Mapping the Music, Style, and Gateway Feminism of '10 Things I Hate About You'

Kat Stratford said it best: “I guess in this society, being male and an asshole makes you worthy of our time.”

She’s right. But what makes 10 Things I Hate About You worthy of our time is less its asshole male characters, and more its timeless sense of fashion. (Plus, obviously, its biting dialogue.) Released before aughts exhibitionism edged out the residuals of grunge and prep, 10 Things delivered a perfect amalgamation of two very different aesthetics: on the one end, we see the alternative Kat going braless in a long-sleeved crop top, while on the other, Bianca—her sister—wears a pink tulle skirt for prom. (Which we can only assume went on to inspire the Sex and the City opening credits.) Their clothes tell a story: these sisters are different. And from their color choices to their silhouettes, the queens of super-femininity and counterculture fight and clash—until they realize they can happily co-exist. Sort of like that religious bumper sticker, but with better pants.

That marriage of two contrasting worlds actually sums up the looks of the fall collections this year. The 90s have been an industry mainstay for the last couple seasons, and this summer saw crop tops even Kat would’ve been overwhelmed (or just “whelmed”) by. However, Bianca’s shinier, girlier looks have popped up in collections by Kristina Ti (those green pants are everything) and Shiatzy Chen this season, proving that when approached as more of a blanket term than as a specific trend, the nineties have more to offer than just its stereotypes. Just like the message behind 10 Things—and obviously, its heroine.

Kat Stratford embodies rebellion, both fashion-wise and not. She isn’t what people expect her to be. She rips prom posters off school walls. She sweats like a pig (“and yourself?”), kicks line-gropers in the balls, and flashes teachers to execute misdirection. She was a beacon of hope to 12-year-olds like me who, when seeing their first PG-13 movie in theaters, realized feminism was an actual, real, usable thing, and that you could pair a camouflage tank top with a string of pearls.

The mission statement of 10 Things I Hate About You was simple: even if you’re happy to miss out on the witty repartees of people like Joey “Eat Me” Donner, you could still have fun. You could kiss cute boys in fictional paintball settings, gain early acceptance into Sarah Lawrence, and make your Fender Strat dreams come true. Or, install car radios—either or.

But first things first: what high school students ever sang along to Barenaked Ladies past '92? Kat is right to stare them down—if you’re going to blare a song by the Barenaked Ladies, it better be “If I Had A Million Dollars.” Those girls were right to feel ashamed.

MS. PERKY
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Yes, we only see Ms. Perky behind the comfort of her laptop and the story of Reginald’s quivering member, but girlfriend’s style is thought-through and purposeful. 10 Things clearly has a message on lock: you can wear pearls, a pink cardigan, and accompany each with a cat mug, but you will not be defined by your aesthetic or affinity for conservative fashion. Even the most cunning linguists like wearing pink. And if you’ve got a problem with that…

Exactly.

However, while 10 Things’ female characters have more metaphoric wardrobes (which are arguably more impactful: if you judge us based on clothes, you’re going down), guys like Cameron, Michael, and even Patrick literally wear their traits on their sleeves. Cameron, the every-boy, genuinely looks like any other guy you’d meet in '98—maybe any guy you’d meet in '96 because that button-up is a little bit loud—unlike Michael’s ensemble, which clearly inspired normcore. (Cameron has realized this and is in mourning, hence his expression of sorrow.)

BIANCA
Bianca is the anti-Kat. When we first meet her, she’s the walking cover of Seventeen magazine: she’s trendy, she’s floral, and she loves her Prada backpack. (Which is insane for a high school student to own—honestly, I don’t care how many babies your dad delivers, get a job and earn that shit for yourself.) Unlike Kat, Bianca likes to be adored, thank you, and, also unlike Kat, she’s not introduced to us via song lyrics. Kat’s first shot gave us “Bad Reputation.” Bianca’s first shot gives us “whatever’s playing in Cameron’s head when he sees her.” The star has been established.

