Pretty Woman (1990)

Pretty woman showed us that popular culture can make anything fashionable. A controversial subject matter about a prostitute being accidentally picked up by a wealthy businessman looking for directions, it was unknown how the public would respond to this movie. They liked it so much however, that even the car driven by Richard Gere soared in popularity and the Lotus Esprit’s sales tripled in the year following the film. For the ladies though, the real popularity of the film lay in the fashion.

This movie is a true princess fantasy, a down-and-out woman, being rescued by a very rich and powerful man and catapulted into a life of glamour. We sympathise with her when, in her cheap and trashy clothes she walks into a designer shop on the fashionable Rodeo Drive and gets turned away by the shop assistants, but when she is treated to a new wardrobe full of glamorous classic, timeless clothes, every girl turns green with envy.

The peach suit she wears by the pool when her friend Kit comes to visit, the polka dot dress she wears to the polo match complete with large brimmed sunhat, the little black cocktail dress she wears to impress friends and business associates of Gere’s character, and the red dress. That dress needs no explanation. It’s the real “cinda-fuckin-rella” story.