Jennifer how much I loved all of the 90’s pop culture references in the story. Though I know people of all ages will enjoy Elle, it just lands so cosily for me because I was little when these things were popular. I wanted to know how she felt seeing these moments from her younger years being reimagined for the show.

The way our set designers recreated things like Blockbuster Video and the Rainforest Café was just so impressive. I can’t do spoilers, but in season two also we were just like “oh my gosh, you made that?” On set, people were walking by Blockbuster and you could see that they actually wanted it again. We’d be saying, “ I remember Friday nights wandering aimlessly just to pick a video, that’s what we used to do!”

The nostalgia is so well done. Things like the Walkmans, Elle’s phone; I would have loved Elle’s bedroom as a teenage girl. There’s a real sweetness to the show, and lots of special memories for those of us that lived it back in the day and miss it a little bit. It will be an interesting history lesson to the young folks that are watching it.

Stepping into Elle’s world in the makeup trailer

Jennifer wanted to make sure that, for the cast, the pink power kicked in the minute they landed on set.

I really wanted the trailer to be comfortable, pretty and reflective of Elle’s world. I wanted to keep the story of Elle in the trailer, so we got heated, fluffy pink blankets on every chair, because we have cold mornings in Vancouver. We had big pink flowers up on the mirrors. I brought in my personal collection of my 90’s makeup magazines (thank you, Mom, for keeping those for me). So I had my Allures and my Cosmopolitans and my Elle magazines.

They were really great for reference and to flip through the L’Oreal and Dove ads of the time. I wasn’t just finding things on my phone. I had hard copies, and it was so nice to touch it and feel it. Even for the actors to be able to flip through them, they were reading the articles that we were reading in 1995. When we left the premiere, they were handing out the pink Dove soap from the old adverts! I love it and I don’t think I’ll ever open it.

I printed photos of people like Winona Ryder, Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer. It was all a big mood board of references.

Honouring Reese Witherspoon and turning Lexi Minetree into Elle Woods

Obviously all of the Legally Blonde looks were printed out. They filmed that in the 2000s so we needed to take it back a few years and make the looks a little softer and younger.

Elle still likes pink, obviously that’s her go-to colour, we just tried to keep it maybe a little less sophisticated. The lash line wouldn’t be as polished as Reese’s, it was a little more purple and soft, but they look so similar that it all worked really well. I remember when we were filming in LA, Reese and her daughter Ava showed up one day on filming. You could see them watching Lexi on the monitors, amazed at how similar they all looked. Molly Dixon did such a beautiful job of styling Lexi in Reese’s old outfits for the press tour. It all felt very meant to be.

She was always going to have her nails done so Tony Tran did the square tip French nails. His salon is playing the show 24/7 right now! And we have a sweet tanning girl from Ireland, Deb from Tancouver. She’s hilarious. She’s like ‘I came to Vancouver and I thought, ‘where’s all the tans? We spray tan in Ireland. What’s happening?’ So she is the spray tanner for everything! She just did Elle, Off Campus, Animal Control. She’s amazing.

Lexi isn’t so much like Elle when you meet her. I always want to remind people that she’s acting! She puts on that voice and those mannerisms.

The first time she walked in she was in her green Crocs with little horns on them and her baggy jeans. Her hair was beachy wavy, and she’s got a huskier voice. And then you tan her up, you blonde her up, do the nails, the makeup, you put her in pink, she does the voice, and I’m like, ‘you’ve completely become another person!’

I think Lexi could walk down the street as herself and people might not recognize her. She really transforms to play Elle and it is so fun to watch.

The inimitable allure of Eva Woods

June Diane Raphael as Eva Woods was my favourite character in Elle. I explained to Jennifer that she and Elle didn’t feel like caricatures to me. Eva is obviously so glamorous, but she never came across like a bimbo. To me it felt like she had a sense of pride in herself and a deep self-respect. It would have been so easy in such a pink universe for them to come across as airheads, but there was so much dignity behind them.

June is so incredible. I mean, she really, really is. And you’re so right.

Eva Woods is not a bimbo. Her character is somebody that makes no apologies for waking up in the morning and getting ready, and I love that. No matter what the day is she does her hair and makeup and puts on a fabulous outfit. Even if she’s in a sweatshirt, she still does her grooming and there’s no apologies for that. I never felt like her character was doing it for anyone else’s approval; she does it for herself.

There’s such a strength to that, because maybe that’s not the cool thing. Maybe that’s not the right, humble approach to oneself that you should have. It’s the same with Elle and she takes a nod from her mom.

Like hey, maybe pink isn’t the cool colour? Take a look around your environment in Seattle. You don’t fit in, but you never changed. You stayed you, you accept people for how they look, you hope they’re going to accept you for how you look, and you just keep building relationships.

I think that’s such a lovely thing about Elle. She’s never asking anyone to put some pink lip gloss on. She’s never asking anyone to dress themselves up. She’s just her – a rebel in pink, being her authentic self, which is such a heartwarming story.

In Legally Blonde and in Elle, the moral is that you can be smart, you can like pink, you can do anything you want. You don’t just have to be one thing.

If you love coming of age stories as much as I do, or The Breakfast Club, or just want to remember all of your favourite 90’s songs, you will love the teenage world of Elle Woods.

Elle is available to stream on Prime Video.

All images courtesy of Jennifer Powell and Prime Video.