Charlie's Angels Embraced Humor (And Low-Rise Jeans) To Fight Crime With Fashion

By Sara Radin


Low-rise, boot-cut jeans adorned with paisley embroidery and studs; candy-colored halter tops; ombré-tinted sunglasses dotted with glittering rhinestone hearts. These are just several of the iconic, Y2K pieces that make up the ass-kicking wardrobe of McG’s 2000 take on Charlie’s Angels. Small specifics, like stitching and tapering, were key to telling the story of Charlie’s three powerhouse women Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu, who played private investigators Dylan, Natalie, and Alex. “The clothes also had to be very functional because they did all these karate kicks and had to fly via air and stuff,” costume designer Joe Aulisi tells MTV News.


From springy fabrics to knee-high boots, whether they were fighting evil with high-flying martial arts moves while cheekily disguised as yodelers or dancing on stage at Soul Train on a first date, the angels routinely looked put with each other. However their clothes also matched their distinct personalities while still complementing each other and looking fierce on-screen. Take the jam-packed finale: In a fight against the villainous Eric Knox, Diaz’s Natalie, who is quirky and sporty, rocks a body-hugging top with a sheer, mesh back and tight black pants; Barrymore, who plays a complimentary spirit and dresses more casually, wears a vintage T-shirt with jeans; Liu, who plays the bookish however bossy Alex, wears an all-leather ensemble layered over silver chainmail. Of course, it’s an iconic celebration of female empowerment.


The film, originally based on a sitcom of the same name from the 1970s, debuted 20 years prior this month, followed by a sequel in 2003 plus a remake in 2019, nevertheless it has never felt more relevant to this moment. Plenty of trends from the early aughts have come back inside fashion thanks to Gen Z’s growing interest in secondhand clothing and also the rise of reseller platforms like Depop and Etsy, while remakes of movies from that era have become more and more commonplace. Nowadays, nostalgia in style and film provides a sweet escape to the past. That’s why MTV News talked with Aulisi to learn more about how he toed the line between humor and sexiness to prepare standout wardrobes for everyone’s preference three angels.


MTV News: If I was rewatching the movie I found a lot of ombré sunglasses, which was astonishing. What were some of the references for the costumes?


Joe Aulisi: We covered a lot of bases in terms of some retro-looking stuff, some more contemporary. Some of these little things were crucial even earlier than, of course, 2000. Although all of that was recommended, and then small little bits of jewelry were some days specific to a character. We also attempted to do a little bit nod to things at the time the movie came out so there was a larger frame of reference.


A lot of it was influenced by the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. One of the goals with the costumes overall was they should be fun and also being sexy, that they should have a playful look to them. California fashion was also piece of it, as in palette all of the bright colors and sunshine and all that stuff that comes with Los Angeles.


Ninety percent of the clothes I designed and had made, just to get a different look or to get multiples, because some days we required six of the same thing with all these stunts they were doing and stunt people and photo doubles. That was a very heavily stunted show, so that requires more costumes that are designed so that you could raise your arms so you could do high kicks and also you could do all these things that they had to do constantly during the full movie.


MTV News: What was some of the inspiration in back every one of the females looks? How did you build out this narrative of who each these were by way of the clothing you designed? 


Aulisi: I think Cameron and Drew's characters, and in real life, are similarly free-spirited. They love the outside and are extroverted, so they wore many color and patterns because they were not afraid to take chances. Although Lucy’s character was much more introverted and scientific. She was more uptight and, consequently, she had a more neutral palette and some black. There was just a more serious tone to her clothes compared to the other two girls.


MTV News: Cameron Diaz’s character wears a lot of halter tops and skinny, spaghetti-strap tank tops whereas the other two don't.


Aulisi: Right. Cameron was very athletic, as well, and did a lot of dancing, so that was more freeing in terms of things like showing more skin — because it was also 2000. Right now it's just a much more sexually liberated period of clothing and what folks are ready to wear and what you visualize on the runway. It's very different than 20 years back in terms of what was acceptable by the public and what they expected to see.


We wanted the clothes to look sexy nevertheless it wasn't the overt sexiness that I visualize today with fully nude tops or sheer things with very little underneath. It was meant to be playful, fun-loving, youthful, spirited. All those things went into consideration of designing the costumes, and it also was especially fun to do the disguises.


MTV News: Seems like humor also played a part.


Aulisi: Yes, the belly-dancing outfits were meant to be sexy nevertheless also humorous; it wasn't meant to be taken seriously, which I think the audience got. However the clothes also had to be very functional because they did all these karate kicks and had to fly by way of the air and stuff. Yet that all had to be figured out ahead of time, before the clothes were made. We used a lot of stretch fabrics. Some days they had to wear special shoes because they required to be covered more, or they had gloves on, because they had gear on.


MTV News: I found the color black became really famed towards the end. What did the color black define for the characters?


Aulisi: They were undercover several of the times. They were working at night and all these things helped them vanish. It was also very magical on camera and we added specifics so it wasn’t just plain black ensembles. There was black leather chainmail and also you can get a flash of skin.


MTV News: Will you tell me more about the pretty red gown with the crystals Lucy Liu’s character wears at the cocktail party?


Aulisi: I wanted to do something flattering and something that would really catch your eye. She is the only one in red fabric, which really picked up the light, and then it was heavily embellished with jewels. That was because there were quite several people in that scene and so they were, you know, background people for the most part. So to prepare her pop, I put her in red.


MTV News: There was a lot of embroidered denim. I found Drew was wearing an embroidered and studded denim jacket at one point.


Aulisi: That was a throwback back to the ‘70s. She had to have a slight hippie vibe to her character, she was more Bohemian and had that second hand store sort of thrown-together look. She was probably the most casual of the three. She loved vintage T-shirts and she played in a metal band at one point.


MTV News: Boot-cut jeans were big while in the film.


Aulisi: Not all of these although some of these, because what it does is it gives you a little bit move. I think bell bottoms would have been OK, yet it had nothing to do, again, with once we shot the movie in 2000, nevertheless the idea of a flare-cut thing once you're running and if you're flying via air, you get that motion at the bottom. The females just looked good in it.


MTV News: What were some of the challenges you ran into any time building out their looks?


Aulisi: They're three very different sizes however we attempted to prepare them appear the same. Yet the same outfit on three people very seldomly works, although they're similar. So that was routinely a consideration, to prepare them an ensemble without putting the three identical outfits. All these things that go into the considerations of the design then the way something is executed in terms of the way there's some fabrics that were used.


because the designer, you must habitually imagine, especially as soon as you've got three people that are constantly on screen with each other, that you have enough differentiation between the three actors and can still make them look like they're segment of the scene although they’re not wearing the same exact thing. Often they're not colors that necessarily complement each other, although they still have their own life to them. As you can imagine, it was a really fun job and everybody had a good time. It was fun to dress the characters.


MTV News: There’s a lot joy radiating by means of the characters.


Aulisi: Yeah, it group kind of sparkles. It's tongue-in-cheek humor and yes it moves very speedily. And the clothes got a lot of recognition, which I really enjoyed.


MTV News: Did you notice how the film impacted style trends immediately after it came out?


Aulisi: I am a costume designer and not a stylist, so my head is much more focused on the characters and why things look on film and that sort of thing, as instead of attempting to create some style statement or keeping up with the style trends. What occurs is that by the time the movie launches nowadays, the trends are already yesterday.