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If you grew up obsessed with Legally Blonde and have spent the last two decades wondering exactly how Elle Woods became Elle Woods, this episode is for you. Sara Byblow is the costume designer behind Elle, the new Legally Blonde prequel series that takes us back to 1995, when a 16-year-old Elle is trading Bel-Air for Seattle and figuring out who she is—in pink, plaid, and everything in between. For the latest episode of The Who What Wear Podcast, Byblow shares how she sourced upward of 70 looks for young Elle, how she used different shades of pink to track Elle's emotional arc throughout the season, and how she found enough plaid to dress an entire cast of Seattle high schoolers—plus those iconic pink heart shoes.
To read excerpts from the full conversation, scroll below.
When did you realize you wanted to work in fashion and costume design specifically?
I've always kind of been in clothing. When I was really young, like 13, I was as tall as I am now, which isn't very tall—I'm only about 5' 3 1/2". I was scouted to model, so I did that for a very short time, and then they realized I wasn't going to grow at all. But I loved being on set and everything to do with that, so I went to school for fashion. After that, I started working in retail at a clothing store for a while, and I had my own clothing line on the side.
It was actually while I was working one day that a friend of mine, who worked on the production side of things, came in and started buying multiples of everything—like three of the same shirt. I asked her what she was doing, and she said a designer friend of hers needed help, and she didn't know what she was doing. I told her to give the designer my number—I was always down to help. I got a call about a week later to come work on a show, and it just kind of snowballed from there.
Can you share how you landed on that pink dress for Elle's entrance at her sweet 16 party?
That pink dress is so special to me—it might actually be my favorite look of the whole season. Sophie de Rakoff, who designed the original movies, and I came together while we were prepping the show just to talk about the character. It was so important to me to understand why she and Reese chose what they chose for the movies, so we sat down together and actually designed that dress side by side. It was before any of the costume team had even started—just the two of us sketching and showing each other pictures back and forth. We did five or so iterations before we landed on the one, but when we finally had it, we knew: This is it.
We brought it to our producing team, our director, and our creators, and every single person in the room immediately said, "That's the dress"—the same one we'd been hoping for. It was such a special moment because the movie is so iconic; it meant everything to do justice to it. In a way, Reese was passing the torch to Lexi to bring Elle Woods to a new generation, and I felt like Sophie was passing the torch to me to take it and run.
Were there specific parameters for building out her wardrobe, beyond the feminine silhouettes?
There weren't really parameters, because Elle Woods is a singularity—she's so herself, and in a way she's eclectic. Looking back at the movies, she wore things from all over the spectrum. I don't think Elle ever looked at a designer and thought, well, it's this designer, so I have to wear it. She's drawn to whatever makes her feel good, and that was the goal when we were sourcing. There are archive designer pieces throughout but also vintage things we found where we don't even know the brand—we just knew this felt like Elle Woods. There are contemporary pieces and things built specifically for her. It was less about needing an exact designer piece and more about going on a treasure hunt for things that felt true to her, then putting the pieces together from there.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.