KAT STRATFORD
Yep. Ultimately, Kat Stratford is the Queen Mother of the done-with-your-bullshit mantra. And contrary to Joey Donner and Cosmo’s belief, her Rambo look is not out—especially when she’s wearing said camouflage to call out incidences of misogyny and sexism among not only her classmates, but also the school system entirely. Which is how we’re introduced to Kat: as a woman who’s shown up to fight, and has dressed for the trenches. I would’ve killed to be her as a teen, and I am still trying to be her now.

And then we head over to Kat’s along with the sound of Spiderbait’s "Sunshine on My Window." This tells us something. First: the mansion she lives in explains why Bianca has a Prada backpack. Second: no other character is worthy of lyrical content. And third: Kat is having none of your easy listening nonsense. She is reading The Bell Jar at 4:30 PM, and she’s too good for the unwashed miscreants of her school. You got a problem with that? Ask Bianca who drove her home. Speaking of which, they couldn’t look less similar if they tried. Probably because Kat is from Planet Loser, and Bianca is from Planet Look At Me! Look At Me!

And speaking of opposing forces…

PATRICK VERONA AND JOEY DONNER
Nothing cryptic here: Patrick Verona dresses amazing (like Kat) because he is amazing (like Kat). Joey dresses like someone most of us would avoid in a bar. However, what’s even more interesting (according to me analyzing this movie every day for 15 years) is how Bianca and Kat’s colours of choice in this scene line up with their potential suitors: Bianca and Joey wear white, Patrick and Kat wear black. And you should’ve totally told your sister about finding those pearls, B.

Meanwhile, here comes our first official clue that Katerina Stratford is into music. (CDs! #vintage) The abundance of Letters to Cleo, explained.

On an unrelated note, somebody tell me how I can also back into the cars of people I hate and not get charged.

What comes from this is an important lesson: Bianca has a very, very tight fashion game. And by “tight” I mean her first shot tells us that aside from wearing blue when she’s one-on-one with Cameron, she’s usually committed to pink, red, or white. We see her in a floral dress, and then we see her in a pink cardigan, then a red zip-up, a white top, now another red zip-up, which will be followed by her first blue piece.

I think it’s official: Bianca represents “romance” and the “colours of love” (her hoodie in the end even has a blue Cherub on the back) – which is in direct opposition with her sister, who sticks to cold tones like black, grey, purple, and blue. Even their prom dresses follow their individual colour schemed. In fact, the only time we see Kat wearing red, she flashes her teacher to get Patrick out of detention – which is something romantic. SEE?

In any other school, Kat would’ve been expelled and maybe arrested.

But I digress. Before the teacher flashing, before Patrick refused to kiss her because she was too drunk, before Kat danced to Hypnotize by Notorious B.I.G., we went to Club Skunk. Which, in retrospect was a… post-Riot Grrrl bar? A lesbian club? Something that scared Patrick, who, for a moment was obviously very insecure in his position as man since he “refused to be seen at Club Skunk.” Easy, guy. It looks hip as shit.

Also, the bartender knows Patrick, indicating that Patrick has been there before, perhaps so frequently that he’s an established patron of the place. Also (x 2): a moment for Patrick’s leather pants, please, which officially prove he would be too cool for most of our former teenage selves to date. (More disappointing? That only two Letters to Cleo songs were included on the soundtrack, and neither one being the one played at Club Skunk. Please also raise your hand if you had no idea Letters to Cleo was a cool band until years after you first saw this movie.)

So fast forward to Bogey’s party (announced via flyer and a song by Air, also not included on the soundtrack), and we find ourselves with an accurate representation of personal style. Bianca is in a form-fitting read piece (with those pearls, goddamn you, Bianca), Kat’s in purple, grey, and black, and Gabrielle Union (yes, I will only refer to her as Gabrielle Union) is wearing something of each. This is interesting because – spoiler alert – she leaves the party with Joey, who both Stratford sisters have had things with. We should’ve known. Also, I hate that Adidas striping down the side of that purple anything, and it appalls me that it was allowed to happen.

