Stranger Things Season 5 Does Millie Bobby Brown Dirty In One Way That Is Too Hard to Ignore
Spoiler Alert !!!
This article contains major spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1.
Eleven’s look in Stranger Things Season 5 is getting almost as much attention as the storyline itself, and not entirely for the right reasons. The moment she showed up wearing shorts pulled over sweatpants, fans were instantly divided. Even the show’s costume team hinted that they expected reactions to this new direction. And considering even Millie Bobby Brown did a double-take, it is clear this outfit was always going to spark conversation.
Stranger Things Season 5 will be dropping in three parts. Volume 1 was released on November 26, 2025, and Volume 2 will be out on December 25, 2025. A final standalone episode will close out the series on December 31, 2025.
Millie Bobby Brown’s El Short Look Is a Little Too ‘Strange’
Eleven’s new outfit in Season 5, those unmistakable shorts pulled over baggy sweatpants, immediately caught fans off guard. It is not that the show has not experimented with her style before, but this particular look feels… a little too strange, even for Stranger Things.
The choice was not random, though. Amy Parris, the show’s costume designer since Season 3, revealed that she knew Eleven’s updated wardrobe would stir reactions. According to her, the shorts-over-sweats combo was inspired directly by real ’80s fashion references and slightly awkward silhouettes that kids actually wore back then.
Parris intentionally leaned into that “unpolished” look because Eleven is still someone who dresses for practicality rather than style. She even said she expected people to question it because it was not meant to be a traditionally cool or flattering outfit, but an era-accurate, story-accurate one. She told The New York Post,
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It’s funny because I’ve been starting to get comments from people that are like, ‘Shorts over sweats?’ And I’m like, it was absolutely a thing in the ‘80s! I knew this would be the reaction.
And even Millie Bobby Brown herself was not completely sold at first. As Parris further revealed,
She saw the concept art originally, which I showed to [series creators] the Duffer brothers. And once we settled on an idea, we emailed it to her. I found out later that she had side-emailed them, like, ‘are you sure about this?
When she saw the costume concept. But the team stuck with it, and Brown ultimately understood the reasoning behind the deliberately awkward style.
So yes, the look might be questionable, and yes, it’s absolutely caused a stir, but it was not a mistake. It was a creative decision meant to ground Eleven in the messy, imperfect reality of the ‘80s. Whether fans agree with it or not… that is the part that is getting loud.
What Will Happen to Eleven in Stranger Things Season 5 Vol 2?
Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven on Stranger Things | Credit: Netflix
As Stranger Things Season 5 heads into Volume 2, all eyes are naturally on Eleven, especially after the way Volume 1 set the stage. We already saw her regain her powers and get pulled right back into the chaos of Hawkins, but things are clearly only going to get messier from here.
She is reunited with her ‘sister’, Kali, from season 2, one of the children who were experimented on by the government. This changes everything for Eleven as she does not have to fight the fight alone anymore. With Will gaining powers and Kali by her side, it is surely not looking good for Vecna.
Nevertheless, knowing the Duffer Brothers, they might have a devastating plot point waiting for the fans that can be more gut-wrenching than we ever thought. Are you excited for the next Volume? Let us know in the comments below!
Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.
