‘Clueless’ Director, Amy Heckerling, Got the Idea for Cher’s Virtual Closet From a Hollywood Producer
Ugh, as if!
Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) spoke those words decades ago in Amy Heckerling’s teen comedy, Clueless. A beloved ‘90s movie, Clueless is filled with quotable lines. Besides the dialogue, there is, of course, the fashion, which brings us to Cher’s enviable closet.
Not just the designer clothes but the teen’s closet itself. The movie famously opens with Cher getting ready for school with the help of her computerized closet. Keep reading to get details on the inspiration behind Cher’s closet.
‘Clueless’ debuted 25 years ago
We’re totally buggin’ because Clueless hit theaters 25 years ago on July 19, 1995. Written and directed by Heckerling, the movie is a coming of age story about Cher, a popular high school student.
She and her best friend, Dionne (Stacey Dash), play matchmaker for their teachers then give new student Tai (Brittany Murphy) a makeover. Along the way, Cher realizes she has feelings for her former stepbrother, Josh (Paul Rudd).
A box office success, Clueless went on to become a TV show and a musical. Today, it’s known as one of the most memorable movies of the ‘90s.
A Hollywood producer’s closet inspired Cher’s, Amy Heckerling says
Always dreamed of having a closet like Cher’s? Turns out, her computerized closet has been around for years.
In a 2015 interview with Vanity Fair about the movie’s costume design, Heckerling opened up about the inspiration behind Cher’s virtual closet. She explained she got the idea from a producer who had something similar in his home years earlier.
“A producer in Hollywood had very wonderful clothes, but he felt like you always pull the same thing out of your closet because you don’t really see everything,” she said. “So he thought, ‘Why not have a device like they have in dry cleaners, which rotates your clothes?’ So he got somebody to make it for him.”
Upon seeing the high tech closet, Heckerling decided to use it in a future project.
“I saw it and I thought, ‘Oh my God, someday I am going to use this in something,’” she said.
That lead to Cher’s closet with the rotation feature and a computer program that created matching outfits for her.
Alicia Silverstone gave away clothes she kept from ‘Clueless’
In Clueless, Silverstone wore approximately 60 outfits as Cher. The costume department worked overtime to create her character’s looks and it shows. They remain some of the most recognizable outfits ever to be worn on screen.
When filming wrapped on Clueless, the lead actress got to keep some mementos from the set. Silverstone kept a pair of Cher’s Mary Jane shoes. But in 2020, she divulged she’d given them away along with a few other things she kept from the movie. OK, now we really are totally buggin.’
See Silverstone and Cher’s closet by watching Clueless on Netflix.
