Practical Magic outfits come from three different wardrobes in one family. Sally Owens wears plain knits, jeans and long skirts. Gillian wears slip dresses, velvet and jewellery that looks collected. The aunts, Frances and Jet, wear vintage layers, lace gloves and hats. To wear the look now, pick one character and build from real clothes, not a costume.
That is closer to how the 1998 film was dressed than it sounds. Its costume designer, Judianna Makovsky, told ELLE that Gillian's famous green velvet slip dress started life as a designer piece from Fred Segal that "was made badly and didn't fit Nicole", so her team took it apart, recut it, changed the fabric and re-dyed it. Gillian's other slips were vintage or by Dosa, and the aunts wore Indian fabrics and coats remade from cut-up clothes. Twenty-eight years later, Sandra Bullock told Bustle that the skirt she wears in the sequel's opening cemetery scene is "the same skirt I wore in the first film". These were clothes people kept.
Key Takeaways
- Dress as one Owens woman at a time. Sally is understated (the only one in jeans), Gillian is the sister who goes out, and the aunts are eccentric vintage.
- Green is the thread: Sally's look began from a sweater with green velvet leaves, and Gillian's best-known dress is green velvet. One green piece is enough.
- Frances dresses darker and more tailored, Jet softer and lighter. Lace gloves and a shawl carry either.
- Practical Magic 2 opened in US cinemas on 11 September 2026, and Bullock reused her original skirt in it.
- Most pieces here stop at L. The black sweater reaches XL, the floral dress XXL and the black tulle gown 2XL.
What makes an outfit look like Practical Magic?
A Practical Magic outfit looks lived in rather than styled. Soft knits, long skirts that move, slips worn on their own or layered, and jewellery that seems to have arrived one piece at a time. The three wardrobes below show how far apart those pieces can sit.
The colours are earth and forest more than black: moss and bottle green, cream, violet, brown, with black kept for the funeral and for evening. That makes it a softer witch than most gothic guides describe, nearer to whimsigoth than to the graveyard. Our black gothic dresses guide covers the darker end if that is where you would rather start.
The fastest way to wear it without looking dressed up is to choose a character and stop at three pieces. A whole scene recreated head to toe reads as a costume; one sister's habits, worn on an ordinary day, do not.
Sally Owens: knitwear, jeans and a long green skirt
Sally is the sister who wants a quiet life, and her clothes say so. ELLE reports that Makovsky made her the most understated of the women because she wants to "be a normal person", which is why she is the only one in jeans. Her look began from one of Makovsky's own knits, a Blumarine sweater with leaves worked in green velvet.
Start with a plain black knit. The Black Sweater is a classic crew-neck jumper with an easy drape, priced $37.04 for XS/S and $51.99 for M to XL, and shown on a 167 cm (5'6") model in S. Over your own straight-leg jeans it is Sally on a school morning, and it is the piece in this guide you will wear most.
For the long skirt, the Moonlit Garden Skirt is a green chiffon maxi with black florals, a high waistband at the natural waist and an ankle-length hem that flares as you walk. It sells at $44.99 across S, M and L. ELLE notes that in one scene Makovsky put both sisters in Dries Van Noten maxi skirts, and a long printed skirt with a plain knit tucked in is the version of that you can wear to work.
For a second daytime look, try a floral dress with a knit over it. This black floral slip dress is a short black polyester dress covered in small pale flowers, with thin straps that cross at the neck and a flared skirt, 66 to 70 cm long. It costs $31.02 in S and $34.51 in M, L, XL and XXL. Pull the black sweater over it and it reads as a floral skirt; add opaque tights and lace-up boots for October.
Shop the long skirts and floral pieces in our Fae Garden collection.
Gillian Owens: slip dresses, velvet and a tiger's eye
Gillian is the sister who leaves town and goes out. Makovsky described her to ELLE as "a bit of a bad girl" who "likes to party", but still from a family of women who garden and make potions, so her look kept "a little bit of a hippie nod". Kidman's own references were Stevie Nicks and Marianne Faithfull.
Her clothes are slip dresses worn with very little else. The Nightshade Bloom Dress is the Stevie Nicks end of that: a bias-cut maxi in violet chiffon with a marbled wash, a ruffled neckline and a ribbon tie at the centre. At $69.99 (S, M and L), it takes a cardigan by day and bare arms and boots after dark.
What about Gillian's green velvet dress?
The green velvet slip is the best-known dress in the film, and we do not stock it in green. The film's version was itself a remake: a shop-bought designer dress that did not fit, cut apart and re-dyed until it did. The shape is what matters, a short velvet slip on thin straps.
The Black Butterfly Velvet Dress is that shape in black: sleeveless, on thin straps, above the knee, printed with small pale butterflies. Prices run $31.02 for S and $31.44 for M and L, and the listing prints the measurements, from 71 cm at the bust and 63 cm long in S to 79 cm and 65 cm in L. Bring the green in with your jewellery or a green skirt on another day.
