If you have never seen Grease then we can't be friends...
You know that one film from when you were little that you can recite the entire script of?
Well this was it for me!
... btw if you haven't seen it I'm amazed you've managed to avoid such a famous classic, and also slightly disappointed in you... go and download it immediately and you'll be singing Beauty School Dropout to yourself and making Pink Ladies gifs for the rest of the year for sure.
This is 50's american suburban teenage delinquency as seen through the gloss of a 70's musical - diners, school dances, pep rallies, drag races! Teenage pregnancy false alarms!! A fun-fair!!!
It's all there...
I won't bore you by going over the songs or the plot, especially as the main Danny/Sandy epic love story is neither here nor there - the ultimate scene stealers in this movie and an endless source of fascination for me are Rydell High's top cat girl gang, The Pink Ladies, of course!
Not for them, cheerleading and homework, no no - they 'rule the school'
Rizzo is my fave - she's the sassy, tough ring leader with a hidden heart of gold.
Frenchy is the ditzy beauty school drop out, of aforementioned song.
Jan is the dorky one, and Marty is the bombshell with a penpal boyfriend in every port.
Sandy is, according to Rizzo, 'too pure to be pink' and I whole-heartedly agree...
Actually she's in no way really interesting 'til the last 10 minutes of the film when she has the mother of all girl gang makeovers and re-emerges as a black spandex-clad, bad disco Sandy, POW!
The genius of the Pink Lady look is the matching pink bowling jackets with Pink Ladies embroidered on the back and their own names embroidered on the front - what a team!
Obviously this has spawned a million hideous flammable fancy dress versions since - not least my own...
I have been pinklady ever since I and 3 teenage friends created our own version of the gang for a friend's birthday party - we all bought matching pink mohair cardigans and sewed Pink Ladies on the back in silver sequins.
This particular activity took us 5 hours and there were tears, bleeding fingers and recriminations... but it was a good party!
... and it's still a good nickname...