On You’re the Worst last week Jimmy oh so delicately named Gretchen’s almost Halloween costume (and Aya Cash’s IRL one) as the “saddest girl at the rave.” This dressing up attire consisted of a pair of orange and gold angel wings sending nostalgic pangs to a time when it didn’t even have to be Halloween or a rave to wear something like this. In a bid to recreate Romeo + Juliet and thereby extending Claire Danes’ influence on my wardrobe choices beyond Angela Chase, I invested not in a pair of stunning white wings, but in a pink set resembling the ones from You’re the Worst.
What I wanted them to look like (complete with fireworks and post dreamy kiss sighs):
[Source]
What they actually looked like:
Not as outlandish as Juliet’s pair, but easier to work with some flared jeans and a vest/dress worn over the top. Or if it was a very special night my black wraparound skirt. Pulling out the big guns there.
Juliet wasn’t the only famous 90s wing wearer and at my first Glastonbury festival in the summer of 1999, Courtney Love took to the stage in this all pink getup including some wings. Once again they are more spectacular than the pair I owned, but nearer in color and style.
This is when “Celebrity Skin” was pretty much a staple in the stack of CDs in constant rotation during this period and this performance was made even more special when Courtney Love got a whole bunch of the crowd on stage including a girl I was camping with. She then proceeded to give my camping buddy her guitar (not the one in the picture above) at the end of the set and I am so annoyed that I can’t find the photo* even if I look a mess (it was taken on the day we traveled home and it had been a long weekend/I’d just got soaked in the rain). This was a huge fucking deal and it extended my wing affection long after the R+J trend (I did also have a Hawaiian shirt because of this movie).
*I will post it when I do – the problem with random shoe boxing storing of old photos is I haven’t kept them in any order so high school is completely mixed in with university. I’m kinda glad that things like Facebook didn’t exist back then (old person ahoy), but it makes finding stuff a little more of a challenge. Relying on memory here.
Update! Found the photo and the cringe levels are high. Why does my rain coat look like a snuggie?
Now I’m not saying bring back the wings even if everything 90s is new again; however I am happy I kept hold of them as they proved useful for Christmas dress up a couple of years ago. I even used the never really worn before halo that came in the pack.
You can take the girl out of the 90s…
So thank you You’re the Worst for this nostalgia kick and just in general for how heartbreakingly good this season has been, even if each episode ends with me curled up sobbing.
