#58: Stacey's Choice
Lazy ghostwriter alert: no outfits in Chapter Two. The below is as good as it gets.
"But Claud and I have the exact same taste in clothes and fashion [they do?], and very similar interests. We are both sophisticated and trendy. I know I sound like I'm bragging, but everyone says this about us. [Sigh.] We keep track of the new styles, and we wear tights and boots, baggy tops, and big jewelry. Claud likes hats, and often wears one, and we experiment with makeup and accessories. We experiment with our hair, too, especially Claudia."
Meh. Here's my outfit, which is perhaps even more boring than the above paragraph: an oversized heathered grey sweater, dark blue Hudson triangle pocket jeans, a bronze two-strand beaded necklace, and a vintage antique gold necklace with a hippie girl charm. I'm also wearing last night's eye makeup. This is FASHION, people.
Sorry I don't have an alligator barrette in my hair. I felt it would clash with the leftover eye makeup. I'll make it up to you with some cover analysis.
This scene occurs immediately after their shopping trip (don't get too excited, they don't get all the way to the Washington Mall). They sure seem happy, don't they? Do you think it's because Jessi and Mal weren't able to come?
Mary Anne looks adorable. I don't know why she felt she needed that haircut. Claudia is wearing cowboy boots, black leggings, and a necklace that she may have gotten at a Prince concert. Kristy felt like a sassy glimpse of calf would complete her ensemble, judging by the cuffed jeans. Stacey looks vaguely simian. Is she suffering from some sort of oversized head/shrunken leg disorder? Is this a side effect of all those insulin shots? Dawn looks like a ray of sweetness and light wrapped in cotton candy. I wonder if she knows that all the hairspray she used on those teased bangs is terrible for the ozone layer.
"We dragged ourselves away from the jewelry and finally (after stopping to look at hair accessories and knee socks) wound up in Junior Dresses.
'Here's a nice one,' said Mary Anne. She held out a plaid dress that maybe a grandmother would look okay in, but not me.
I shook my head.
Dawn pointed to a floral-print dress. [God, what is it with Dawn and floral prints?]
I shook my head. 'I need something wild.'
'Not too wild,' Mary Anne cautioned. 'Not for a dinner with your dad.'
'I'll find something,' I said confidently.
We wandered through Bellair's for nearly an hour. Claud bought a pair of black-and-white checked leggings [I'd prefer to think she bought these . . . or maybe these!]. Mary Anne bought a hair ribbon. Kristy made fun of a two-thousand dollar brooch."
Kristy would be so fun to shop with, guys! I bet it would be like shopping with my boyfriend, who asked me if the $114 jeans I was salivating over would do the dishes for me, too. (They don't, but they make my butt look great. Which is almost as good.) Then I reminded him how much money he just spent on his new car, and he shut up.
"In all honesty, I didn't expect find quite such a challenge at Zingy's. Putting together the perfect outfit there took a little longer than I'd planned. But I did it. (I think I drove the saleswoman crazy in the process, though.) By the time I left I was carrying a shopping bag in which were folded a hot pink (fake) silk jacket which fell to my knees, new black leggings, pink-and-black socks, and a black body suit [Won't the leggings give her some serious pantylines when paired with the body suit? Or is she planning on wearing it on top of the leggings? Don't bodysuits typically have snaps at the crotch? That seems inappropriate.]. I planned to wear the outfit with black flats, and to dress it up with some jewelry and maybe a couple of barrettes in my hair.
When Claud saw me in the final combination of clothes (standing next to a chair piled high with discarded jackets, pants, tops, and socks), she drew in her breath. 'You look fabulous. It is the perfect outfit,' she said."
Well, I suppose she would know. I'm still perplexed by the whole body suit/leggings combination.
I've retained a troubling amount of information about books I read during my childhood.
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23 comments
LOL, I completely remember that cover, and I can even remember my 9-year-old self being personally offended that they had depicted my gorgeous Stacey as a total butterface. (Claudia was "my" Claudia too, btw. I was very territorial at age 9). Didn't the ghostwriters know someone was going to one day devote a blog to their crazy outfit ideas? I'm a little offended for you that they didn't give you more to work with.
And yeah, I can't really figure out the bodysuit with leggings either. I know I wore them together (as a 6-year-old or something), but I don't think I was really aware of the world's VPL issues at that point in my life.
by Robyn S. on 4:27 PM. #
Stacey in that pic always kind of freaked me out. It's the one they use in pretty much all the mini pic of her, too. I hate the way it looks like she's leering.
by Sadako on 4:41 PM. #
Right, but the pink jacket falls to her knees, so presumably if the leggings are worn over the body then the jacket will hide the VPL.
I really forget the plot of this one, is it where Stacey has the option to move back to NYC with her dad?
Stace was always my favorite character, and her birthday was April 3 - a day after mine! Besides Boy-Crazy Stacey, in which the outfits are truly to-die, is the one where she has the diabetic attack from eating fudge at the Johanssen's and has to be in the hospital. As I remember it she got some really great presents in that one.
by lljljljljj on 5:32 PM. #
Your blog is probably the only blog I actualy READ. When I first found it I spent all day reading old posts, and my dad would stare at me weird every time I cracked up out of the blue.
