Off Campus’ Costume Designer Weighs In On “Boy Hot” Vs. “Girl Hot”

Off Campus has officially taken up permanent residence in my mind. My shopping carts are now filled with academia-chic staples, and I’m about to become G-Flip’s No. 1 Spotify listener with “Bed on Fire” on repeat. But more than the ’fits, soundtrack, and hockey boys, I can’t help but replay certain scenes in my head — particularly the strategic choice for Hannah to dress “boy hot” and not “girl hot.”

In Episode 2, Hannah and Garrett commission Allie’s help to find a dynamic duo costume for Dean and Beau’s joint birthday party, revealing that they’re faking a relationship to catch Justin’s attention. When Hannah suggests going as Beetlejuice’s main couple, Garrett shuts it down, saying she needs to dress “hot.” Hannah fires back, “Not all women want to get dressed up for the male gaze.”

Allie serves as the discussion’s tiebreaker, agreeing with Garrett: “If you want to get Justin’s attention, we have to be ‘boy hot,’ not ‘girl hot.’” The result? Hannah dresses up as a “puck bunny” — in a white corset, pleated shorts, and bunny ears — to Garrett’s approval, shock, and delight.

That single scene was enough to stir up the chronically online. Across TikTok and Reddit, users are deeply dissecting the conversation. Some corners of the internet argue that labeling an outfit as strictly “for the male gaze” oversimplifies the complex, personal reasons behind what people choose to wear. But on the show, the dynamic isn’t just an abstract theory; it’s a deliberate plot point. The reason everyone is obsessed with this conversation is because it puts a name to something we usually only dissect in the group chat: What is the actual dividing line between dressing for yourself versus dressing to catch a guy’s eye?

Bridging those two ideas is exactly what the Off Campus wardrobe department set out to do using a classic cinematic blueprint. Costume designer Charlene Akuamoah reveals that the team looked directly to Elle Woods to strike the right balance.

“We really leaned into [that concept] for the bunny costume, with that nod back to Legally Blonde, where she’s still so sexy and so beautiful, but even with girls seeing it, it’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, she’s hot,’” she tells Bustle.

For Akuamoah, defining “boy hot” and “girl hot” comes down to intent and who the look is meant to serve. “Girls, we dress for ourselves. We dress to feel sexy for ourselves,” she says. “Whereas with boys, it’s like, ‘Oh, they’re dressing hot.’ That’s what the plot was working towards. This is what we think guys think is sexy. With girls, we have a totally different idea of what we think is sexy and how we feel empowered in the way that we dress.”

“We wanted to have a showstopper look for her. We wanted her introduction to the audience and the gossip column to really be eye-catching.”

Hannah’s beauty look underwent an equally deliberate shift to match the new outfit. According to makeup artist Leah Ehman, the character’s usual screen time is defined by an almost completely bare “good girl” face. But for the joint birthday party, Ehman took direct visual inspiration from Garrett’s usual harem of puck bunnies to deliver a major statement moment. “We wanted to have a showstopper look for her. We wanted her introduction to the audience and the gossip column to really be eye-catching,” she tells Bustle.

That required leaning directly into the “boy hot” vibe. “Boy hot is ‘Wow, she’s hot. I want to know her.’ So there’s more suggestive tones added to that look,” Ehman explains. By contrast, she notes that “girl hot” beauty is defined by the technical mastery women appreciate: “Something more along the lines of the techniques and the products that they use.”

At the end of the day, TikTokers and Redditors will likely keep fighting over the nuances of ~the gaze~. But Off Campus made its stance clear: Sometimes a total wardrobe plot twist is exactly what it takes to shatter a character’s comfort zone — and give our real-world group chats something new to obsess over.