Here’s Exactly What The ‘Forbidden Fruits’ Costume Designer Bought For Each Character At The Mall
Fashion
Sarah Millman knows her mall brands, and her vintage designer too. Join the coven by shopping the costume designer's edit of exact pieces worn in "Forbidden Fruits."
Adorned in nostalgia-ridden outfits from every decade, the all-star coven of “Forbidden Fruits” brings fashion to the forefront. From “Practical Magic” to “Jennifer’s Body,” costume designer Sarah Millman had no shortage of witchy cinematic references to pull from in shaping each girl’s signature style. But rather than recycling familiar horror tropes, she reimagined girl group archetypes across eras, aesthetics, and brand identities, forming something at once entirely her own and sentimental of girl-groups-past.
Filmed in the same shopping center as the iconic mall sequence in “Mean Girls,” “Forbidden Fruits” sees Millman styling its squad of sales associates in eclectic blends of mall staples, designer pieces, and vintage finds. The varied looks channel girlhood through unexpected pairings—mixing micro-trends like bloomers with Dallas staples like cowboy boots. Familiar mall brands like Urban Outfitters and American Eagle are recontextualized alongside niche, high-end labels such as Coperni and Rodarte, creating something that is both aesthetically cohesive and idiosyncratic.
Below, Millman has curated a shopping edit of pieces featured in the film or pulled for fittings—so you can dress like your favorite “fruit,” or, as Millman prefers,, mix and match across characters.
Seductress Apple
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Lili Reinhart plays the polished and poised Apple in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Lili Reinhart plays the polished and poised Apple in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Lili Reinhart plays the polished and poised Apple in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Lily Reinhart, who plays Apple in the film, was the first actress to sign on to “Forbidden Fruits” and spent two years building Pinterest boards that Millman later referenced. As the metaphorical “Apple” at the center of Free Eden, her look nods to both the fruit and its biblical symbolism, favoring “really big” seductive silhouettes and the color red.
“We decided that Apple was the girl who used her clothing as an armor—almost like glass. Everything is very tailored, fitted, plunging, like a shield to the world, but also she's aware of her power and her beauty,” Millman says.
Many of Reinhart’s looks incorporated pieces from the actress's personal closet. In one of the outfits prominantly displayed on the film’s poster, Reinhard wears a Miu Miu choker from her own closet paired with a black mini dress, black gloves, and white knee-high boots. Millman reminisces about how many of Apple's looks came together through a stream of 2 am text conversations, across different time zones.
“Women who look a certain way intuit that their power in this world is to be had or could be had through their beauty, through accessing entrance or entry into worlds through how they look,” Millman says. “So she presents herself in such a controlled, crystalline way because she has both rage towards men and the male gaze but also knows she needs it in order to move through life.”
Apple also weaponizes the male gaze within her own coven. “Her veneer of perfection and next-level beauty, that is so inaccessible to most people, is how she draws people in. We decided that she is so aware of [the power of her physical allure] that she'll steal clothing, troll The Real Real, and take what she wants in order to get where she wants to go,” Millman says.
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Wolf & Badger Real Flower Grande Amore Rosebud Black Ribbon Choker Necklace
Wolf & Badger
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Coquette Cowgirl Cherry
Victoria Pedretti in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Victoria Pedretti in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Victoria Pedretti in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Victoria Pedretti in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Victoria Pedretti in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Victoria Pedretti in "Forbidden Fruits."
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As Apple’s most devoted follower, Cherry (Victoria Pedretti) puts a girlish Western spin on her character’s signature style. She is introduced wearing a pointelle cardigan and dusty pink bloomers, later swapped out for a magenta sequin mini skirt (from Free Eden’s “Hilary Duff collab” we’re told).
“When Victoria Pedretti came [to set], she was ready to collaborate. We had four-hour fittings where I would say, ‘Look through these racks and tell me what you're drawn to, let's just play,” Millman says. “At one point, we had a sequined hot pink dress with a garter belt on the outside and hot pink croc clogs,” Millman recalls. “We just wanted to push it as far as we could.”
In forming the character’s coquette look, Millman took cues from Anna Nicole Smith, Lana Del Ray, and Brigitte Bardot. For the sexier outfits, Millman had Cicciolina, the stage name of Ilona Staller, on her moodboard. The Hungarian-Italian porn star turned politician, who was later married to Jeff Koons, has “quite a look, like really cool, super feminine, really edgy,” Millman says. For the winter solstice coven scene where the girls are dressed in all blue to perform a seasonal spell, Cherry’s look is “very Chicholina inspired,” but also takes beats from Marilyn Monroe.
