Maisie Williams Keeps Pulling Sandra Bullock Looks for Practical Magic 2
At the London premiere and the next day’s photocall, Maisie Williams wore two custom looks tied to Sandra Bullock’s 1999 and 2006 red-carpet outfits. The clothes do quiet work for the sequel: they make the family line visible before Practical Magic 2 opens on Sept. 18.
Maisie Williams spent the Practical Magic 2 rollout dressed like she had gone straight into Sandra Bullock’s old red-carpet closet. People reported that Williams arrived at the London premiere on Wednesday, Aug. 26, in a custom burgundy Ellie Misner gown that echoed Bullock’s 1999 Forces of Nature premiere look, then repeated the idea at Thursday’s photocall with another black dress tied to Bullock’s wardrobe. For a film reader, that matters because the sequel is not selling itself as a clean break. It is selling inheritance, and Williams is wearing it.
A Bullock Look Lands in London
The premiere brought Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, Joey King and Williams into the same frame, which already tells you the movie knows how to use a public room. Page Six said Williams chose a deep oxblood gown by British designer Ellie Misner, and the shape was built from pieces Bullock wore with much less ceremony in 1999: a boat-neck top, a skirt, and a simple red carpet line that Williams turned into a corseted bodice and a draped train.
I have a weakness for this kind of red-carpet echo. It gives the evening a little memory without making the new actor disappear inside the old one. Williams kept the comparison clear but not dead-on. Page Six noted the dress came with a ruby-toned Bulgari necklace, while the first People report said she also wore a ring and choker. That is where the money and the polish sit here: in the custom dress, the jewelry house, the extra height from Christian Louboutin, the bag from Roger Vivier. The look was not thrown together. It was built to point back.
Photo: Justice for the Beholder of the Harvester of Blackened Straw · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
What the 1999 Dress Asks of Williams
The part of this story that interests me most is not the nostalgia. It is the job Williams has been asked to do with it. She plays Antonia Owens, Bullock’s on-screen daughter, and the costume choices make that relationship visible before a line is spoken. In a sequel like this, the clothes are not decoration. They are a piece of the casting.
According to People, Williams and King were already talking in July, at Teen Vogue Fest on July 25, about drawing from late-1990s red carpet looks. King said the film’s clothes lean hard on 1990s fashion, with lace and airy colors. That fits the title, the cast, and the public face of the movie. Practical Magic has always sold a mood as much as a plot, and this press tour seems ready to keep that bargain alive.
