Ragamuffin

Natalie Wood is absolutely awesome, and, for the most part, she is a total glamour puss. She's famous for movies like "Splendor in the Grass" and "A Rebel Without a Cause" -- heavy, teenage dramas where she plays the beautiful love interest. "Inside Daisy Clover" is also a heavy, teenage drama, I suppose, and she's totally the pretty girl in it, but before she's the pretty girl, she's the tough ragamuffin. I love her as a tomboy! She's all smoking and blowing stuff up. Don't try this at home, kids! But do watch "Inside Daisy Clover"!

Style Icon: Baby in Dirty Dancing

I love Dirty Dancing. I have no idea how many times I've watched it. It was required viewing for every slumber party in the early '90s. Baby is so great, and I love her '80s/'60s style. Especially when she is carrying a watermelon.

But eventually, she's up in the air in that pink dress looking amazing because "No one puts Baby in a corner."

Before she made that sweet lift, however, she had to practice the routine in some great and comfortable summertime dance wear. Cropped shirt? Check. Jean shorts? Check. Little Keds? Check and check.

It's best to wear white when practicing a dance routine in a lake with Patrick Swayze.

And you don't have to have a dance partner to practice! Just break it down on a bridge in a tank top and short shorts!

Or, you could have two dance partners to get it right! And a '60s printed pink playsuit. Oh that playsuit! I watched this movie with a friend years ago, and he absolutely hated it. He spent the whole time saying "It's so '80s. How is it so '80s?" But I think that '80s take on the '60s look is part of its charm. And Patrick Swayze. That's the other part of its charm.

Style Icon: Pollyanna

I loved the movie "Pollyanna" when I was a kid. It starred Hayley Mills as the orphan Pollyanna who comes to live with her stern, cold Aunt Polly.

Aunt Polly has major moolah. Pollyanna doesn't. She arrives wearing a not very fancy outfit.

Don't worry, Pollyanna! New clothes are in your future! (And besides I'm digging the hat and boots.)

Aunt Polly is by no means nice to Pollyanna at the beginning (or middle) of the movie, but she does give her some sweet new threads.

And Pollyanna hangs out around town wearing her fab new clothes and making lots of friends and playing "The Glad Game" and showing people it's way better to be optimistic instead of being negative all the time.

And eventually, she even melts Aunt Polly's heart. How can you not love that face? And that bow? It's impossible not to love these things!

Style Icon: The Dude

Who doesn't love The Dude? I mean, I sure love The Dude. Anyone who's seen the movie "The Big Lebowski" loves The Dude, and if you don't, well, that's just, like, your opinion man. 

The Dude has a singular California style. He's really into comfort. He likes his flippy floppies. He likes his robe. Robes are comfortable, man.

Sloppy chic. That's The Dude. Or actually, I think he's just sloppy. But I love it!

Although this sweater is quite snazzy. Everything The Dude wears looks like something delicious to sleep in, don't you think? This dude dresses for leisure. That's his approach to life -- leisurely. And that's why we love him!

Gene Kelly and a cartoon mouse

My favorite Gene Kelly dance partner is Leslie Caron in "An American in Paris" because duh, but my second favorite Gene Kelly dance partner is a cartoon mouse "Anchors Aweigh."

The mouse is so cute!

Gene Kelly is so cute!

They are so cute together! Cinematic gold!

Style Icon: Jessica Rabbit

Jessica Rabbit wasn't bad. She was just drawn that way!

Slinky red dress, oddly clashing purple gloves (and also purple eye shadow), long red hair, slit up to there. Oh Jessica, you are a bombshell! I watched "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" as a pretty little kid, and it scared the bejeebus out of me. That movie is pretty creepy!

Jessica Rabbit is one of the sweetest characters in the movie, and she really does love her husband, Roger Rabbit. He makes her laugh! All these years later the movie is a bit forgettable, but Jessica Rabbit's look is anything but!

Style Icon: Lloyd Dobler from "Say Anything"

Lloyd Dobler. He made us swoon.He created unrealistic expectations. He is the dreamiest dreamboat of late '80s cinema. He wore a trench coat. He held up a boombox. He gave her his heart, she gave him a pen. He is one iconic style icon.

Style Icon: Westley from The Princess Bride

Um. Westley in the Princess Bride was a major crush of mine since childhood. Who doesn't love a man who shows his love by responding to all requests with "As you wish"? I mean, that's just dreamy. Plus his hair fell into his eye and that was kind of a big deal for me.

Plus he was a pirate, which meant he wore a pretty pirate-riffic outfit for most of the movie.