In this scene, Millman paired a vintage ‘80s-era negligee with a tiara, waterfall rhinestone earrings, sheer gloves, and leg warmers. “I think we gave one of our producers a heart attack. He came into the office and was like, ‘What is this?’” Millman recounts, “It was this sort of baby blue sheer nightie with little crystal beads on the breasts.”
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Sporty Spice Pumpkin
Lola Tung in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Lola Tung plays Pumpkin, the newest inductee of the mall coven at the center of "Forbidden Fruits."
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Lola Tung in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Lola Tung in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Lola Tung plays Pumpkin, the newest inductee of the mall coven at the center of "Forbidden Fruits."
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Lola Tung in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Pumpkin (Lola Tung) begins the film as an outsider, untethered to the customs of Apple’s fashion-forward cult. “Pumpkin starts in her Bermuda shorts, golf shirt, and dorky Sister Salt's hat. And she's like, ‘I'm hot no matter what. I feel good about myself,’” Millman says. She describes Pumpkin’s original style as “a bit more chill” and “slightly goofy,” in comparison to the rest of the girls. Millman attributes her more casual costumes to a “product of being cared for and loved.” She is often costumed in track pants or cargo capris, with a pink baseball tee or an '80s t-shirt.
“The idea going in was that she was a little bit of a tomboy. She's more secure in who she is than the other girls. But when she needs to turn it on and use the sword against the other girls through her costumes, she'll do it,” Millman says.
This is exactly what happens when, after being locked in the store overnight, Pumpkin emerges looking better than ever. She appears at the top of the Free Eden staircase wearing the same gingham Reformation dress Taylor Swift was spotted wearing in the 2024 US Open. Millman paired the piece of fashion history with tall red cowboy boots and a red pendant heart choker. She conceptualized this look as a subtle nod to Lola Tung’s breakout role in “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” where she was often seen wearing girlish ginghams and casual, summer silhouettes.
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Mall Goth Fig
Alexandra Shipp in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Alexandra Shipp in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Alexandra Shipp in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Alexandra Shipp in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Alexandra Shipp in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Alexandra Shipp in "Forbidden Fruits."
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Fig was written into the script as a mall goth. Rather than go head-to-toe Hot Topic and Lip Service, Millman looked towards modern fixtures of punk rock fashion. She opted for a FK Twigs meets Fairuza Balk twist on the character’s ‘90s meets Y2K style, learning heavy into accessorizing and layering. Millman says Fig’s look was “filtered through the mall” and the “Free Eden of it all” by leaning heavily on Free People accessories, such as a selection of belts and mules.
“We knew that when [Alex] said ‘Hear me out, okay,’ she was gonna start layering a million pieces and put like a pair of pants on a dress, a bustier over that, a jacket over that, with a belt on top. She's quite a genius with layers, and all the layering you see on her is really directed by her.”
Having spent three years on the sales floor of a popular clothing store in Nova Scotia, Millman drew on her experiences working with girls who would repurpose the brand’s garments to suit their personal style and, in turn, help sell the clothing. In the case of Fig, the character’s individuality lies in her layered jewelry and unconventional accessorizing tactics, such as repurposing chain necklaces styled as waist belts and shoe details.
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Putty Pickle
Emma Chamberlain, who plays a former member of the coven named Pickle in the film, got her start making DIY videos and vlogs on YouTube. Fittingly, the Gen Z darling brought an enthusiasm for crafts and mall brands to Millman’s late-night fittings. “I think because [Emma] has the pick of the litter in the world of fashion, and she's such a fashion girl, she had no qualms whatsoever embracing mall brands, and if anything, wanted more,” Millman says.
The “putty weirdness” of Pickle’s haunted blue mini dress was inspired by Mia Farrow in “Rosemary’s Baby.” In the fittings, Chamberlain requested to take a Free People mini dress four inches shorter, contributing to the character’s uncanniness. “The coolest way to wear something is either overly long or wildly short. It's so Jane Birkin to me,” Millman says, “So we pinned it as short as we possibly could to the point that when she runs by, you can see her little white day of the week underwear.”
“One of the things she asked for was a pair of ballet flats that looked like they had been worn for three years. So we found a pair and broke them down even more. And they're just like this kind of pale color that looks like flesh. Like they're really gross, actually.”
Another fixture of Pickle’s style comes in the form of disgusting mini Ugg boots rolled down to expose the sheep's fur. “Meredith wanted those Uggs to look like they'd been through it, so we did a lot of breakdown on them,” Millman says. In authentic early aughts fashion, she even made a toe hole in each shoe.
