Pretty in Pink

Last night I went with some friends to see Pretty in Pink at the Alamo Drafthouse. After we had picked a location, but before we had bought the tickets, I explained that I envisioned us wearing a bunch of pink prom dresses. Surprisingly, none of them backed out!

I quickly went on the hunt for some thrift shop dresses. Any color too close to my skin tone tends to wash me out, so this pale pink was not ideal. (But there's always dye! More on that later...)

Oooh! Love the shape, but the color is even worse than the first one.

Then later that night, I was at the grocery store flipping through Short Hairstyles magazine.

Matt: There's a whole magazine about short hairstyles? 

Sarah: Yes, it's for every person like me who is growing out a chop and doesn't know what to do with it in the mean time.

And who was in the magazine, but Molly Ringwald herself? Well, her 1986 self, anyway. She looks great then and now, and I love her.

Me: Ooh, maybe a perm...

Then I put the magazine down, slowly backed away, and shook that crazy idea from my head. No need to travel down Perm Boulevard again.

I eventually found a perfect dress. Behold!

It was a couple sizes too big, so I had to bring it in a bit. (Sewing montage! During the actual dress sewing scene in the movie, my friend Yvonne leaned over and said, "It's like when Rocky does all that training." Yes. I love movie montages so much.)

I found the middle of the back and folded and sewed. Since the dress was poufy all over, I didn't need to worry about smooth lines too much. It still hung well.

I don't wear strapless tops, so I found a lacy shirt and dyed it fuscia and wore that underneath. Much easier than trying to create a neckline and sleeves. My sewing skillset includes one item: sew a straight line.

Here's how the whole thing turned out:

My kids were a bit put off by all that aggressive pink and my big, curly hair. (I'm wearing more hairspray in that picture than in the past several years combined.)
My outfit definitely leaned more Jem and the Holograms than Andie Walsh. For accuracy, my friend Janell, above right, wins the prize. The Pretty in Pink prom was a sea of pale pastels:

Check out that powder blue sleeve! It's the size of a pillowcase!
Also, did you ever wonder why Blane's nice wavy hair is so terrible in the final scene? It's because they reshot the ending, and he had already cut his hair for another role. It's a wig. An awful, terrible wig.
Also also, the number of ill-fitting sport coats in this movie is astronomical. These richies need to hire a tailor.

Fun bonus, Kendra Scott jewelry was a sponsor of the event, and I won a necklace by correctly answering a trivia question.

Here's something that blew my mind. You know when Blane approaches Andie and Duckie at prom and says, "I always believed in you. (Mumble) just didn't believe in me." I always thought he said "You just didn't believe in me," which is so rotten of him to pretend like he wasn't at fault for ditching her.
But apparently he says, "I just didn't believe in me." That is a pretty big distinction. I mean, he still needs to give her an actual apology, but at least he isn't gaslighting her like I thought.
Incidentally, three out of four of us last night had the same mis-hearing of that line, so perhaps the director should have asked for another, less mumbled take, right?

This is random, but in a post so full of pink formalwear, I feel I must acknowledge the incredible dress I wore to homecoming in 1991. Have I showed it before? Probably.

Pink metallic layers with a white satin cropped jacket. Sigh. I borrowed it from my friend Lisa, and I wish it were hanging in my closet right now.

If you have read all this and still want more Pretty in Pink, there are several "where are they now" articles floating around, since the movie hit 30 years old in 2016. Somewhere in one of them, they describe James Spader's character Steff as a "bouffant-haired Satan". Ha!
And here's a good piece on going back and watching it after developing a modern, feminist sensibility. Team Andie, y'all.