On the flipside, Cameron has opted to wear a blazer and dress shirt to a raging teenage house party for reasons no one understands, and for those same reasons we’ve also got Atomic Dog by George S. Clinton blaring in the distance. A lot of choices seem to have been made in these few minutes, and compared to the preferred soundtrack and clothing choices of Kat Stratford, I understand why she hated events like these. (Minus Biggie. She was right to dance to Biggie.)

Also right: my theory about Bianca, blue, and Cameron. (Hire me, CIA.) After kissing Cameron in the car, Bianca makes her “I like you, Cameron!” debut: in a blue t-shirt to a cover of Smash Mouth’s Can’t Get Enough Of You Baby. (Yes, in '98, bands covered that song.) The only time we see her wearing red or pink again is when Joey is any way associated with the topic of conversation/what Bianca’s doing (sulking over not going to prom and prom itself). As soon she punches him, she wears Cameron’s colours going forward – or more specifically, Kat-centric colours, representing how close they’ve become.

Pink/red-as-romance indicator rears its head again when Mandella tells Kat she wants to go to prom (accompanied by Madness’ Wings of a Dov—which very Shakespere, if you think about 1996’s Romeo + Juliet and “When Dove’s Cry”) . . .

And then she shows with a flash of red again while dressed like a Shakespearian character at prom itself. (Because who doesn’t love a guy that somehow learns your dress measurements, makes you a dress, and then dresses like Shakespeare?) (Answer: Probably most people. But this isn’t our battle, you guys.)

Let’s talk more about prom, actually. Cameron looks like any guy going to prom. Bianca looks like a pink princess. Bianca’s dad looks like Cameron’s friend Michael on a Saturday.

Kat is blue and wearing pearls—the pearls, which is yet another indicator of Bianca-Kat closeness. Patrick looks like Patrick (though I honestly can’t believe he didn’t wear the leather pants), and then hands her a red (collective gasp) rose. Love is in the air, friends. And also violence: like when Bianca punches Joey out and is somehow not carried out on the shoulders of students she just set free.

However, we can’t miss the most important part: a cameo not only from Letters to Cleo, but a special appearance by Save Ferris, whose presence proves ska was not only an accepted form 90s music (“I Know” is a jam, and don’t you deny it), it was preferred to the point of a ska band being asked to play prom. Look upon your queen, 1998. And tell me you didn’t love it.

Things I also loved/may never love as much as this: Jessica Riddle’s Even Angels Fall, played as Kat runs down the most beautiful staircase in the world after finding out she was just a bet. Shut down every production of every movie now, please – it will never elicit the emotional response of Bianca looking disappointedly as Patrick. (While I weep.)

Which brings us to the grand finale, in which we meet the new Kat who’s equally strong as the one we saw at the start. (Indicated not just by her determination to attend Sarah Lawrence—could you imagine if she denied them because she had a boyfriend—but by her musical tastes and even her clothes.)

But, unlike when we first met her, Kat has become slightly less combative (see: her button-up blouse and skirt combo vs. straight up camouflage), and not just because of a boy. She makes amends with Bianca and her dad, and only then does Patrick get a chance to prove he’s worth anything. Girl calls him out in the middle of class, and then he does the only a guy worthy of her time would: he supports her dreams and buys her a guitar so she can start her band. (As Letters to Cleo plays on the school roof.)

This is why 10 Things I Hate About You is so great. And when you don’t think it can get any greater, Letters to Cleo’s I Want You To Want Me plays while Kat and Patrick make out, and you leave saying to yourself, “Oh, so that’s how that cool couple I know probably met.”

Anne T. Donahue is an expert on late 90s teen movies. She's on Twitter - @annetdonahue.

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