The Carrie remake starring Chloë Moretz opens today. Theaters will be full of nitpicky, diehard fans of the 1976 original, deconstructing the “authenticity of the remake.” But one thing potential haters will be satisfied with is the prom dress worn during the iconic prom bloodbath. In an interview with the Boston Globe, costume designer Luis Sequeira revealed his painstaking process behind re-creating a gown fit for an outcast telepath: “I knew the prom dress was going to be criticized, scrutinized, and evaluated,” he said. “For me, that was the big design challenge of this movie. This really is one of the most iconic prom dresses out there, and I didn’t want to mess it up.”
In fact, he created over 30 of the same thirties-influenced bias-cut dress: “We had a clean dress, a just-bloodied dress, we had a wet and bloody dress, we had pre-explosion dress, a dress for when Carrie leaves the prom, a post-explosion dress, and a dress for her arrival home,” he said. “We made five of each.”
We hope fans are satisfied after all that work! And that future costume designers for the inevitable remakes of other cinematic greats featuring iconic prom scenes, e.g., She’s All That, Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, Twilight, Grease, and Pretty in Pink, are prepared to approach the costuming with similarly high levels of detail.
