Ever since the staggering success of the Barbie movie press tour, various film projects have been trying to emulate what Mattel and Greta Gerwig did, with varying levels of success. The most recent major example of this is, of course, Jenna Ortega’s wardrobe during the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice movie press tour. 

One of the main people responsible for Ortega’s wardrobe is Enrique Melendez, who has been her stylist since she was fourteen, and helped dress her from her time as a Disney Channel darling to the new face of Tim Burton. He and Ortega collaborated to create a mysterious, gothic and elegant through her wardrobe to suitably reflect the mood of the movie. 

At the Venice Film Festival, Melendez styled Ortega in a dress that is a direct call back to the original Beetlejuice movie. Lydia Deetz’s red, layered, wedding gown is perhaps the most iconic outfit from it, and Ortega’s custom Dior gown is a clear reference to it, similarly ruffled and red, but is modernised, being sleeveless, backless, and with the skirt being only one layer of transparent tulle, causing the legs to be exposed. 

Ortega’s second outfit at the festival, a custom red-purple suit by Paul Smith, was also a nod to the wedding from the original movie and was based off the outfit worn by the titular character of Beetlejuice himself in the scene. 

Ortega also chose to evoke Lydia Deetz in a Thom Browne ensemble that emulates a school-uniform, with a white shirt, check midi skirt, blue cardigan, and a book shaped handbag with the cheeky phrase, ‘Handbag for the Recently Deceased,’ alluding to the movie’s ghostly plot. 

Pinstripes are seen numerous times in this press run as well, in an allusion to Beetlejuices’s iconic look. At a press event in New York, Ortega wore a black and white pinstripe skirt suit from Dolce and Gabbana, that fit her tightly and featured an elegant sweetheart neckline. This look in particular blends the key aesthetic ideas of    Beetlejuice’s wardrobe with the current office siren trend. 

Ortega also sports numerous looks that evoke the original movie less directly, but still retain a dark, spooky vibe. At a New York press event, she wore a silky black skirt and black and white Agent Provocateur corset, creating a gothic effect, and at another event in Mexico, she wore a green Lurline dress that had skulls molded into the leather corset, and oversized stitching in the skirt that gave a Frankenstein-like effect. 

Many people argue that Halloween is the best holiday of the year, and a movie like Beetlejuice having its press run in the lead up to October, without a doubt gives people an extra excuse to get their spook on. I, personally, am excited to see the effect Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has on Halloween this year, and will keep my eye out to see if anyone takes inspiration from this new movie in the same way that Ortega and Melendez took inspiration from the original. 

Credit: Wikimedia Commons