Despite Abysmal Reviews, ‘Zoolander 2’ Hits One High: Fashion

Ben Stiller as Derek Zoolander and Owen Wilson as Hansel in a walk-off scene in Zoolander 2. (Photo: Everett Collection)

The reviews are in for Zoolander 2, and to quote fashion expert Tim Gunn, the film did not “make it work.” The New York Times called it a “discarded remnant of the Austin Powers franchise.” The Los Angeles Times said, “You may smile at times, but not as often as you’d like.” And NPR compared the viewing experience to “being the plus-one at a Hollywood party where the guests are all blasted on synthetics.” Yet despite its 19 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the sequel to the 2001 sleeper hit still has two saving graces: one being the extraordinary fashion and the other being the woman who made it all happen, Leesa Evans.

While the original Zoolander was a satire of the fashion industry, the second installment’s in-with-the-in-crowd. Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour inducted Ben Stiller and his cast of kooky characters into her tribe, opening doors for Evans, who has designed costumes for some of the biggest comedy hits of the past decade, including Trainwreck, Bridesmaids, Neighbors, and more.

Inevitably, with an introduction to fans at a Valentino runway show in Paris Fashion Week, fashion would play an important role in Zoolander 2. And for Evans, the Los Angeles-based stylist who works with Amy Schumer, collaborating with the likes of Hedi Slimane, Olivier Rousteing, and Marc Jacobs was a dream come true. “You know what: I had such an amazing time because so rarely do you get to do fashion in film,” she tells Yahoo Style.

Flexing her fashion muscles, Evans opens up about her close collaboration with some of her sartorial idols, how to dress a super-sexy spy, and how the characters’ aesthetic sense has changed 15 years on.

Yahoo Style: In your previous films, the fashion has been more subtle, but it’s definitely very overt in Zoolander 2.
Leesa Evans: Yeah, I think it was something that I always wanted to do, but those opportunities don’t come along that often, so I feel incredibly grateful that Ben [Stiller] asked me to work on the film. I love fashion, I grew up in fashion, and I’ve always been a huge fan of some different fashion designers so it was a perfect opportunity.

Stiller and Wilson in character at the Valentino grand finale during Paris Fashion Week last February. (Photo: Getty Images)

So you got to meet and collaborate with a bunch of these people?
Yeah, it was really great because obviously we were filming in Rome, so just by the fact that the Valentino designers, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, have their atelier in Rome, that was first and foremost the most supportive design house that was involved in the film. But of course Hedi Slimane from Saint Laurent and Olivier Rousteing from Balmain, Marc Jacobs, and different people really wanted to be involved in the film, and it was a lot of collaboration.

To the outside world, fashion is so serious, but Zoolander has been able to show that these designers really do have a sense of humor.
There’s such a serious business to doing their collections each year, and how they’re viewed based on what the runway reviews were, so they had an opportunity to do all of the fun and the fashion without the pressure of its also needing to be business savvy. So I think that everyone really just took the opportunity to just be whimsical and allow the fashion to just be fun and artful, and that was great.

How have the characters changed in 15 years?
Hansel’s character has been traveling all over the world, and he has picked up something interesting from everywhere he’s been, so he has this very eclectic, kind of bohemian tone to his fashion and anything from very high end designers, Dries van Noten and Haider Ackermann, to something like vintage Indian kurtas and authentic jewelry.

That must’ve been really fun for you to source.
It really was because I think that when you look at what’s the most interesting cultural fashion piece from each country and see it from that point of view, I really enjoyed putting his look together as equal parts authentic and equal parts couture. I think it was incredibly fun.

What about Zoolander’s aesthetic?
Derek has always had a flair for head-to-toe dressing. And he continues that into this film, but he has a bit of a high-end designer affiliation and there’s sort of theme dressing. So, for instance, in one of the trailers, you see that they’re going on a boat to the fashion prison, and so there’s a nautical theme there. And when he goes undercover to the basilica, he has this very spy-trench-coat look.

What does a female superagent who’s very fashionable wear, and how did you come up with that?
Well, Penélope [Cruz] is wonderful to work with, and she’s so gorgeous, and we really had fun with things that were meant to be very serious, Interpol fashion … but at the same time to push the envelope to make it just so formfitting that it was undeniably drop-dead gorgeous.

Penelope Cruz as Valentina in a red leather onesie. (Photo: Everett Collection)

I imagine a lot of leather and latex.
Yes, well her red leather moto suit was made by Costume National, and we really had fun collaborating with Ennio Capasa, the designer, because he just got it right away. He knew what it needed to be, and we sort of collaborated on sketches back and forth, and we made it to match the motorcycle and it was really fun.

So it was kind of an equal mix of you making custom pieces with designers and sourcing?
Exactly. Sometimes what we would do is we would go out to someone, like in the instance of Costume National, and ask them to collaborate with us on a particular scene. And we would try and showcase each designer at different moments so that you could feel that it’s a particular designer’s collection. There’s a scene where there’s an orphanage, and the entire orphanage was supported by Valentino, so the nuns, the schoolmarms, and the teachers are all dressed in Valentino, so you really feel a sense of their work.

I’ve definitely not had this amount of collaboration, and I think the thrilling part about it was that everyone was so keen to come onboard and support the film and they felt really safe in knowing that we were wanting to showcase their artistry — so it’s a dream job. I think that for contemporary fashion, you don’t have the opportunity to do that very often in film because not very many films need that caliber of fashion. And if you do it, it takes you out of the character so much of the time … In [Zoolander], fashion is really a character in the film, so you can kind of push the envelope.

Kristen Wiig as Alexanya Atoz in Zoolander 2. (Photo: Everett Collection)

It’s actually super-interesting that this kind of experience is coming through in a comedy.
Yeah, I agree. And that’s where the fine line comes in, because what you see on the runway is meant to be art and oftentimes those things aren’t wearable on the street. So to take something from the runway then to the real-life world of these characters in the film, it can be quite comedic just in that alone. So it’s really been so much fun to have the opportunity to balance the comedy and couture.

It seems like Kristen Wiig’s character really embodies that the most.
Her character is meant to be just so outrageous that she can’t sit in any of her outfits. She can’t go through the door in most of them because the sheer size and volume of the fabric and outfit is just so large.

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