I Love Boosters Is This Season’s Most Daring Fashion Film

The fashion world is having a moment on-screen this spring, whether it’s in The Devil Wears Prada’s blockbuster sequel or the pop-star thriller Mother Mary, but none seems to be bolder than I Love Boosters, which goes far beyond the fashion design industry and embraces teleportation, demons, and workers’ rights all at once.

Directed by Boots Riley, known for his eccentric style in Sorry to Bother You and I’m a Virgo, the wacky comedy follows a group of down-on-their-luck women who steal clothes and sell them for less (a.k.a. “boosting”) in the Bay Area. During one spree, the group of friends—Corvette (Keke Palmer), Sade (Naomi Ackie), and Mariah (Taylour Paige)—encounters another shoplifter using a strange machine: It sucks up clothing like a vacuum and transports it all the way to China, to the factory where she works under exploitative conditions. Instead of competing with the newcomer, Jianhu (Poppy Liu), they band together, forming a quartet of colorfully dressed, stylish vigilantes. Their target? Christine Smith (Demi Moore), the designer behind the retail giant Metro Designs, who has an evil side: She stole Corvette’s designs and shut down factory workers’ pleas for safer conditions and better pay.

It was only right that the costumes of I Love Boosters matched the zaniness of Riley’s vision. Costume designer Shirley Kurata, who previously worked on Everything Everywhere All at Once, delivered, with a rainbow of monochrome outfits and even a fuzzy nude onesie. Kurata’s initial conversations with Riley started with color, from the hue of each Metro Designs store to the general “bright and colorful palette” throughout. But she had room to play around. “He really gave me the freedom to explore and experiment with the costumes,” the designer tells ELLE.

Kurata says her inspirations were “a mix of looks by designers with unique pieces I’ve admired, such as Comme des Garçons, Marc Jacobs, Thom Browne, Sergio Hudson, Victoria Yujin Kwon, Alina Ispas, Alice Wiggin, Leeann Huang, and Solene Lescouet, along with references of real-life images of Chinese factory workers and Oakland locals.” For Christine, she had “specific references of prominent female fashion designers and more avant-garde runway looks,” and even the 1964 film What a Way to Go! In one scene, Shirley MacLaine wears a black bathing suit against a monochrome pink background, which inspired Kurata to dress Moore in black “so she stood out in these colorful sets.”

Kurata estimates they had “probably over 600” costumes in total, from a myriad of sources. (One big runway scene had 300 extras.) “I sourced from pretty much everywhere possible since we had to find such specific color palettes: costume houses, thrift stores, fashion PR showrooms, online shopping, outreach to designers, and even fashion students and professors from SCAD Atlanta. Some of the custom pieces I made were Corvette’s turquoise dress, the ‘Smoveralls’ [Corvette’s original design], Sade’s gown, Corvette’s punk look, and Mariah’s nude suit with big nipples.”

The turquoise dress—Corvette’s signature color—was “pretty complicated,” Kurata recalls, “because it involved working with car upholstery fabric, which is a trickier fabric to work with, and Keke was also doing stunts wearing that dress and therefore required to wear a harness under it. Also, it was difficult finding the perfect shade of turquoise, as some read too aquamarine or teal. I think that was the hardest one to design.”

Of course, the looks didn’t end with the clothes. It was a collaborative effort between Kurata’s team and the hair and makeup departments, as bright glam, eye gems, and elaborate wigs complemented each outfit. Makeup department head Jeremy Dell recalls attending costume fittings with hair designer Jessi Dean to take notes, snap photos, and brainstorm. “We’re bouncing ideas off Shirley,” Dell says. “Shirley might have a makeup idea or a hair idea that might go with the look that she’s seen somewhere, and if we like it, we like it.” Kurata says they shared inspiration photos with one another and had daily discussions “to make sure all three components worked together cohesively.”

Dell estimates his team created “almost 1,000 looks” for the film, including those for the leads, background actors, models, and even some special-effects designs—his biggest undertaking so far. As for hair, Dean says her team used “an easy 100 wigs” throughout the shoot.

Each main character’s glam and hair reflected their unique personalities. Corvette, for example, is “always eating candy and she always has something to say. So my thought process on her was her arc and makeup is going to be lips,” Dell says. “I wanted you to pay attention to her mouth. So every single time you saw Corvette, she had some wacky lip color on.” And though her hairstyles change throughout the movie, her go-to look is a pixie cut, which Riley envisioned from the beginning. Dean even worked a little streak of turquoise into the style.

Meanwhile, Corvette’s best friend Sade had an Erykah Badu–inspired earthy look—think sunset-colored eyeshadow and eye gems—because “to me, Sade is her sun and her moon,” Dell explains. “She’s that girl that probably braided her hair herself and didn’t mind adding beads and various colors here and there,” adds Dean.

Mariah, the chill free bird of the group, had minimal makeup, save for some quirky flicks of eyeliner. Dean gave her a mullet to capture the character’s “funky flair.” Jianhu, who starts off bare-faced, begins wearing more makeup after she meets the girls. Her Asian-inspired glam included Harajuku and K-pop references, and her hair was styled in space buns, per Kurata’s suggestion. Eiza González’s Violeta, a shop employee and social justice warrior, had “more of an emo situation,” says Dell, with pencil-thin eyebrows and a nose ring.

The costumes get particularly exciting in a heist montage featuring the Velvet Gang in several costumes, hairstyles, and makeup looks, which they shot back-to-back over the course of a day. Dean recalls her team prepping various wigs for about a month and then finalizing each one for about 30 minutes on the day of the shoot. For one of Palmer’s looks, a certain floral headpiece didn’t arrive in time, so Dean’s team custom-made one themselves, fashioning real and synthetic fibers into flower shapes for a makeshift topper. “It was a lot of creating in real time, which for me was the magic of it all,” Dean says.

While the looks were out of this world, Dean also wanted to honor the real-life women who inspired the characters. “Growing up, I had clear visions of real-life boosters,” she says. “They were real people, and I just wanted to highlight that, I guess, in a sentimental way.” The hairstyles helped convey that onscreen, like they do in reality. “Hair helps to tell each individual story,” Dean says. “When hair is treated with intention, it always has something to say.”

I Love Boosters not only has fun with fashion but also looks at it critically. The film sheds light on the many forms of exploitation in the industry and capitalism at large: corporations ignoring factory working conditions and their employees’ well-being; brands taking advantage of communities of color either through outright plagiarism or racial profiling of shoppers; and the rising costs of clothes. Through additional characters, it highlights the struggles of retail workers, from short lunch breaks to being forced to buy their own uniforms without reimbursement. In one skin-crawling (pun intended) twist, the film even points to how these businesses serve people in power.

The laundry load of real-world issues can be depressing and overwhelming, especially when it feels like we must face them by ourselves. But Riley and I Love Boosters argue that the solution lies in community. As the end of the film shows, real change is made through collective action. It can be isolating to face our struggles on our own—take Corvette, who was so lonely she almost hooked up with a soul-sucking demon before realizing her friends were always there for her. It’s not about turning inward but reaching out.

Dell aimed to incorporate that message into the makeup as well. “I wanted it to show the community of it,” he says. “I wanted to show that each girl was representing something in themselves, something in their community, that they brought back to the situation.”

Kurata wishes that audiences absorb the same message—while enjoying themselves on this wild cinematic ride. “I hope that they take with them the power of self-expression with fashion, but tied to that is the social responsibility as consumers,” she says. “I also hope they take with them the power of the people and the need to unite to change the world for the better.”