Everyone grab your Prada backpacks and lace up your Sketchers, because 10 Things I Hate About You turns 25 today!
The 1999 film, which stars Julia Stiles, Larisa Oleynik, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gabrielle Union, and the late Heath Ledger, is one of the many noughties films that gave one of the Bard’s classics a more modern revamp. (Or, to quote Mr. Morgan, “Now, I know Shakespeare’s a dead white guy, but he knows his shit, so we can overlook that.”) The Taming of the Shrew adaptation was equal parts imaginative and faithful—including its lively, of-the-times fashion.
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10 Things’ costuming helps to illustrate the divide between the central sisters: Stiles’s mercurial Kat and Oleynik’s bubbly Bianca Stratford. While Bianca is totally in line with the ’90s aesthetics, from her butterfly baby tee to her floral spaghetti strap dress, she’s also not afraid to take a fashion risk. Her two-piece prom dress—a pink taffeta boatneck top with a balletic pink tulle skirt—was daring, even by 1999’s standards.
But that doesn’t preclude Kat from having some eye-catching costumes. The elder sister’s dark wardrobe underscores her doom-and-gloom personality, from her camo-printed tank top, to her leather biker jacket. Even though Kat spends most of the movie a cynic, the costuming still managed to break through her tough exterior and show off her soft spot with her classic prom dress: an indigo number with a matching shawl and a string of pearls.
©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection