The Who What Wear Podcast: Clueless Costume Designer Mona May on 30 Years of Fashion Influence and Letting Girls Be Girls
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Who What Wear
4.7 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 November 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
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Summary
Mona May is the costume designer of the ’90s cult classic film Clueless. In this episode, Who What Wear Senior Fashion and Social Editor Tara Gonzalez sits down with May to mark 30 years after the film’s release and to look back on the movie’s instantly recognizable fashion. May tells us about how she turned herself into a fashion “detective” when sourcing pieces for Clueless and how she mixed high and low fashion to tell a story and stay within her modest budget. She dishes on what it was like fitting Alicia Silverstone for Cher’s iconic yellow plaid suit and the story behind the giant hat Stacey Dash wears for Dionne’s matching look. Plus, May gives us a peek into her new book, The Fashion of Clueless, which features pages from her sketchbook for the movie and exclusive interviews with the cast.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Who What Wear podcast, your direct line to the designers, stylists, beauty experts, editors, and tastemakers who are shaping the ever-evolving world of fashion. |
| 0:21.9 | I'm Who What Wear, |
| 0:26.9 | editor-in-chief, Cat Collings, and today, Senior Fashion and Social editor Tara Gonzalez is chatting with costume designer Mona May. Mona has numerous credits since getting her |
| 0:32.1 | starred as a costume designer in the 90s, but she's best known as the great mind behind the |
| 0:36.9 | fashion and the movie Clueless. |
| 0:39.3 | 30 years after the film's release, Mona joins us to look back on how she designed more than |
| 0:43.7 | a hundred different looks on a tight budget. She recalls how she worked with Clueless writer and |
| 0:48.5 | director Amy Heckerling to blend thrifted clothes with high fashion. She breaks down how she |
| 0:54.0 | sourced to some of the |
| 0:54.8 | standout pieces from the girl's wardrobes, like Cher's iconic red-a-dress and Stacey's |
| 1:00.1 | dramatic, larger-than-life hats. Plus, she tells us about her new book, The Fashion of Clueless, |
| 1:05.9 | that takes us inside her sketchbook she used when designing the unforgettable looks we see in the |
| 1:10.4 | movie and |
| 1:11.2 | features exclusive interviews with the clueless cast. It's all coming up on who what, |
| 1:16.4 | where. |
| 1:23.5 | Well, thanks, Mona for chatting with me. I'm a big fan of your work and just so excited to talk to you and so excited for this book. |
| 1:31.7 | So I figured maybe we can just start at the beginning. |
| 1:35.5 | And I would love to hear a little bit about how you ended up doing costume design and if that was something that you always wanted to do. |
| 1:41.6 | Well, you know, I was one of those kids who drew as a little girl. |
| 1:46.0 | I was drawing princesses and many outfits, little mini collections already. Lucky my parents really |
| 1:52.1 | supported it. As a kid, I grew up in different countries. I was actually born in India. |
| 1:57.6 | And I lived at those three. And then I moved to Poland and then Germany. So, you know, I was |
... |
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