Get the teen fantasy look from Twilight

Paris, Milan, New York and Forks, Washington? The damp and overcast setting of romance fantasy Twilight isn’t exactly one of the international bastions of fashion and style. You’re not going to catch Carrie Bradshaw skipping around the forest in her Manolo Blahniks, rather it’s known as the logging capital of the world due to its timber industry and its persistently wet weather (it’s the rainiest city in the continental US). However, this unglamorous and sleepy spot of the Pacific Northwest was chosen by author Stephenie Meyer as the setting for Twilight and now with an adaptation of the 2005 bestseller a bonafide film phenomenon, it’s become the unlikely home to some of the best dressed teenagers around.

Responsible for clothing this new gang of cinematic trend-setters was costume designer Wendy Chuck whose CV also includes other high school dramas Varsity Blues and Election. Though dressing the young stars of Twilight wasn’t simply a matter of choosing the best designer labels and catwalk crazes. This isn’t Clueless or Mean Girls, instead there were many constraints. Clothes had to be suitable for the heavy stunt work involved meaning multiples of everything, not too expensive – the budget for the entire production was only $37,000,000 and in keeping with the personalities of the characters as dictated by the book. “Of course the books were the biggest inspiration,” she reveals. “They are filled with visual imagery, costume notes and lovely details that gave me clues to the characters.”

Meyers’s book has a realistic attitude to what fashions are practical and possible in the rain-soaked setting of Forks (the film was actually shot in Portland, Oregon), meaning that it’s not all high heels getting mired in the mud and drafty mini-skirts. This practical sensibility is best expressed by Twilight’s protagonist Bella Swan (played by Into the Wild’s Kristen Stewart) whose clumsiness and disinterest in high fashion means she keeps things casual and comfortable. Any drab everydayness is kept at bay by special occasions (the Prom) and the natural (or should that be unnatural?) beauty of the vampiric Cullen clan ensuring there is plenty of glamour and gorgeousness to go around.

The overall effect is one of a distinctive and distinguishable cast of characters dressed in fashions that are accessible. To achieve this Chuck raided a variety of common place shopping destinations: “In L.A. we shopped in the usual mall and higher-end stores, bought and found vintage pieces and recreated them in multiples or different colours,” she recalls. “Like everyone, we shopped online. When we got to Portland, we shopped and plundered all the small boutiques and thrift stores, most of which were very accommodating to our different needs.” Specific stores include Loehmann’s and Nordstrom Rack.