Stylist Enrique Melendez Recounts Jenna Ortega’s Style Evolution
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For celebrity stylist Enrique Melendez, working with Wednesday star Jenna Ortega has evolved over the years. “Honestly, at the beginning of her career, we kind of followed a blueprint, so to speak,” Melendez said. “Zendaya, what she was doing. Selena Gomez, Dove Cameron, Sabrina Carpenter … They all had a show on Disney, and they kind of followed a business model.” As Ortega got older, Melendez worked with the actress to transform her style. “As we started spending more and more time together, she started booking different types of roles, and I think we just kind of explored what her actual personal style was and also what she would gravitate to in wearing on red carpets and press,” Melendez said.
On the latest episode of The Who What Wear Podcast, Melendez shares what it’s like styling Ortega’s press tours for the hit Netflix show, how styling a red carpet look versus a press junket look differs, and more. Watch the episode here, or to find excerpts from their conversation, scroll below.
How did you guys start to figure out what her true style was?
Honestly, at the beginning of her career, we kind of followed a blueprint, so to speak. Zendaya, what she was doing. Selena Gomez, Dove Cameron, Sabrina Carpenter… They all had a show on Disney, and they kind of followed a business model.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
I think, as she got older, everything that we were wearing wasn’t representative of who she was, as she was obviously discovering herself, and I’m discovering new things about her as we started to work together.
As we started spending more and more time together, she started booking different types of roles, and I think we just kind of explored what her actual personal style was, and also what she would gravitate to in wearing on red carpets and press, and stuff like that.
I think Wednesday was the first time we really had a full-on press tour.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
No one knew what a hit [Wednesday] was going to be when you were preparing for press for season one. You very much knew what a hit it was when you were preparing for season two press. What did those conversations look like? What was the strategy like? What was the planning like?
Jenna [Ortega] is like family to me, and I was like, “I just don’t want to disappoint her in this first fitting,” you know? At the end of the day, I was like, “What are we going to do?” I don’t like to bombard her with questions because she was filming another project, and I know she’s paying attention to that. I’m like, “We’ve done the black and the lace and the sheer. I don’t want it to be boring when I go into this fitting with her. I want her to feel like something new.” Obviously, all of those elements—black and lace and all of those—make sense. I’m like, “There has to be another way to kind of capture the essence of the Tim Burton world.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
I just started pulling away anything that kind of inspired me. A week before, I’m about to fly to London to have this large fitting, and she’s like, “Hey, what are you thinking for this Wednesday tour?” I’m like, “I love that you reached out because I want to know what you’re thinking.” She’s like, “Well, I just want to feel mature. I don’t want to feel like a child. I’m really feeling this ’90s world.” Just ’90s-inspired clothing in her personal closet. I just started doing some major edits. At that point, I was like, “All right, cool. Kate Moss, Christina Ricci, Winona Ryder.” And old editorials with them, and they still captured the essence of goth, but in a glam way.
(Image credit: Netflix/Rachel Louise Brown)
How do you think about the strategy for [when] it’s a press look, it’s still a major moment, but it’s not the red carpet?
I think Jenna [Ortega] put some pretty hard parameters when it comes to that, I think, which I love. I know that when I’m pulling for a smaller press moment that sometimes my crazy ideas don’t make sense for this. I really kind of stay in super chic. Again, I go back to her personal style, which is clean lines, simple. That ’90s aesthetic. Carolyn Bessette Kennedy kind of. She loves just simple, statement (not even statement) foundational pieces. That’s just her vibe.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Argent
Soho Trouser in Herringbone | Ash
Agolde
90s Pinch Waist Rigid High-Rise Straight-Leg Jeans
Elisa Johnson
Lyric Leigh Sunglasses
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
