Party Girl: How Mary's Style Outlasted Heroine Chic

Soft Focus is a monthly column about how clothes make a movie. For each installment, David explores how wardrobe contributes to a film’s impact, mis-en-scene, and culture at large.

---

I'll set the scene: 1995, Guiliani’s New York. In one of the greatest getups ever committed to celluloid, Mary, played by Parker Posey, stomps not down Park Ave to enjoy a coffee and pastry outside Tiffany's, but across Houston in need of a, “falafel with hot sauce, a side of baba ganoush, and a seltzer, please.”

She’s in a maximalist masterpiece: a cerulean heel, candy stripe tights, a red mini skirt, blazer, leopard print coat, and matching red gloves. It’s harmony made from mayhem. Her well-turned-out outfit is a return to business as usual, as Mary was arrested the evening prior for hosting a rancorous party while wearing a Vivien Westwood red corset and shimmering sequin shorts.

Posey’s falafel-run ‘fit may be a rejection of Audrey Helpburn’s sleek and elegant black Givenchy dress in the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and though Parker speaks with a vocal fry instead of a transatlantic accent, she is a direct descent of Hepburn’s Holly Golightly. She’s a party girl with a propensity for champagne, revelry, and staying out all night.

Posey is bailed out by her Godmother, Judy. She is strapped for cash, and after feeling condescended to by Judy and her lack of faith in her aptitude, Mary takes a job as a library clerk out of spite. Throughout the film, Mary’s outfits oscillate between hyper-social downtown maximalism and a jaded party girl's idea of a respectable librarian. As the movie progresses, Posey masters the Dewey Decimal System. She berates a library patron for haphazardly putting a book back on a shelf. While her wardrobe is still bright, her style is shifting ever so slightly.

During the reprimanding, she’s wearing a horizontal striped Comme Des Garcons long-sleeve tee. A sense of order is beginning to be reflected in her wardrobe. The Comme top is vibrant and colorful, but it's neat, veering on appropriate for a librarian – not her usual high-low composite.

At a certain point, she can’t help herself. She’s caught the bug. Her jeans and her roommate/aspiring DJ’s record collection are organized according to Melvil Dewey’s classification system. The film ends with a surprise birthday party where Mary announces that she plans on getting a master's degree in library sciences before dancing like a banshee in her most conservative outfit yet, a black pantsuit with a gold brooch.

Party Girl’s costume designer Michael Clancy, who passed away in 2022, is just as critical to the storytelling as writers Harry Birckmayer, Sheila Gaffney, and writer/director Daisy von Scherler Mayer. Clancy's greatest achievement in the film is the masterful outfits he selects to signal Mary’s transition from party girl to librarian. We see Mary make order out of chaos with her perfectly realized outfits. Purple tights, cropped blazers with a lavender shirt peeking out, Adidas sneakers, powerful heels, dainty loafers, and long quilt skirts – seemingly incongruous pieces are arranged, cataloged, and indexed into perfectly formulated outfits.

Mary also excels because she has so much chaos to make order from. Her apartment, her friend’s record collection, her clothes, and finally, her life are all things to be cataloged and systemized. Still, if her wardrobe tells us anything, it is that simply because your life is in order does not mean it can’t be vibrant.

The slouchy downtown 90s style with skuzzy skaters in baggy silhouettes and young girls in infantilizing ringer tees that scream Brandy Melville has become a defining point of reference for our current style moment. The signs are all around. You can go to Washington Square Park and see students cosplay Kids grunginess or go online and see people worshipping at the feet of Chloe Sevingy’s square-toe heels.

The influence of these two films plays out on the streets. These sartorial differences are contrasting responses to our current style moment (90s nostalgia) as well as the nihilistic atmosphere of our time. For every skater channeling Casper’s slouchy style from Kids, there is a maximalist girl, whose primary source of income is her Depop shop, making order from chaos and arranging an outfit out of a new piece from Cafe Forgot, Gaultier from the RealReal, and something from the Goodwills bins.

The slouchy downtown 90s style with skuzzy skaters in baggy silhouettes and young girls in infantilizing ringer tees that scream Brandy Melville has become a defining point of reference for our current style moment. The signs are all around. You can go to Washington Square Park and see students cosplay Kids grunginess or go online and see people worshipping at the feet of Chloe Sevingy’s square-toe heels.

The influence of these two films plays out on the streets. These sartorial differences are contrasting responses to our current style moment (90s nostalgia) as well as the nihilistic atmosphere of our time. For every skater channeling Casper’s slouchy style from Kids, there is a maximalist girl, whose primary source of income is her depop shop, making order from chaos and arranging an outfit out of a new piece from Cafe Forgot, Gaultier from the RealReal, and something from the Goodwills bins.

In Party Girl, Posey’s character is dressing from a place of curiosity and compulsion. Compared to independent cinema of the era, Party Girl is rather sincere. The film is ardent about the goodness of its main character and her way of being. It can be a bummer time out there these days. There is no denying that. Watching Party Girl gave me a certain sense of hope. Seeing Mary, and her unknowing modern-day disciples on the streets today, excites me. In a chaotic world, these girls are trying to insert some order, and while it may simply be an illusion of control, it is also a celebration of hope. Party Girl, Posey’s portrayal of Mary, and Michael Clancy’s styling declare that there is something to get dressed for every day, even if it's just to go to the falafel cart.

In Party Girl, Posey’s character is dressing from a place of curiosity and compulsion. Compared to independent cinema of the era, Party Girl is rather sincere. The film is ardent about the goodness of its main character and her way of being. It can be a bummer time out there these days. There is no denying that.

Watching Party Girl gave me a certain sense of hope. Seeing Mary, and her unknowing modern-day disciples on the streets today, excites me. In a chaotic world, these girls are trying to insert some order, and while it may simply be an illusion of control, it is also a celebration of hope. Party Girl, Posey’s portrayal of Mary, and Michael Clancy’s styling declare that there is something to get dressed for every day, even if it's just to go to the falafel cart.