NEED TO KNOW
Millie Bobby Brown’s sartorial senses were tingling.
The Emmy-nominated actress, 21, had hesitations about her character Eleven’s wardrobe selection for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, according to the show’s costume designer, Amy Parris.
The designer, who’s responsible for curating the hit show’s ’80s-inspired looks for the past several seasons, opened up to the New York Post about Brown’s reaction to the throwback look she chose for Eleven — and says she predicted the “reaction” it ultimately received.
“It’s funny, because I’ve been starting to get comments from people that are like, ‘Shorts over sweats?’ And I’m like, it was absolutely a thing in the ‘80s! I knew this would be the reaction,” Parris told the outlet.
Netflix
In the new season, Eleven is seen wearing a pair of tiny red shorts over light grey sweatpants. The combo on the bottom half is styled with a cropped grey sweatshirt and a bandana wrapped around her neck.
Parris didn’t just devise this outfit out of thin air. She was inspired by iconic ’80s characters for the reinvented look seen on Brown in Stranger Things season 5.
“A mix of Josh Brolin from The Goonies and then Punky Brewster, with her mish-mash of cut-up clothes that she just kind of grabbed as she went,” the designer explained in reference to the 1984 sitcom with Soleil Moon Frye as the titular character.
In The Goonies, Brolin’s character Brand famously wore workout clothes, including a red bandana and a cut-off grey T-shirt. He layered black shorts over grey sweatpants.
Gary Null/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty; Warner Bros./Alamy
In her defense, Parris also cited Stranger Things’ plot as a reason why Eleven’s fashion choices are the way that they are, specifically because the only other girl in the friend group — Eleven’s friend, Max (played by Sadie Sink) — is in a coma.
Eleven is “not thinking about fashion. Yet she’s made it as fashionable as she can,” Parris told the Post.
Layering the clothes, in particular, was a choice Parris “knew might bring a little reaction,” which ultimately included Brown.
“She saw the concept art originally, which I showed to [series creators] the Duffer brothers. And once we settled on an idea, we emailed it to her. I found out later that she had side-emailed them, like, ‘are you sure about this?’” revealed Parris.
Netflix
After Brown came in for the fitting to try on the costume, the designer recalled the actress joking, “‘I’m so glad I’m married!’”
The Enola Holmes actress wed Jake Bongiovi in 2024. They announced they adopted a baby girl in August 2025.
Despite Brown’s initial hesitations over Eleven’s costume, Parris thinks “she got into it” eventually.
“You know, once she saw how cute it looked on her. And it’s definitely a fashion risk for the time,” said Parris. “She got into it, I think, once she realized how comfortable it was, and how easy it was to put on.”
In early November, Brown and her Stranger Things costars kicked off the press tour for the final season of the series.
Bongiovi joined Brown at the Nov. 6 Los Angeles premiere, where the actress shared a few of her biggest takeaways from her decade in the fictional Hawkins, Ind., with PEOPLE.
Brown said that “probably the most amazing part about” being involved with the show since its 2016 debut is how she built a family with her cast and crew.
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The first four episodes of Stranger Things seasons 5 are currently streaming on Netflix. The next three episodes are set to release on Dec. 25, with the finale slated to air on Dec. 31, 2025.
