Forgotten Fashion In Film: Wish Upon A Star
Alexia 'Actual Lavender Menace' Wheaton
I love clothes. One of the first places I fell in love with fashion was in film.
Clueless, Heathers, B.A.P.S, The Breakfast Club, and House Party were movies I watched, and I wanted every single fit in every single scene.
There are so many films that get their flowers when it comes to the impact the fashion within it had on pop culture, but there are so many others that deserve to be put in the Film Fashion Hall of Fame.
So, I’ve decided to do deep dives of the films I love—and the fashion in them—that have had such a huge influence on my closet and style.
I’m launching the series with one of my favorites—Wish Upon A Star!
So if you’re ready for a little lo-res high fashion letttttsss gooo!!
What Movie Is This?
Wish Upon A Star (1996) is your average body-switching movie about two sisters who secretly wish they had the other’s life and one day, it comes true! The Wheaton Sisters—Alexia (Katherine Heigl) and Hayley (Danielle Harris)—live in beautiful Colorado and are living two different high school lives.
Alexia is popular and focuses more on the social side of things and Hayley has one bestie and loves her books. They make the wish, switch the bodies, learn the lessons, and switch back, but in between it all, we get tomfoolery, shenanigans, and one of my earliest introductions of fetish wear.
This was one of those movies that was just always on. You could turn on The Disney Channel or TNT on any given Saturday morning for years and there is a safe bet it would be playing, and that’s where I discovered it.
Who’s Who
Katherine Heigl and Danielle Harris star as sisters Alexia and Hayley! Katherine hasn’t really talked too much about it, I did find a short clip here, but it was one of her first films. Danielle went on to do some more TV and Film and should be in the dyke hall of fame. I don’t know if she is queer IRL but I remember her as the tiny future lesbian kid sister in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead—and she voices iconic mean femme Debbie Thornberry in The Wild Thornberry’s.
Sound Check
The soundtrack is INCREDIBLE. It gives pop and grunge meeting and making out.
It was 1996 (a year after the infamous SubPop Records signed a 20 million dollar deal with Warner Bros. Records) and it was the year that some of the most memorable records were released. Jay-Z, The Spice Girls, Foxy Brown, Busta Rhymes, and Fiona Apple all released their debut albums in 1996.
The best way to explain the soundtrack of Wish Upon A Star is a meeting of The Cardigans Lovefool and Sleater-Kinney’s Call The Doctor, both released in 1996.
Most of the songs on the soundtrack were from Moonpools & Caterpillars, which fun fact, is a Filipino American band fronted by a babe! When writing this I discovered they were a huge part of the Pinoy Rock scene in the 90s and I think that’s so fucking cool. Their song Hear served as a big song backdrop for the movie and now it’s stuck in my head…again. Also, this is the video Alexia is watching on the couch after she faked sick in school.
Now that we’ve covered the basics…let’s get into the reason why we’re here—the fucking fashion AND the influence the film had on some of your favorites!
Role Call
Directed by Blair Treu (who also directed Phantom of The Megaplex.) Now, as far as the fashion, Lawane Cole (also credited sometimes as Lawane Cole Boltz, Lawane Boltz) is listed as the Costume Designer. Lawane also worked on The Luck of The Irish.
Rosemary E. Bengele and Jennifer Breeden are also credited in the costume department! I reached out to everyone I could find on social media, LinkedIn, and I even dug for e-mails but….I haven’t heard back. But here’s hoping this piece crosses their paths and they know how fly their work is decades later!
Wish Upon A Star Walked So Mean Girls Could Run?
Not saying this movie is where the cool girl lunch dynamic started at all—we can thank Grease (1978) and The Pink Ladies for that—but Regina George and Crew owe a lot to this movie. Alexia and her friends ran their school—consider them The Plastics of mid-90s Colorado.
They were popular, kinda mean, and had a bunch of made-up rules their group of 4 HAD to follow (Rule #4 is no repeating looks and there is even a rule about dating a boy for too long—sound familiar?) but most importantly, they were fashionable. Every scene they are in they have fit after fly fit, but we’re mainly going to focus on their Queen Bee—Alexia Wheaton.
Fashion Focus
So when it comes to clothes in teen films, everyone will compare them to one film—Clueless.
I get it, the clothes in Clueless—who had Mona May as the Costume Designer…. who also was the Costume Designer for Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion—set the standard. But we can compare and congratulate without erasing.
