Baby-Sitters Club Squee

Whenever an outfit is described in detail in the Baby-Sitters Club (and this happens quite a lot), I’ve been making up a reference pic, to try visualise exactly how someone might look dressed in the largely 80’s-styled, quite often ridiculous outfit. These reference pics have been kinda popular, so I’m making a dedicated page for them and noting which book they came from. Will be added to each time a new outfit is discovered during the BSC re-read. In case it’s not obvious, this is an image-heavy page!

 

Outfits in Kristy’s Great Idea:

[Claudia Kishi] was wearing short, very baggy lavender plaid overalls, a white lacy blouse, a black fedora, and red high-top sneakers without socks. Her long black hair was carefully arranged in four braids.

[Claudia was] wearing a baggy yellow-and-black-checked shirt, black pants, red jazz shoes and a bracelet that looked like it was made from a telephone cord. Her earrings were dangling jointed skeletons that jumped around when she moved.

But she [Claudia Kishi] has this wild streak in her that makes her buy belts made of feathers and wear knee-socks with palm trees on them.

Stacey [McGill] had on a pink sweatshirt with sequins and a large purple parrot on the front; short, tight-fitting jeans with zippers up the outsides of the legs; and pink plastic shoes.

Stacey was wearing a matching top and skirt made of gray sweatshirt material with big yellow number tens all over it. Her hair was pinned back with clips shaped like rainbows. Little silver whistles were dangling from her ears.

“…I went shopping at Bloomingdale’s and bought this.” She [Stacey McGill] indicated the plaid wool pants she was wearing, which were held up with bright red suspenders. “I got a matching hat, too.”

Outfits in Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls:

I’m [Claudia] wearing purple pants that stop just below my knees and are held up with suspenders, white tights with clocks on them, a purple-plaid shirt with a matching hat, my hightop sneakers, and lobster earrings. Clothes like these are my trademark.

Outfits in The Truth About Stacey:

None :'(

 

Outfits in Mary Anne Saves the Day:

One – but it’s a Mary Anne-dream outfit, not an actual outfit she wears:

Just once, I’d [Mary Anne Spier] like to go to school wearing skintight turquoise pants, Stacey’s “island” shirt with flamingos and toucans all over it, and maybe bright, red, high-top sneakers.

Outfits in Dawn and the Impossible Three:

She [Stacey] was wearing a simple pink T-shirt under a baggy jumpsuit with big pink and red flowers all over it. Her shiny hair bounced over her shoulders.

I [Dawn Schaefer] was wearing blue jean shorts and a white T-shirt that said GENIUS INSIDE.

Outfits in Kristy’s Big Day:

She [Claudia] was wearing one of her usual outrageous outfits: a black leotard and skintight red pants under a white shirt that was so big it looked like a lab coat. Claudia’s a wonderful artist and she had decorated the shirt herself, covering it with designs painted in acrylic. She had pinned her long black hair back at the sides with red clips.

Outfits in Claudia and Mean Janine:

…I [Claudia] finished dressing in my favourite art class outfit – black jeans, a giant bright blue T-shirt, and a snake bracelet that I wore above my elbow – and ran downstairs.

Stacey was wearing a pair of knee-length lime green shorts, matching green high-top sneakers, and a large white T-shirt with a giant taxicab on the front.

It was a big, loose white shirt with black splotches all over it, and white pants that came to just below my [Claudia’s] knees. My shoes (and I might point out that I’d had a fight with Mom over permission to buy them) were dainty gold sandals that laced partway up my legs. Then I put on my pink flamingo earrings and a pink bracelet that said CLAUDIA in heart-shaped beads. Finally, I braided my hair into four long braids, tied a ribbon around the top of each, and fastened the ends with butterfly clips.

Outfits in Boy-Crazy Stacey:

I decided on this new pink shirt I got the last time we went back to New York City to visit friends. Big, bright green and yellow birds were splashed all over it. It was gigantic, so it would be cool. I put it on with a pair of baggy shorts, looped a wide green belt around my middle, and hunted up some jewellery – silver bangle bracelets and a pair of silver earrings shaped like bells that actually ring when they dangle back and forth.

I [Stacey McGill] put on a white cotton vest over a pink cotton dress and tied a big white bow in my hair so that it flopped over the side of my head.

Mary Anne couldn’t find anything of her own that she really liked, so I loaned her my yellow pedal pushers, a yellow and white striped tank top, and an oversized white jacket.

Outfits in The Ghost at Dawn’s House:

None :'(

Outfits in Logan Likes Mary Anne!:

Dawn was wearing a pretty snappy outfit – hot-pink shorts with a big, breezy island-print shirt over a white tank top.

Then Claudia handed me [Mary Anne] a full white skirt with the words Paris, Rome, and London, and sketchy pink and blue pictures of the Eiffel Tower, the Tower Bridge and other stuff scrawled all over it. She matched it up with a pink shirt and a baggy pink sweater. I would never, ever have tried on that skirt, but with the shirt and sweater it looked really cool. In the shoe department we found white slip-ons with pink and blue edging that matched the pink and blue in the skirt.

Claudia was wearing short, tight-fitting black pants and a big white shirt that said BE-BOP all over it in between pictures of rock and roll dancers. She had fixed a floppy blue bow in her hair.

