Pretty in Pink

That dress. Molly Ringwald in that prom dress, the one Duckie’s mother made—hot pink, excessive, homemade in the way that screams love and desperation at once. The film’s entire aesthetic lives in that contradiction: the rich kids’ casual cruelty, the poor kids’ gorgeous, elaborate effort. What struck me rewatching it wasn’t the romance (though there’s something there about wanting what seems impossible) but how much care went into making broke look beautiful. The thrift-store cuts, the layered jewelry, the way Andrew McCarthy’s boyfriend haircut costs nothing but attention. Duckie’s outfit is the real proposal in this movie—not the prom but the commitment to looking like yourself when yourself is all you have. That’s what the whole thing is really about, I think. The clothes are where the class war actually happens.