Colin Wilkes' Eclectic Outfits in 'People We Meet on Vacation' Will Make You Want to Shop Vintage and Shop Local
Fashion
Fashion
In Netflix’s adaptation of “People We Meet on Vacation,” costume designer Colin Wilkes breathes new life into the book adaptation’s heroine through a series of internationally sourced vintage outfits.
In keeping with its namesake novel, “People We Meet on Vacation” follows the slow-burn romance between free-spirited travel writer Poppy Wright (Emily Bader) and reserved teacher Alex Nilsen (Tom Blyth), as they become friends, then strangers, and eventually find their way back to one another. Across the film’s two-hour runtime, five vacations, and a decade’s worth of elapsed screen time, costume designer Colin Wilkes shapes protagonist Poppy into a living, breathing twenty-something girl, outfitting her in Gen Z’s favorite niche internet brands and some covetable vintage finds.
Her scene-stealing looks drastically vary from place to place and brand to brand, but amidst the colorful chaos exists a throughline—separate from her signature Away suitcase. “There’s this element of discovery. The way that she tries on clothes is really just to play and dress up,” Wilkes tells The Set Set.
Throughout filming, Wilkes sourced high and low in London, Los Angeles, Barcelona, and Madrid to emulate the kind of eclectic, amorphous wardrobe Poppy would have accumulated through her career and many trips. Whether it’s a blue Pucci skirt—from two seasons ago and now sold out online—or vintage red fringed cowboy boots, Poppy’s varied sense of style is contextualized by her lifestyle, as she is constantly dressing for different climates and relationships—first a chef, then a surf instructor. “There was a lot of ground we wanted to cover in terms of developing a sense of style that felt really unique and specific to things that Poppy would have found on vacation, and that felt organic to the way she would have traveled and picked up pieces,” Wilkes says.
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Poppy’s vacation outfits tether each scene to a distinctive era in her evolving friendship with Alex—soft sunshine-yellow sundresses in Tuscany, a rhinestone-clad tube top in New Orleans, and gorp-core hiking gear in Canada. And while there is no clear-cut formula to Poppy’s outfits, Wilkes aimed to style her in vintage-inspired contemporary pieces paired with internationally sourced vintage accessories.
Poppy’s maximalist fashion ethos contrasts sharply against Alex’s regimented T-shirt-and-khakis uniform, reminiscent of a tech bro. Alex is the type of guy to cycle between five different colors of the same mall-brand T-shirt, purchased by his mom and then later, his girlfriend. Where Poppy basks in the freedom of a lifestyle shaped by constant movement and indecision, Alex makes a conscious effort to make the same predictable decisions every day. Despite their differences in style and trend-spotting, Wilkes made sure not to date Poppy’s outfits by brand or microtrend, preserving a sense of fantasy throughout the film.
When the viewer first meets a college-aged Poppy, she sports a turquoise Colombian vest over a vintage graphic tee depicting a blonde girl in a green bikini. It could be 2012; it could be 2018, the dating details are left ambiguous and unbranded—no Abercrombie and Fitch mooses in sight, as Poppy dresses somewhere on the elusive cusp between Millennial and Gen-Z. The T-shirt is a nod to the blonde version of Poppy described in the book and sunbathing on its cover, and the first of many Easter eggs littered throughout Poppy’s wardrobe.
“If you notice, there are souvenir tees that I put Poppy in throughout the film, which are nods to vacations that [Poppy and Alex] previously took together but that we don’t get to see in the movie. So in the spin class, she’s wearing a Vail, Colorado shirt, and then when she’s sick in bed, she’s wearing a vintage Sanibel, Florida tee,” Wilkes said.
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Honoring the vigilant fandom of Emily Henry readers is not for the faint of heart, but Wilkes embraced the challenge of paying tasteful homage to the audiences that mattered most. For the rom-com savant—who may not know the blonde version of Poppy Wright from the books but lives and breathes by Andie Anderson—Poppy’s iconic chartreuse wedding-guest dress pays subtle homage to Kate Hudson’s yellow gown in “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”
When Poppy reconnects with Alex at his brother’s wedding in Barcelona, she wears a flowy, 1930s-inspired, bias-cut evening gown by Michelle Mason. Wilkes describes the dress almost like a prop, explaining that they needed to source multiples to withstand the rain. “We knew we needed it to come off in a certain way and be practical for the physicality of the scene,” Wilkes said. “It needed to be green because we wanted to nod to the green jumpsuit she wears in the book. And I also wanted it to come off in a way that felt like he was unwrapping her like a present. It was a second skin for her—this barely-there thing, a thin film separating her from Alex,” Wilkes added.
It should come as no surprise that Wilkes’ favorite leg of the film to style was “hands-down” New Orleans, a chapter that came at the end of the designer’s shooting schedule and months-long vintage-shopping spree. Down south, Poppy sports an iridescent pair of blue disco pants from Rezek Studio, paired with Kurt Geiger silver platform heels and a bedazzled pink tube top from the Chicago boutique Shop Akira. Playing off her neon turquoise wig, the look evokes Studio 54 with a bedazzled “Euphoria” flair, finished with contemporary Collina Strada and Nail Restaurant jewelry.
“By the time we got to New Orleans, we fit that look last and brought in the most wild things. It was so fun, just all these different sequins,” Wilkes said. “Once we figured out the wig, the whole outfit came together around it, and it was the thing that became iconic, like the cherry on top.”
Shop Colin Wilkes' "People We Meet On Vacation" Wardrobe:
The Salted Hippie Boutique Shooting for the Stars Fringe Earrings
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