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PHOTO: Lili Reinhart at The Love Hypothesis premiere at Columbia University’s The Forum on Sept. 16, 2026, in New York. (Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)
If you’ve ever delved into BookTok, you probably know movie executives have too. Since BookTok “unofficially” launched in early 2020, film studios have adapted viral titles like Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us and Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation. Ali Hazelwood’s romance novel, The Love Hypothesis, is the latest BookTok hit to get the Hollywood treatment. Leading up to the film’s release, its star, Lili Reinhart, who plays Olive Smith, a Ph.D. candidate who fake dates Professor Adam Carlsen (played by Tom Bateman), made her mark on the press tour by using her outfits to pay homage to rom-com staples like How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days.
Breaking out in the CW teen drama, Riverdale, as Betty Cooper, Reinhart is no stranger to creating online buzz. She has starred in films like American Sweatshop and Forbidden Fruits with The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Lola Tung. And on TikTok, Reinhart has accumulated over 7 million followers, gaining notoriety in 2024 for her ASMR reviews of Crumbl Cookies.
Since The Love Hypothesis premiered on Sept. 23, it debuted as the number one movie on Amazon Prime Video in 49 countries on its premiere day, per FlixPatrol, and its current Rotten Tomatoes score is 75% as of Oct. 4.
Although the film’s current success could be attributed to the book’s pre-established popularity alone, Reinhart’s press tour looks, coupled with her star power, provided a boost by executing a strategy movie marketers have utilized over the last few years called “method dressing.”
What is “method dressing?”
A term first coined by former Vogue writer André Wheeler in 2024, “method dressing” is a practice where a film’s aesthetic or theme is infused into looks for the film’s press tour.
Zendaya’s long-time stylist, Law Roach, explained the practice in a similar way, telling Vogue Adria that method dressing produces looks that are “an extension of the wardrobe of the movie.”
Taking a movie’s theme and turning it into fashion is not new. The first noted example of “method dressing” came in 1992, when Geena Davis wore a baseball-inspired dress to the L.A. premiere of sports comedy, A League of Their Own. Another example is Glenn Close’s Cruella de Vil costume at the N.Y. premiere of 1996’s 101 Dalmatians, which saw the actress slip into a black and white wig, elbow-length black gloves, and a blood-red cloak in a major callback to the villain.
Over time, however, “method dressing” has become less on-the-nose and more frequent, with celebrity stylists finding intricate ways to channel a film’s theme, tone, plot or overall vibe into its stars’ fashion.
During the press tour for 2014’s Maleficent, Angelina Jolie honed in on the titular character’s dark wardrobe by wearing a black Atelier Versace gown at a private screening of the film in England and a second black Atelier Versace Gown at the film’s Hollywood premiere.
Scarlett Johansson and Brie Larson also jumped into “method dressing” at the Avengers: Endgame Los Angeles premiere. Both actresses wore infinity stones as jewelry to promote the film’s central plot.
More recently, stars like Zendaya have taken “method dressing” to a whole new level, with the Emmy-winning actress using the motif of spider webs to promote Spider-Man: No Way Home in a Valentino spider web dress and a matching black mask at the film’s L.A. premiere.
For Dune: Part Two, the Euphoria star paid homage to the film’s futuristic setting with her press tour looks, including a Thierry Mugler full-body suit of armor. Likewise, for the actress’ role in The Odyssey as Athena, Zendaya channeled an ethereal goddess.
Halle Bailey took a similar route, serving major “mermaidcore” vibes with her press tour looks, including a shimmering Valdrin Sahiti gown, for The Little Mermaid.
And, of course, who can forget Margot Robbie’s press tour looks for the Barbie movie that were straight out of the Mattel doll’s own catalogue? Teaming up with stylist Andrew Mukamal, Robbie brought looks worn by actual Barbies to life, including 1992’s “Totally Hair” Barbie and 1960’s Solo in the Spotlight Barbie.
Like Robbie, Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo embraced the color palette of their characters, with Grande (as Glinda) wearing pink and Erivo (as Elphaba) wearing green ahead of the film’s theatrical release. At an appearance at the 96th Academy Awards, Grande wore a bubbly pink Giambattista Valli number and Erivo rocked a green Louis Vuitton dress.
