Jenna Ortega Pays Tribute To Lydia Deetz — In Thom Browne, Naturally

Leave it to Jenna Ortega to put fresh spins on method dressing that don’t feel tired quite yet. On Aug. 19, Ortega made the rounds in New York promoting Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the upcoming sequel to the 1988 original Beetlejuice, in a quartet of outfits, the most compelling of which was a Thom Browne-designed send-up to Lydia Deetz, her cinematic mother.

Tim Burton stans were quick to recognize the replica ‘fit based on a look seen in the original movie: an academic cardigan with a gold wreath insignia, a cropped white oxford shirt, and a pleated plaid skirt. Ortega’s take skewed more high fashion, with Thom Browne’s signature high-heel mary-jane brogues in gray and white. She completed the look with a bag that nodded to the movie’s Handbook For The Recently Deceased, which was cheekily updated to read “Handbag For The Recently Deceased,” custom made by handbag designer Ozias Paris.

While many of her other outfits have indirectly channeled the goth princess aura of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, this stylish tribute to Winona Ryder’s character shows her and her stylist Enrique Melendez are, in the words of Lady Gaga, “not afraid to reference or not reference” — even if she’s just stepping out of her black car on a humid August afternoon in New York.