A hypercolor archetype of 80s teen fashion, Valley Girl‘s costumes are still, like, totally tubular.
The plot for 1980s high school comedy Valley Girl basically goes like this: Nice suburban girl Julie (Deborah Foreman) falls for wrong-side-of-the-canyon rocker Randy (Nicolas Cage), her gaggle of friends disapprove, convincing girl to dump rocker dude who turns on stalker-mode to win her back. Couple reunites at the prom. Romance ensues. Credits roll. It’s the same basic Romeo and Juliet theme (Get it, Julie and Randy?) that was typical of teen-dream films throughout the decade; from Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful to Karate Kid, the bourgie-meets-outcast love trope is well-worn. But Valley Girl, released in 1983, was the first and the most fun. A period-perfect snapshot of the early-80s Valspeak, big-hair, mall culture born in California’s San Fernando Valley, the film’s killer New Wave soundtrack, raunchy make-out scenes, and slap-stick humor set it apart from all the angsty, sappy flicks that followed it.
A huge part of the Valley girl’s free time was spent shopping, making malls like the Sherman Oaks Galleria and Del Amo Fashion Center (where parts of the movie were filmed) the social scene’s ground zero. So the clothes played a much bigger role in Valley Girl than they did for its peers. The wardrobe reflected teen fashion trends at the time — high-waisted jeans, jumpsuits, and hypercolorful separates — and was also used to create a division between the preppy Valley clique and the Hollywood club kids. Julie’s ex-boyfriend and his jock buds almost uniformly wear popped-collar polo shirts, contrasting with Randy and pal Fred, in their new wave-y red and black togs and two-tone hair. Julie’s gang mostly sticks to sporty pink, purple and aqua, but Julie separates herself by also wearing Victorian lace blouses and earth tone knits and denim.
‘The Carrie Diaries’ costumer, who just can’t seem to get 80s fashion right, should watch Valley Girl and take notes.