Welcome to a Working Girl’s Fantasy

The Movie: “Picture Perfect”

The Setup: An ambitious working girl, Kate (Jennifer Aniston) thinks she has to scheme for success in love and at work.

The Look: A mid-level Manhattan advertising agency employee would never actually play dress-up quite like Kate does. By day: thigh-high hemlines on her flawlessly form-fitted sleeveless dresses and tons of dreamy Prada handbags and shoes. By night: sexy Italian bustier dresses with bead-encrusted handbags. For starters, she could never foot the bills.

“It takes years to save up for a Prada bag, much less three or four,” acknowledges costume designer Jane Robinson (“Rambling Rose,” “A Handful of Dust” and the current “Out to Sea”). But movies with clothes worth envying are hard to come by, and Aniston’s Kate provides plenty of old-fashioned movie glamour. So while it’s true that real New York working women on their way up wear black suits and tights, Robinson just exhales, “Deathly boring. My job was to serve Jennifer and not be slavish to reality. I was also trying for her not to look like Rachel [Aniston’s ‘Friends’ alter ego.] We are doing a sleek New York look. This is cinema.”

The Shopping List: Much of Aniston’s wardrobe came from stores we know and would like to be able to love. Yes, there are the clunky Prada sandals, high T-straps and bags, the snakeskin pumps and coordinating bag from Stephane Kelian, the Calvin Klein beaded white evening purse and a green glass-beaded pouch from Barneys New York. The red Kelly bag is a knockoff of the Hermes classic.

For the office, Kate wears jackets by Dries Van Noten and Christian Lacroix’s Bazaar line. The Vivienne Tam butterfly-embroidered long-sleeved black mesh shirtdress Kate wears in the opening date-from-hell scene was originally short-sleeved, but Robinson thought long was “more New York,” so she reworked the sleeves.

Robinson added top stitching to a shaped black office dress picked up for Kate at a chain store. And a red dress Kate wears when her big presentation turns into an emotional catharsis was found on sale at Talbot’s for $49.

“It was the most fabulous Venetian red,” says Robinson, though the dress didn’t fit: “We had to completely take it in, lift it at the shoulders and re-cut the back.”

Scene Stealers: For those party scenes when all eyes had to be riveted on Aniston, “nice little dresses, like a Tocca” simply wouldn’t do, Robinson says. Besides, Aniston has a body “like an Italian movie star--very voluptuous.” Robinson designed her Versace-esque lime green lace bra dress from fabric that cost “less than $30.”

And Kate’s delicate, nude leaf print number was a Prada that the designer shortened from knee length to mid-thigh. “Longer didn’t work on her. It just hit her in the wrong place. I wanted it slightly longer; she preferred it shorter.”

Jenniferisms: Aniston doesn’t care for pantyhose or stockings, and not a pair appears in the movie on her frequently revealed legs. She wears her father’s Rolex watch throughout.

And for a hot date scene with Kevin Bacon, exposing a flash of bra beneath a white ruffled silk shirt was the actress’s idea--just because she felt it looked pretty.