If you’ve been a fan of Rodarte for the past 20 years, the news that designers Kate Mulleavy and Laura Mulleavy have joined forces with Saks on a capsule collection inspired by Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to the legendary 1988 film Beetlejuice, will come as no surprise. But what did surprise the sisters was the reaction from their friend group when they posted a teaser of the collaboration on Instagram a few days ago.
“We have this very large group text, and the minute we announced it on Instagram in came a thousand Beetlejuice photos with different Halloween costumes over the years,” Laura shared on a Zoom from their studio in Los Angeles. “We have this giant life-size Beetlejuice that we got when we started doing big Halloween parties maybe 15 years ago, and he’s the friend in every funny Halloween photo. We even dressed him up as Ralphie in a pink bunny suit [from the 1983 classic film A Christmas Story] once. He still exists.”
Beetlejuice Mulleavy doesn’t make a cameo in the collection, but Rodarte’s signature glamour and humor certainly do. The capsule features four of their current signature silhouettes: a maxi halter style with allover sequined embroidery in a checker pattern; a short-sleeve black-and-white striped dress with a delicate lace bodice; a simple bias-cut dress made from black-and-white striped fabric with a blood red rose embellishment at the chest; and a 1930s-inspired slip with short sleeves and black velvet-ribbon detailing in a very dramatic crimson red. The latter is a subtle reference to Lydia Deetz’s red lace wedding dress from the original movie.
“It was about taking the codes of our brand in terms of silhouette and the ease of some of our dresses and then combining them with some of the codes that we’ve seen established in the film, which already have a certain whimsical nature to them,” Kate explained. “You think of the stripes or the color palette, and there’s a quirkiness to that sensibility.”
Laura added, “We wanted to lean into the vast character design within the films. There’s a new character in the new movie that has a kind of black-silver tone, so we wanted to lean into that. If we were doing a runway show with this theme, we’d definitely be exploring it further, but this is more about someone saying, ‘I want to wear something Beetlejuice inspired,’ which is for more people, rather than a couture dress that one person might get or I won’t ever produce. We wanted to think about things that people could have and that would feel really natural.”
Rounding out the collection for the real ’Juice-heads are two groovy red-and-black tie-dyed Radarte-logo’d pieces—a T-shirt and a sweatshirt—which will also be available emblazoned with the cartoon depictions of Lydia and Beetlejuice from the animated series that ran in the late ’80s and early ’90s. “We just have a fondness for that cartoon, and I loved their clothing in that,” Laura added. “I loved her dress, I loved her hairstyle—it just really stuck in my head. When this came about, I said, ‘Can we also reference this?’ and they allowed us, which I’m really excited about. It’s just great character design, so whether or not it’s humans playing these characters or you have this animated version, it shows how much Tim Burton’s world can resonate with the design space. He’s so brilliant.”
The collection is available on the Rodarte and Saks website, and on Friday, August 23, Saks will debut an immersive window display at its New York flagship that will transport customers to the other side—no drawing doors on brick walls needed.