Winners and losers of “method dressing”
With every risk comes a potential reward, and most gambles with “method dressing” have led movies straight to box office gold. Barbie grossed $1.4 billion worldwide, while Dune: Part Two made more than $715 million worldwide and the 2026 Summer blockbuster, The Odyssey, accumulated $1.75 billion worldwide as of Oct. 1.
On the success of “method dressing,” Numéro Magazine’s digital editor-in-chief Léa Zetlaoui speculates that because the practice invites fans to decode the significance of each look through Easter eggs, allowing it to continue as a foolproof way to engage fans.
Despite this outlook, not everyone is loving “method dressing.” In a 2026 article, CNN Senior Style Reporter Rachel Tashjian called out the practice for being too gimmicky and the equivalent of simply putting some of Hollywood’s finest in costumes.
This criticism holds some weight. Although there have been several successful “method dressing” press tours, some have fallen flat.
While promoting Madame Web, Dakota Johnson wore a predictable sheer spider web dress at the Vogue Brazil Ball. It apparently was not enough to capture interest from audiences, and coupled with some harsh words from movie critics bashing the film for its poor dialogue and other structural deficiencies, Madame Web ended up becoming a box office flop. Madame Web grossed only $26 million during its first six days at the box office, according to Deadline, giving it the lowest box office opening of a Sony’s Spider-Man Universe film until Kraven the Hunter.
Masters of the Universe suffered a similar fate despite Camila Mendes’ efforts to increase interest with her take on “method dressing.” Donning three different gowns during the film’s European press tour (including a white Anna October gown paired with metallic heels and blue contacts) that were supposed to capture her character’s strength as a warrior, even Mendes could not save the film from accumulating just $54 million opening weekend against a budget of $200 million per CinemaBlend.
What Lili Reinhart got right with “The Love Hypothesis” press tour?
Rolling the dice and opting to take on “method dressing” for The Love Hypothesis’ press tour proved to be a winning formula for Reinhart and her stylist, Ib Abdel Nasser. Talking to Marie Claire, Nasser explained that the goal was to highlight the “amazing stories and amazing women” that came before Reinhart in the rom-com sphere.
This meant paying homage to iconic rom-com ladies like Kate Hudson, with Reinhart slipping on a butter yellow dress inspired by the one Hudson wore in How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. But the tributes did not end there. From Drew Barrymore’s gown in Ever After: A Cinderella Story, Keira Knightley’s emerald green number in Atonement, Jennifer Garner’s polka-dotted jacket from 13 Going on 30, to Sandra Bullock’s lilac bandage dress from Miss Congeniality, Brittany Murphy’s Blumarine dress from Uptown Girls, and Elisabeth Harnois’ pink velvet dress from My Date With the President’s Daughter, Reinhart and Nassar brought the nostalgia.
However, Nassar refused to make the press tour all about homages. In an interview with ELLE, Nassar said he also wanted Reinhart to have her own style moments with Y2K-inspired dresses, which included a 2001 Emanuel Ungaro gown and a 2004 Eli Saab pink and green gown.
This mix of both well-known dresses and Y2K pieces worked its magic. Not only were Reinhart’s homages approved by the rom-coms’ original stars, including Drew Barrymore, who gifted Reinhart a signed VHS tape of Ever After: A Cinderella Story on a Sept. 25 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, but some of fashion’s toughest critics—TikTok creators—praised Reinhart’s press tour.
In a TikTok video, user @theefashionmix applauded the press tour for being “creative and high fashion” while also aesthetically promoting The Love Hypothesis. In another TikTok review, user @lexiliciousme said Reinhart “killed it” with her looks and helped pique the creator’s own interest in seeing The Love Hypothesis for themselves.
With Reinhart’s “method dressing” paying off for The Love Hypothesis amid news that a potential sequel is on the horizon per Deadline, it appears “method dressing” is once more a prominent marketing tool that, for better or worse, keeps on working.
