Christmas Movie Dress Advent Calendar Day 11: Zooey Deschanel in ELF

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Yesterday, a holiday sorceress! Today, a manic pixie dream elf. In director Jon Favreau’s Elf, Zooey Deschanel plays Jovie, who works unhappily at Gimbels department store as a mall elf. She meets Buddy, the human raised by Santa’s elves and, after a series of comic misadventures settles down with him in domestic elf bliss.

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It’s onscreen only for a minute, at the very end of the film, but it’s so cute, so Christmassy and so easily understood that there was no way we’d not include it here. There’s no real hidden message or meaning here. She’s dressed in an elf costume because she married an elf and she’s visiting her elf father-in-law in Santa’s Village. The fit is slightly awkward and her own performance indicates that she’s not used to dressing this way. One of the things we always appreciated about these costumes is how well they avoid Christmas cliche. No one’s in red and green. In fact, this dress contrasts nicely with the cheap mall elf costume she wore earlier in the film. Of course, any Gen Xer would recognize these outfits immediately. Costume designer Laura Jean Shannon cheekily lifted their designs entirely from Rankin Bass’s 1964 production of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer; a savvy bit of generational yuletide nostalgia snuck into the film to the delight of its Gen X viewers.  The silver crinolines are an adorable touch.

Next up: An elegant but creepy Christmas Lady!

[Photo Credit: New Line Cinema]

• Costumes
• Elf
• Movie Advent Calendar
• Movie Costumes
• New Line Cinema
• Warner Bros. Pictures
• Zooey Deschanel