Lili Reinhart's Stylist Turned 'The Love Hypothesis' Press Tour Into a Love Letter to Rom-Com Fashion

When Lili Reinhart and her stylist, Ib Abdel Nasser, started brainstorming her press tour style for The Love Hypothesis, they quickly rejected method dressing. In the film, based on Ali Hazelwood's popular romance book, her character, Olive Smith, is a biology PhD candidate at Stanford University who wears a lot of lab coats; neither felt that “science couture” was the way to go.

“Her job doesn't define her,” Nasser tells Marie Claire. “She's a scientist, but at the end of the day, it's a love story.” Inspired by our coverage of the former Marie Claire cover star's black De La Vali dress in October 2025, “Lili took the idea of rom-com dressing and ran with it,” he says. “We created a Pinterest board titled, Rom-Com Baddie.”

After coming upon an image of Sandra Bullock in a lilac Hervé Léger bandage dress in Miss Congeniality while doing research, Reinhart and Nasser landed on their theme: fashion homages to the leading ladies of rom-com films from the ‘90s and early 2000s. They later expanded the theme beyond comedy to include romance films like Ever After and Atonement. “Imagine sitting through Atonement and coming out of that and being like, ‘Oh my God, that was the best rom-com of my life.’ Please.”

They kicked off the press tour with one of the most iconic dresses in rom-com history: the silky butter yellow slip worn by Kate Hudson in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. While Carolina Herrera custom-made the original open-back design for the 2003 film, New York-based brand Caché released a recreation “right after the movie came out, when everybody wanted this dress,” Nasser says. “[They] came to the rescue and gave the girls what they wanted for prom.”

After finding one on Poshmark, Nasser enlisted Tatiana the Tailor. They transformed the Caché dress into a closer version of the original gown, lowering the straps and adding a waistband as their "gift to Brazil," where Reinhart wore the look for a fan event.

After setting the bar high, Nasser dressed his star client in a custom Rodarte gown, inspired by Drew Barrymore’s Danielle de Barbarac in Ever After: A Cinderella Story.

The 1998 rom-com was Reinhart’s favorite movie growing up: “She had a VHS of it that she watched pretty much every day, and it's actually what made her fall in love with period pieces,” Nasser says. Before the Germany screening, the Riverdale star frolicked around an actual castle in a sweetheart-neckline gown with gray tulle and silver embroidery.

In London, Reinhart paid tribute to Keira Knightley’s emerald green gown in Atonement, because “[you can’t get] a more iconic British movie than that,” Nasser says. Plus: “It is the dress,” he says, laughing.

Against the backdrop of Soho Hotel’s romantic library, she exuded 1930s elegance in a custom Tory Burch dress, delicately draped and knotted out of peridot Japanese jersey. (To appreciate the cinematic close-ups, visit Nasser's Instagram.)

Nasser and Reinhart kept outdoing themselves on The Love Hypothesis press tour in NYC. After the premiere, he tracked down the polka-dotted Nanette Lepore jacket that Jennifer Garner wears in 13 Going on 30. Violet Savage, the daughter of the New York-based designer—and the protector of her archives—told Marie Claire it was “the only copy” of the Spring 2003 style.

Less than a day later, Reinhart went full Miss Congeniality mode in a remake of the Hervé Léger bandage dress that Bullock models (in slow motion, of course) after the famous makeover montage. Nasser knew the rom-com’s costume designer, Susie DeSanto, scored the skintight lavender mini dress off-the-rack, so he was confident he could find the look.

It proved to be harder than he imagined. The stylist searched for five months: “I collect designer vintage myself, so I love the adrenaline rush, but [I] could not find that dress to save my life,” he says. So, he reached out to Hervé Léger. Obviously, the New York brand “could have made it exactly the same, but we didn’t want this to be Halloween.” To modernize the homage, Reinhart’s halter strap and the bands around her bust were a bit thicker.

For the final screening on the eve of the release, Reinhart paid a tribute to 2003’s Uptown Girls. Nasser didn't source the actual dress worn by the late Brittany Murphy, but it was the exact same Blumarine Spring 2002 style. “We couldn’t leave NY without paying homage to one of the most iconic leading ladies and NY movies there ever was,” Nasser says on Instagram.

Raffe Vintage's founder Nikki Alexa Reynen connected him with Rebe Archive, a UK-based brand that has previously worked with Zendaya, Margot Robbie, Kim Kardashian, and more. Rebe Archive loaned the look to Reinhart, who showcased the midi dress’s nude sequins, 3-D floral embellishments, and asymmetrical skirt in a pre-flight photoshoot.

“A genuine dream dress since the day I first saw it when I was 7 years old,” the actor shared on Instagram. “The way Brittany wore it—and the magic she brought to Molly Gunn—made it unforgettable.”

Just when fans thought Reinhart’s homages were over, she arrived at the L.A. screening in Miu Miu’s custom reimagining of the pink velvet dress from 1998's My Date With the President’s Daughter.

Originally, Reinhart and Nasser planned to spotlight the bubblegum-pink piece in a photoshoot, but they wanted to “end the press tour on a fun note.” It was a “casual screening,” Nasser says, even though their “one last homage” was anything but laid-back. Seeing the scoop-neck mini dress on a modern-day It girl like Reinhart made millennial dreams come true. Even her strappy black stilettos matched the heels that Elisabeth Harnois's Hallie Richmond wore while shaking off her Secret Service agents.

And just like that, one of 2026’s most memorable press tours has ended. “This, from the beginning, was all about women,” Nasser says. “That's why she's doing this. [The press tour] is just a continuum of a long tapestry of these amazing stories and amazing women that have come before her.”

Still, some spectators had opinions, accusing them of “stealing from other rom-coms” and calling their press tour looks “unoriginal or uninventive." Nasser rebutes this: “Lili does have her own style. She is making her mark on fashion. She's not just copying rom-coms.”

In fact, most of the rom-com or romance homages were reserved “for fan events, because, you know, we are fans, [too]... [and] she wanted to give them something to be excited about." For instance, at the more formal premieres in Brazil, London, and New York City, the actor wore a vintage Roberto Cavalli gown (courtesy of the celebrity-beloved archival boutique Raffe Vintage), an Emanuel Ungaro Spring 2001 dress, and an Elie Saab gown—one of her “favorite dress[es] of all time"—from Spring 2004 Couture that had nothing to do with rom-com dressing.

In addition to believing that people aren't paying attention, Nasser says the criticisms are discrediting the “talented people, artisans, and creatives” who brought each look to life. “It took a lot of time, a lot of effort, and there's going to be haters, but we aren't doing this for them,” he says. “We're doing this for the people that see what we're doing and love what we're doing.”