The only thing I can't forgive is that tiny, tiny ponytail.

Oh, and I really hated his mustache...

So really I'm all about Westley at the beginning of the movie and find his hair -- both on his head and facially -- a little underwhelming. But this movie is about true love! True love can overcome anything! Even death! Even tiny pony tales and pencil mustaches!

Loving It (A quick list)

This is my end-of-the-year list of my super favs in 2014:

Musician: Lorde

Song: "History Eraser" by Courtney Barnett



Book: "Instructions" by Neil Gaiman (Ostensibly a children's book, 100 percent the best any-kind book I've read in a long time.)



Movie: The Giant Mechanical Man (Not a 2014 movie, but I watched it New Year's Day totally nauseated, not because I was hungover, but because I was pregnant. It was awesome largely because it stars Danny of The Mindy Project.)

Poem: "Dinosaurs in the Hood" by Danez Smith

TV Show: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

Happy almost New Year!

Style Icon: Frosty the Snowman

Frosty the Snowman -- one of the most major makeovers in Christmas movie history.

You start with a regular ol' snowman, throw on a magic hat and whammo -- Frosty is here! And isn't he lovely? The corncob pipe! The button nose! The magic hat with that little pink flower! A broom! Who doesn't love a snowman with a broom?

Frosty the Snowman is a really silly movie, and that's why I love it. I love wholesome, sweet Christmas movies that make me super nostalgic. And it can't be denied that he has some great signature style. Keeping it classy with that top hat, Frosty. Keeping it classy!

Style Icon: Joanne Woodward

This post is ostensibly about Joanne Woodward's fabulous '60s style, but really, it's an excuse for me to post photos of my favorite Hollywood couple of all time. Oh Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, you two were the cutest.

They seem so happy and domestic together. They love their children and pet their dogs and read newspapers and eat breakfast together. And they stayed together until death did them part (Paul's, Joanne is still around and still looking fab).

But they were also glamorous and fabulous. World travelers! Movie stars! Super stylish!

Joanne Woodward had cute, bobbed blonde hair and wore the sweetest dresses, peg-leg pants and flats. (Paul Newman looked pretty hip too.)

I love them both so much. They seemed so sincerely in love, and they made such great movies together and apart. Hollywood legends for sure.

Style Icon: James Dean

Saying James Dean is a style icon is kind of like saying Marilyn Monroe is a style icon. As in "No duh."

I mean, the dude is more iconic than any other icon. He's James Dean. Just like Marilyn, you don't have to see his movies to know who he is and admire his cool-guy look. (But see his movies. Especially "Rebel Without a Cause." It's a classic for a reason and James Dean is never James Dean-ier than he is in that movie.)

So James Dean is totally the insanely gorgeous boy smoking a cigarette in a leather jacket, but he also has a more laid-back kind of bookish style too. James Dean was a thinker! He was sensitive! He hung out with Elizabeth Taylor and she took naps and he read celebrity magazines.

He looked amazing in sneakers and glasses. He probably would look amazing in anything being that he was James Dean and all.

But, yes, the cigarette/jacket look is probably his best. You're a dreamy one, James Dean. You're definitely a dreamy one.

Style Icon: Rosario Dawson as Mimi

Seeing a movie after seeing a show live is like seeing a movie after reading the book. The movie is never as good! It just isn't! It can't be. That's all there is to it. 

That said, I still love Rosario Dawson as Mimi in "Rent." There she is hanging out with her cool squatter friends being cool and singing about cool things. 

She has great hair She wears fabulous layers. Her look is very "La Vie Boheme."

It's no wonder the fellows fall for her. The audience falls for her too! How can you not when she's crooning about lighting candles and going out tonight?

Style Icon: Allison Reynolds in the Breakfast Club

Some things never change -- in high school there are still burnouts and nerds, princesses and freaks. My favorite character in"The Breakfast Club"? The freak.

There she is in baggy, dark clothes, with chucks, eyeliner and a big bag full of God knows what.

I totally loved her tights-socks-converse layering. I loved that she could hide behind her hair. I liked her lined eyes and cranky crankiness. I dug the whole look, didn't you?

Emilio Estevez dug Ally Sheedy (aka Allison Reynolds), but he apparently didn't dig her look. So she went from being an awesome freak to being an inauthentic princess.

That's the lamest part of that whole movie. I like everything about it except the end where Ally Sheedy wears pink. Now don't get me wrong, I really like pink, but I don't like girls wearing pink when they don't like pink because they think a boy will like it....

And so I say: Style Icon: Ally Sheedy before her transformation in the Breakfast Club