The necklace
ELLE reports that Gillian's tiger eye necklace, like the sisters' other jewellery, came from shops on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. A single stone on a cord is the wearable version. Our Gemstone Crystals pendant comes in 18 stones, Tiger Eye among them, at $30.78; the point is 3 cm long on a zinc alloy fitting. If a crescent suits you better than a stone, our guide to moon and star jewellery shows what we stock.
The aunts: Frances and Jet
The aunts are the most theatrical dressers in the film, and also the easiest to borrow from, because their signatures are accessories. SYFY WIRE lists parasols, lace gloves and wide-brimmed hats, high-necked black mourning dress for the funeral, and luxurious pyjamas for the midnight margaritas in the kitchen. Makovsky told ELLE that besides vintage, "we used a lot of Indian fabrics or clothes that we'd cut up and remake into coats".
The two women are not dressed alike. Pick one.
Frances: darker, more vivid and tailored
Frances (Stockard Channing) likes to be noticed, so ELLE says her clothes were darker, more vivid and tailored; SYFY adds black gloves and a gold lamé outfit with a 1970s feel. Her everyday version is a fitted black top with drama at the cuff.
The Vesper Blouse has a mock neck, puffed shoulders, bell sleeves laced with ties and a tonal cross on the chest, in black, at $49.99 in S, M and L. It is high at the neck like the aunts' funeral black, and fitted enough to tuck into a long skirt. Add the Dark Lace Goth Gloves, floral lace to 39 cm up the forearm, fingerless and laced with satin ribbon in the photos, for $19.99.
Frances also wears her jewellery large. The Emerald Butterfly Regalia Necklace is a green enamelled butterfly over gold chains, cream pearls and green teardrop stones, at $24.99. It is a lot of necklace, which is the point.
Jet: lighter and older vintage
Jet (Dianne Wiest) is, in ELLE's words, "stuck in the past", so she wears more obviously vintage pieces in lighter colours; SYFY gives her white gloves. Her version of the outfit is pale, layered and soft.
Jet's skirt is the Verdant Enchantment Skirt: white eyelet lace laid over a watercolour floral in sage green and cream, with an asymmetric hem and a green waist tie hung with amber, green and white beads. It is $73.99 in S, M and L. Across the shoulders, drape the Moth Priestess Scarf, a see-through violet mesh triangle with a pair of embroidered butterflies and a long lilac fringe, $39.99 in one size. Shawl, beads and a long pale skirt is Jet without a single literal reference.
What about the Practical Magic 2 wardrobe?
Practical Magic 2, directed by Susanne Bier, opened in US cinemas on 11 September 2026 (Box Office Mojo), and finished first on its opening weekend with $30 million from 4,146 North American cinemas, as Variety reported. The one costume detail on record so far is Bullock's: she brought back her own skirt from 1998 for the opening cemetery scene, per Bustle. As far as that goes, the sisters' clothes carry straight on from the first film.
The pieces in this guide are not official film merchandise and are not tied to either film. They are clothes that suit the way the Owens women dress.
The Owens house, in homeware
Search for the Practical Magic aesthetic and most results are about the house: the kitchen, the glass jars, the long table. You can take the mood home without recreating a set.
The Hanging Witch's Cauldron is a small ceramic and enamel cauldron that hangs over a tea light to melt scented wax, for $29.71. The Witchcraft Mug, a black cauldron-shaped mug on three short feet with white lettering, is $19.99 and the right cup for a late night at the kitchen table. Our gothic homeware guide and the home decor collection have the rest.
Practical Magic outfits in plus sizes
Most of the clothing on this page stops at L. Better to know that now than at checkout. These go further:
- The Black Sweater: XS/S, M, L and XL.
- Black floral slip dress (linked above): S to XXL.
- Garden of Shadows Gown: XS/S to 2XL, $89.99. A long black tulle gown embroidered with small flowers, with a corset-style bodice and ties at the arms. It is the aunts' evening black and Gillian's florals in one dress.
- Accessories (the gloves, the shawl and every necklace above) are one size.
The Moonlit Garden Skirt, Verdant Enchantment Skirt, Nightshade Bloom Dress, Black Butterfly Velvet Dress and Vesper Blouse come in S, M and L and nothing larger. For a wider choice, see our plus-size collection and the plus-size goth fit guide, which lists where sizes stop garment by garment.
Ordering in time for a film night
Our shipping policy puts dispatch at 4 to 8 business days from payment (weekends and holidays not counted), then estimates 4 to 12 days in transit, 30 at most. Added together at the slow end, that is close to four weeks, so for a film night or a party on a set date, order about a month ahead.
Where Practical Magic sits in 90s witch style
Practical Magic (1998) and The Craft (1996) are the two films usually meant by 90s witch style, and the Owens women are the softer, inherited end of it. Our 90s goth fashion guide places both films in the decade, and our guide to building a witchy outfit shows how to put any of these pieces together for work, a weekend or an evening.
If you liked dressing as a character, Morticia's long black gowns and Lydia Deetz's lace and red work the same way: one figure, a few real pieces, nothing that needs explaining.