Wish Upon A Star was filmed in 1995 and released in 1996, Clueless was filmed at the tail end of 1994 and released in the summer of 1995. So while there was a bit of an opportunity for WUAS to get style inspiration from Clueless…they could have also just gotten inspo from the style of the moment. The matching sets, high socks and platforms, and monochromatic moments are what everyone was wearing.
Wish Upon A Star followed suit, but because of the film’s location, Colorado, you could see the subtle differences. The hues were darker, there was a bit more layering, and the fabrics on the surrounding cast were a lot heavier.
LookBook Breakdown
I went through lookbooks, catalogs, runway videos, and more from 1995-1996 to find some vibes that matched the fashion of the time in the film.
Let’s start with this look from Alexia. It’s giving “Schoolgirl who finally realizes she is a girl in school and has to do school work and not just werk the school.” Argyle was VERY much a thing in the 90s, especially with the prep community. As we know, fashion is cyclical, so it made another appearance in the early aughts! This is a look I found in the BluMarine 1996 collection, similar to Alexia’s fit, it gives elevated prep but they both up the look with strong dark colors, high necks, and light accessories.
Not to be outdone while at lunch, the other Plastics girls pull cute looks that very much vibe with these I found in a 1996 Delia*s catalog. Plaid and diamond patterns, lots of layering, a dash of a high waist, and a Diet Coke to top it all off.
This one is another lunchtime look from the crew and a pseudo-breakup look from Alexia. Daisies were one of THEE 90s patterns, so finding them in this 1996 Fall Delia*s catalog made me so happy. Worn in two casual ways—a boxy t-shirt dress and then a sundress—both were entirely perfect. Completing the looks with a choker necklace/flipped bob hairstyle just added to the 90s of it all.
This look? This look also featured PATTENED LEATHER, the go-to “fabric” of 90s cool girls. Polka dot skirt, knee-high socks, fuzzy hair tie? Who could ask for more?! I COULD AND THEY GAVE IT TO ME IN THE FORM OF PLATFORM SANDALS!
ROYAL BLUE PLATFORM SANDALS TO BE EXACT. I need them, I want them, I must have them.
And finally, we get to the fit that we are all here for—
How could you not love this fit? All purple shades with a frosted lip and a mini purse? 100% GIVE IT TO ME RIGHT NOW.
Lavender showed up a lot in 1996. I saw it on a few runways when I was researching, in magazines—peep the Seventeen Magazine insert—and in the Delia*s catalog from the year. I also saw lots of organza and now I want that Miu Miu skirt from their S/S 1996 runway collection (all in the photo above) as I have bonded with it quickly and deeply.
The shoes that started the look were these PERFECT WHITE PATTEN LEATHER PLATFORMS! I actually have a dusty pink version of them that were in an H&M collection about 3 years ago.
Also spotted in this look are Alexia’s sunglasses. These sort of, Mod Era shades showed up in a few catalogs that year and were featured in Seventeen Magazine!
Hayley pulled a look or two herself, including this cute cropped pink and black sweater number with the PERFECT flipped bob:
And once again, this wild insane dominatrix look that her parents let her wear to school:
IRL Inspo
90s Preppy Slightly Slutty Chic is my bread and butter. I love mixing a pattern, pairing looks with platforms and socks, and keeping it playful with an accessory or two. This look that I wore during my first Sundance, was a pretty solid homage to Wish Upon A Star.
Pops of lavender, traded platforms for chunky boots, knee-high socks, preppy backpack, and completed the look with a slightly oversized sweater because of the chilly Utah weather that mimics the temps in The Wheaton Girls Colorado.
The film is on Peacock if you wanna watch it and the fashion in all its glory. It’s perfect if you’re looking for a lo-res Saturday watch on your couch, and can serve as some closet inspiration while you online window shop!
Tell me what you think, send your Alexia Wheaton memories my way, and happy watching!
If You Liked This Edition of Hi Shelli!
Here’s another you might really fuck with…
The Rewatch Diaries: High Fidelity Edition
I don’t know why I love rewatching things. There is the comfort in knowing what’s going to happen, knowing exactly when I’m going to laugh, and knowing precisely what episode/scene to go to when you’re looking for that certain something.
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Found this while googling Wish Upon a Star randomly. So glad I found someone who appreciates the fashion and soundtrack of this movie. I listen to those Moonpools and caterpillars songs to this day.