Cry Baby, Grease and Imitation of Life - Good Girls Gone Bad

Cry Baby - Good Girl Allison falls for Johnny Depp in John Waters 1990 film 

This weeks dresses are the gowns of the good girls and the bad girls of rock n roll movies.

Sugar coated almonds, Neapolitan ice creams and care bears cut with black lace, bust hugging bodices and heels to cause a serious injury. Just to dip our toes in the genre our good girls gone bad this week are Sandy in Grease, the Cry Baby girls, Sandra Dee and Susan Kohner .

Pastels can sometimes be tricky to stomach on their own without a good amount of styling to lift the sickly sweetness into something a little more sophisticated. We all really want to be a little bad! But if you've fallen in love with that lemon yellow prom dress or the blush pink coat, adding a splash of contrasting colour with hair accessories, a belt or even just bright red lips can make it more impactful.

Our favourite rocknroll bad girl Traci Lords as Wanda Woodward. We think she'd eat Rizzo alive!Cry Baby John Waters 1990 

And doing it better than Grease, Good Girl Allison turns bad with a Prison tune in a glittering red dress. Cry Baby John Waters 199

 If you haven't watched Cry Baby yet it's like a bad ass Grease on hard liquor with gutsy, gutsy characters.
Staring Johnny Depp and Iggy Pop alongside a pregnant teenage Ricki Lake, the fabulous Traci Lords and playing Hatchet Face the inspiring Kim McGuire 'the girl with a good body and an alarming face who is proud of it'.
The styling is legendary in the rock n' roll world with plenty to get you inspired like Wanda's polka dot wiggle dress (take a look here at Boo Boo Kitty Couture's fabulous piece on this dress) Allison's preppy fifties full skirts and lots of leather jackets. All the girls are bad and pretty soon Allison the square turns the baddest of them all in this sparkling red dress.

Take a look a Boo Boo Kitty Coutures blog posts on more 'Cry Baby' dresses here. 

The dance in Grease, poor frumpy footed good girl Sandy. Grease - Randal Kleiser 1978

And the ultimate transformation we all wish we could make. Oh to wear those disco pants. Grease - Randal Kleiser 1978 

The most famous good girl transformation has to be Sandy in Grease. Looking back at the film they really did style her to be as frumpy as possible. Those tan tights and mid healed t-bar sandals won't get many hearts ticking over. But all this made the finale so, so great. The disco pants, the mules (with a proper heel) , the red lipstick and that tight, tight ... top. One of films most fabulous teenage moments.

Susan Kohner in Imitation of Life Douglas Sirk 1959

Sandra Dee in Imitation of Life Douglas Sirk 1959

Sandra Dee and Susan Kohner - Imitation of Life Douglas Sirk 1959

And finally the original Sandra Dee. The beautiful Douglas Sirk remake of Imitation of Life 1959 takes a far more serious tone to the good girl gone bad theme. No one should ever have to be this bad in a tale of race and acceptance in four women's lives battling predjudice, motherhood and coming of age.
Teenage girls Sandra Dee, the good girl and Susan Kohner the (not really) bad girl are two contrasts metaphorically and physically in the film. Sandra Dee playing Susie is all blonde fluff and full skirts trying to gain the sex appeal of her mother. Susan Kohner playing Sarah Jane is beautiful, brunette, sexy and defiant in tight wiggle dresses and burlesque costumes.

I'd say these three films would make a great triple bill. Either start of finish with Imitation of Life depending at what time of night you want to be in floods of tears and dance yourself silly watching the other two.