SO POST MORE OFTEN.
by Alani Catleya on 6:30 PM. #
" I bet it would be like shopping with my boyfriend, who asked me if the $114 jeans I was salivating over would do the dishes for me, too. "
Heh. My husband is of a dirtier mind. Whenever he perceives something is overpriced, he says "for that amount of money it better give me a blow job too!"
by nikki on 8:57 PM. #
Speaking of bodysuits and leggings, here is a visual aid, to demonstrate just how wrong this combination really is.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/02/26/article-1254078-08503324000005DC-694_233x437.jpg
It looks..frightening.
by Jean on 9:05 PM. #
Stacey has acromegaly here, to go along with her diabetes.
I had a weird dream the other night, in which I was writing a "BSC - The College Years" series. My Stacey was visualised as Blake Lively. She and Claudia had, of course, moved to NYC where Stacey is interning at a magazine and Claudia is attending art college. Stacey takes ecstasy for the first time (she can't binge drink due to her diabetes) and shags some hot guy in the nightclub bathroom. Claudia gets drunk, goes red in the face because she's Asian (and lacking the aldehyde dehydrogenase gene - I do it too) and picks up a nerd guy.
Somehow my dream went even more wacky and Stacey morphed into Serena van der Woodsen. She was rocking a very nice one-shouldered Grecian dress that may have been made of awning fabric.
by cerebral e on 9:56 PM. #
I really hope the socks weren't pink and black striped.
And why was it important to mention that the pink silk jacket was fake? I mean, in the BSC world, Stacey's parents have bought her full ensembles from Harrod's in London so I think they can spring for the real thing in Stonybrook.
by Heather Taylor on 10:00 PM. #
Hot pink and black? Sounds like something Avril Lavigne would carry for "her" line at Kohl's...
@uglygirl: I want to read more of those BSC College Years. Get on it! :)
Olive
www.VisforOlive.blogspot.com
P.S. - How do you know when it's a ghostwriter and not Ann herself?
by Anonymous on 1:06 PM. #
Blake Lively is SO Stacy McGill: The College Years.
by text machine on 1:54 PM. #
Uglygirl - start that fanfiction STAT!
by nikki on 9:26 AM. #
Claudia looks straight off of Lookbook on this cover aiiieeee
by Melanie on 12:04 AM. #
i know i once wore stirrup pants over a bodysuit (a paisley turtleneck that snapped at the crotch) but the pants weren't so tight like leggings...not one of my more fabulous moments of fashion :(
by Kate Spears on 12:59 PM. #
A bodysuit and leggings? Heaven help her when she needs to take bathroom breaks.
by fantasylover12001 on 11:09 PM. #
The entire dynamic of the "whole gang" going shopping, despite their contrasting style (or lack thereof, ahem, Kristy) is spectacular. It's series like these that gave me a totally unrealistic view of what my BFFs would be like for the rest of my life. I still don't understand why I don't have "the girls" over every day after school-slash-work to eat hidden candy and admire our perms.
Now that I'm on the search for my own Mary Ann, Kristy and Claudia (that means I'm Stacey! www.mwfseekingbff.com), its fascinating to see just how many early influences shaped my vision of friendship.... So either, thank god for the BSC, or goddamn the BSC!
by Rachel on 7:48 PM. #
I'm actually wondering if, because of the whole snap-crotch thing, she's wearing the bodysuit over the leggings, '80s jazzercise-style.
It's Stacey, so I really wouldn't be surprised.
by Unknown on 12:40 PM. #
I've never understood why that pic of Stacey is the one they use in the "thumbnail" for the new editions. Maybe because it's so weird that it could be distinguished from Dawn?
by rachael on 4:44 AM. #
About the bodysuit & pantylines issue: the best I can discern is that she plans to wear the leggings over the bodysuit, and the jacket on top.
Although she could go with the bodysuit outside, a la Gaga, inappropriate crotch snap or no.
Kitten a.k.a. PT Lover
http://ptlover.tumblr.com
by Unknown on 10:25 PM. #
I just discovered this blog today! I love the BSC Fandom and this blog has the prefect touch of nostalgia and snark!
Can't wait to keep reading :)
by Melissa Douthart on 3:59 PM. #
Stacy does look simian and it's been pissing me off since I first saw this cover when it was originally published! And then they went and put it in the BSC calendar that year, which my Aunt gave me for Xmas, and for a whole month I had to deal with it! I still have some of stickers it came with though so it was worth the irritation!
by Former Teenager on 11:29 PM. #
I remember this being my favorite outfit Stacey ever wore. Now I can only think about bodysuits and leggings. Sigh.
by Unknown on 4:26 PM. #
brilliant brilliant post - i loved the way you put yourself in the story.
i am so glad i found your blog! you've provided me with a lot of laughs tonight :)
by Carly Findlay on 8:04 AM. #
A bodysuit + leggings? She'd better be on her way to jazz dance class, not a nice dinner with Dad. And faux silk? I hope they weren't going anywhere candlelit. Major fire hazard alert.
by Libellule on 2:42 AM. #