The new Elle Woods isn’t afraid of some Mirchi

The press tour for Elle, the upcoming prequel series to Legally Blonde, has started and if the looks are anything to go by it’s clear that Elle Woods is still that fashion girl. The biggest piece of evidence? Lexi Minetree, the actor who plays a young Elle as she navigates high school, was spotted this week in an all-blue ensemble created by India’s buzziest homegrown labels: Mirchi by Kim.

For the launch of her Cosmopolitan cover in New York City, Minetree wore the brand’s Farah skirt and dupatta with a custom-made top. Styled by Molly Dickson, she finished her look with the Sam mini tote from Kate Spade—a ‘90s It-girl essential—and silver platform heels from Aldo.

“I’m super excited. It feels almost surreal,” says Kimaya Singh, founder of Mirchi by Kim, over the phone about seeing her designs on Minetree. “Obviously, Elle Woods is an iconic character, and all our pieces are very Elle Woods-coded. I’m just grateful that it’s reaching the right audience.”

Founded by the former model-turned-self-taught designer in August 2024, Mirchi by Kim is just under two years old, but has built a loyal following for its playful, beaded, high-colour pieces: tops, skirts, party dresses, and most memorably, an embroidered ‘Blue Lays’ bag that did the rounds online.

The sourcing request came about a month ago, when Dickson’s team emailed the brand requesting pieces for the series’ press tour. “We’ve known about Molly Dickson since we started, and we sent her something when we had just launched,” Singh says. “We were so small then and were just trying our luck, shooting blanks, you know.”

Surprisingly, the team wasn’t looking for a custom look. “We were obviously willing to create something from scratch, but they liked the pieces from the collections themselves,” she says, adding that along with pieces from Mirchi’s first three collections, they also sent the team a bunch of embroidered jeans that Minetree apparently loved.

When the actor finally chose the sparkly blue skirt, the brand made a custom top in the same shade to go with it. “It’s been a really quick turnaround,” Singh says. All of Mirchi’s pieces are hand-embroidered at their studio in New Delhi. And yes, the look also included a dupatta—a detail that feels especially noteworthy at a time when the garment has been a hot topic online for being rebranded as a “Scandinavian scarf” and being separated from its South Asian context.

For Singh, the conversation is less about gatekeeping who gets to wear it and more about whether its origins are acknowledged. “I’ve always loved seeing cultures inspire one another. Fashion has always travelled across borders, and I think that’s the most beautiful thing about it,” says the 27-year-old designer. “If you think about it, Indians in India love dressing people from other cultures up, getting bindis and bangles on them. As someone who grew up in India, it’s exciting to see people from all over the world appreciate and wear elements of our culture. The important part is definitely giving credit where it’s due. You know, wear it and have fun with it. But just understand that these pieces have a rich history and they’re rooted in generations of craftsmanship, culture, tradition.”

Recently the brand held a month-long pop-up in New York and Singh recalls a customer who fell in love with the same look and asked if it was a scarf. One of her interns explained that it was a dupatta. “She was really interested and listened intently. And then, she posted a video about it on TikTok saying, ‘It’s not a scarf, it’s a dupatta.’” That, for Singh, is the point. “If more people discover Indian craftsmanship and the stories behind all these traditions because they fell in love with something, I think that’s something to celebrate,” she says, adding that it’s likely we’ll be seeing the dupatta in a lot more places.

The New York pop-up also confirmed Mirchi’s international moment is just beginning. “It was amazing. We wanted to do a lot more, but we sold out pretty much everything in the first couple of weeks.”

Next up, the brand is headed to Nantucket and the Hamptons for pop-ups in July, followed by Europe in August. Mirchi has also just dropped a new collaboration: a bag created exclusively for Veronica Beard that will retail on their website and brick-and-mortar stores. “It’s been in the works for really long and we’re super excited about it,” she says.