ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
September 2, 2008
Behind the Seams
Costume designer Mona May gives the Cheetah Girls an Indian-inspired makeover
Click here to read TFK's interview with Cheetah Girls Kiely Williams, Adrienne Bailon and Sabrina Bryan.
In a movie, a character's clothes can be just as important as which actor plays the part. Can you imagine Stuart Little without his mouse-sized red shirt? Or Princess Giselle climbing out of the grubby city sewer wearing something other than her glittery wedding dress in Enchanted? Costume designer Mona May helped bring both of these movie outfits to life. Now, the Hollywood style guru is helping the Cheetah Girls take on Bollywood!
 |  CRAIG SJODIN—DISNEY CHANNEL Costume designer Mona May |
In The Cheetah Girls: One World, now playing on the Disney Channel, the popular trio travels the globe. The Cheetahs visit Mumbai, India, to star in a big-time Bollywood movie. Bollywood is the name used for India's motion-picture industry. As the girls learn more about the country's culture, they take an Indian-inspired "fashion journey," May told TFK. By the end of the movie, the ladies are draped in bright traditional Indian saris and ghagra cholis. A sari is a long piece of fabric that wraps around the body and is worn with a top, like a dress. Ghagra cholis are similar but are worn with a top and skirt or pants.
May wanted the Indian wardrobe to stay true to the Cheetahs' personalities. Before developing any costumes, May read the script to get to know the characters. "You have to incorporate the [clothes] into a character's psychology," she says. Each Cheetah has her own style. Chanel (Bailon) is "a little lady," says May. Dorinda (Bryan) has a funkier look, mixing and matching thrift-store pieces. And Aqua (Williams), being a designer herself, is the most fashion-forward of the group.
Once May became familiar with the Cheetahs, she studied upcoming fashion trends and came up with ways to work them into the script. Decorative details such as beading and gems are hot this fall. The trend comes at the perfect time for May, since Indian clothing boasts a lot of striking flourishes. May admits that there was a lot of Bedazzling on set. A Bedazzler is a small, hand-held machine that is used to punch rhinestones into fabrics.
 DISNEY CHANNEL From left: Dorinda (Sabrina Bryan), Chanel (Adrienne Bailon) and Aqua (Kiely Williams) head to Bollywood in The Cheetah Girls: One World. | |
The girls wear more than 80 different costumes throughout One World. Each style requires jewelry, shoes and other accessories. May worked with the producers to come up with a budget for clothing costs. She found inspiration for the costumes in India's colorful bazaars. All three Cheetahs were involved with the costuming process. "It was great to have that relationship with Mona," Williams told TFK. "It made it easier to get our visions across."
The Cheetahs had months of daily costume fittings before shooting began. With several dance sequences in the movie, May had to make sure that the girls could move freely in the clothes. "The most surprising thing when I put on the ghagra choli was how heavy it was," Williams recalls. "We had lots of rehearsals in our outfits so that we would be comfortable dancing in them."
The Best RewardNow that May has dressed a CGI-animated mouse, a fairytale princess and a cheetah-licious girl group, what would she like to do next? The costumer says she'd like to try her hand at a more futuristic and fantasy-based project. "I really like inventing fashion," says May. She also looks forward to seeing her creations on the big screen. "To see the designs come to life and to see how they support a film... That's the part of the job that really makes all the hard work worth it," she says.
