Dress for the part, Clueless-style
Monday, September 8, 2014 at 9:01AM
Continuing our Back to School week...
Hey all, Manuel here, reminding you that when it comes to prepping for back to school fashion, Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) has had an app for that, even before Apple ruled product placement in Hollywood.
The year is 1995 and I remember watching Cher open Clueless by telling me that she actually has a “way normal life for a teenager.” She gets up, she brushes her teeth and she picks out her school clothes. So far so good. Except then we get a shot of her touchscreen (!) computer where she has her entire closet digitized (!). Way normal? As if!
This was mind-boggling to me. Not only because my “pick out school clothes in the morning” routine was restricted to making sure my uniform was nicely ironed (yes, I always looked on with envy to these American high school movies where kids were allowed to wear whatever they liked, never bothering with ties or blazers as I did), but because it seemed like a scene more at home in the Jetsons than in a teenage remake of a Jane Austen novel. This little scene, meant to index Cher’s wealth and fashion sense, works also as a wonderfully prescient scene about our digitized and app-ready world. (So much so that in 2014, Iggy Azalea's take on Cher's closet organizer looks quite at home in a tablet, while the world has finally created an app rivals Cher’s own! #ShareYourCher)
Needless to say, I could have used Cher’s fashion software. By the time I was a college freshman I barely had any idea how laborious choosing a collegiate-ready outfit could be with no school-approved shirts and grey pants to choose from. Last thing I wanted to be was a “fashion victim” let alone “ensembly challenged.” For if there’s something to be learnt about the fashion in Clueless is that it isn’t merely a cosmetic addition to one’s personality, but it can function as a confidence booster. It’s not the clothes that make the woman, of course, but a yellow plaid ensemble can go a long way.
Cher's outfits are truly things of late 90s beauty, it's almost hard to pick a favorite, but I've always loved that first ensemble; which one of hers do you love the most? Do you have a first day of school ensemble you still remember fondly? Or one you don't quite understand what you were thinking when you wore it?
Reader Comments (6)
I probably need my whole wardrobe computerized because I feel like i only wear 3 things. And i own more than that.
Love that Clueless foresaw the touch screen madness
I have blocked high school, undergrad and most of grad school so I have no idea what I wore.
But I do cherish a Willi Wear shirt I bought from Willi himself. Still wear it too (Pun intended.).
My favorite Cher dress was the white (I think it was Calvin Klein) that upset her dad.
It really is boggling how well Clueless holds up. Every time Amy Heckerling releases a new movie I get my hopes up, but it seems so far like it was more lightning in a bottle.
At any rate, CLUELESS FOREVER. I wanted to be Cher so bad when I was younger.
Catholic school kid here. Once I graduated from high school, I had no idea what was considered proper attire to wear to class. I basically lived for four years in a yellow sweatshirt until I wised up in my senior year of college.
Margaret - I know! All her follow-ups have been so disappointing.
I love this movie so much. I can watch it anytime and enjoy it.
Yeah, I get the tribute, but (even as a non-fan of Clueless) it's just so freaking out of place with the lyrics it's accompanying. I'd buy her doing a pantomime of one of Harley Quinn's break-ups with the Joker more than I'd buy a Clueless tribute with those lyrics.