If you’re anything like me, you grew up reading and watching the beloved Hunger Games franchise. From the action to the love story and the powerful female lead, “The Hunger Games” has everything young minds are drawn to. 

With the new movie, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” being released in theaters this Friday, the world of Panem and the 13 districts takes center stage once again. 

The new film, a prequel to the original film series, follows a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) as he mentors his first tribute, Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) through the 10th annual Hunger Games. 

An important part of these stories is the eccentric fashion of the capital city of Panem. The upper-class citizens in the Capitol show their wealth with loud colors, fluffy wigs and sometimes even surgical modifications. 

Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), Katniss and Peeta’s Capitol escort, is a prime example of the frivolous style. In each movie, she is sporting a new hair color paired with over-the-top makeup and clothes. The other characters poke fun, but ultimately, she fits in with the rest of her city.

In an interview with E! News, Banks said that costume designer Trish Summerville, sourced many of the looks from right of the runway, many of which were from designer Alexander McQueen. 

In one of her most iconic looks, Trinket is seen during the reaping ceremony of the second film in the series wearing a dress from Alexander McQueen that is constructed out of 10,000 hand-painted feathers, made to look like individual butterflies. 

The dress, which comes from Sarah Burton’s spring 2011 collection for McQueen, was recently featured as one of the close-up shots promoting this year’s Met Gala and Costume Institue theme announcement, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” 

According to Hello, Tailor, Trinket represents the “huge chasm between Katniss’ life in the impoverished District 12, and the thoughtlessly cruel frivolity enjoyed by the people who dwell in the Capitol.”

“The Hunger Games” is known for being a social commentary and brings up numerous issues regarding class, power and war. According to an article from Medium, Suzanne Collins said her novel “tackles the desensitization of violence.”

Recently, Capitol fashion has been particularly scrutinized as representing our reality with how celebrities dress for award ceremonies and events and in some cases there are uncanny similarities between the two worlds. 

Celebrities are dressing in over-the-top looks, spending tens of thousands for these garments, while most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, almost mimicking the relationship between the Capitol and District 13 portrayed in the films.

“The fashion choices are sometimes so outlandish that it’s hard not to wonder if we’re all just unwitting participants in some dystopian game show,” said Nathan Chen in an article for Medium.

On a more positive side of celebrity fashion, the cast of the new film has been channeling their inner Hunger Games at the premiere of “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” several of the actors wore outfits inspired by looks from previous films.

Rachel Zegler, who plays Lucy Gray Baird in the new movie, wore a dress inspired by the iconic Katniss Everdeen Mockingjay dress that was seen in the second movie “Catching Fire,” and although Zegler’s dress doesn’t literally catch on fire, it is the perfect homage to Jennifer Lawrence’s iconic character. 

Hunter Schafer, who plays Tigris in the new movie, wore an eccentric Schiaparelli Haute Couture dress that was clearly heavily inspired by Capitol fashion, where her character resides in the film. 

The dress, designed by Schiaparelli designer Daniel Roseberry, was meant to look as though it was painted directly onto her skin. Each piece of the dress was designed by hand to fit perfectly beside one another, which the brand dubbed as a “trompe l’oeil body” effect, according to W Magazine. 

“The Hunger Games” stories have been a part of popular culture since the 2000s, inspiring young readers and fashionistas everywhere and are continuing to influence the world of pop culture in 2023.