Stacey was wearing a white T-shirt under a hot pink jumpsuit.

Dawn and Kristy looked more casual. Dawn was wearing a green and white oversized sweater and stretchy green pants.

Kristy was wearing a white turtleneck shirt under a pink sweater with jeans. We just couldn’t seem to get her out of blue jeans.

Outfits in Kristy and the Snobs:

None :'(

 

Outfits in Claudia and the New Girl:

Well, this girl, Ashford or whatever her name was [Ashley Wyeth], looked like a hippie. She was wearing a very pretty pink flowered skirt that was full and so long it touched the tops of her shoes – which I soon realized were not shoes, but sort of hiking boots. Her blouse, loose and lacy, was embroidered with pink flowers, and both her wrists were loaded with silver bangle bracelets. Her hair, which was almost as long as my friend Dawn’s and was dirty blonde, was pulled into a fat braid (which, I might add, was not held in place with a rubber band or anything; it just sort of trailed to an end). But the amazing thing was that because her hair was pulled back, you could see her ears. And she had three pierced earrings in each ear. They were all silver and all dangly, but none matched.

She [Ashley] was wearing a puffy white blouse, a blue-jean jacket, a long blue-jean skirt, and those hiking boots again. Beaded bracelets circled both wrists, and she’d tied a strip of faded denim around her head, like an Indian headband.

Two golf balls and a hoop in one ear. A seashell, a real feather and a dangly flamingo in the other. Pretty cool.

She [Ashley] was wearing a long, all-the-way-to-her-ankles dress with three rows of ruffles at the bottom. A strip of black cloth was tied around her head. I couldn’t see her earrings, but she looked…well, all right, I’ll admit it. She looked a little bizarre.

Ashley looked just plain weird in her outfit – a long knitted vest over an even longer shirt which we was wearing tails-out over a skirt that didn’t match either the vest or the shirt. And there were those hiking boots again.

I [Claudia Kishi] was wearing a very short pink cotton dress, white tights, and black ballet slippers. I had swept all of my hair way over to one side, where it was held in place with a piece of pink cloth that matched the dress. Only one ear showed, and in it I had put my big palm tree earring.

Outfits in Good-bye Stacey, Good-bye:

Kristy was wearing her uniform – jeans, a turtleneck (pale blue), a sweater (blue-and-white striped), and sneakers. She was sitting in Claudia’s director’s chair, a pencil over one ear, her visor perched crookedly on her head.

Claudia was sprawled on the floor, halfway under her bed…She was wearing a wonderful Claudia outfit – a purple-and-white striped bodysuit under a gray jumper-thing. The legs of the bodysuit stretched all the way to her ankles, but she was wearing purple push-down socks anyway. Around her middle was a wide purple belt with a buckle in the shape of a telephone. And on her feet were black ballet slippers.

She [Dawn] was wearing a very short kilt, an oversized red sweater, and yellow socks over red tights. On her head was a red beret with a sparkly initial pin attached to the side.

She [Mary Anne] was wearing an outfit that I had helped her choose. It was tame, but not dorky – a navy blue minidress with a pink sash, blue tights, and black slippers like Claudia’s.

Outfits in Hello, Mallory:

I finally decided on my red jumper that said Mallory across the front, a short-sleeved white blouse, and white tights with little red hearts all over them. “You look like a Valentine,” Vanessa told me, but I didn’t care. I put on my penny loafers.

She [Kristy] was wearing faded jeans, sneakers, a pale pink turtleneck, and a dark pink sweater.

Things like short, tight pants with little ballet slippers, or torn T-shirts decorated with sequins, or overalls and high-topped sneakers. And her [Claudia’s] jewelry! She has a bracelet that looks like a coiled snake, and earrings that are a dog for one ear and a bone for the other, and I don’t know what else.

On the day of my first meeting, she [Mary Anne] was wearing a baggy yellow sweater with a silver squiggle pin near the collar, a short skirt made out of sweatshirt material, yellow tights, and ballet slippers.

She [Dawn] wears kind of casual clothes, like baggy jeans with the cuffs rolled up, shirts with the tails out, and big belts.

I threw on a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt that said I’D RATHER BE WRITING MY NOVEL, and a pair of sneakers.

Outfits in Little Miss Stoneybrooke…and Dawn:

None :'(

 

Outfits in Jessi’s Secret Language:

…As soon as I stepped inside, I was greeted by Mrs Braddock. She looked like a nice, comfortable kind of mom to have. She was wearing blue jeans and Reeboks and a big, baggy sweater…

Outfits in Mary Anne’s Bad-Luck Mystery:

It was [Claudia’s] vegetable blouse: an oversized white shirt with a green vegetable print all over it – cabbages and squashes and turnips and stuff. Under the blouse was a very short jean skirt, white stockings, green anklets over the stockings, and lavender sneakers, the kind boys usually wear, with a lot of rubber and big laces and the name of the manufacturer in huge letters on the sides. Wait, I’m not done. Claudia had pulled the hair on one side of her head back with a yellow clip that looked like a poodle. The hair on the other side of her head was hanging in her face. Attached to the one ear you could see was a plastic earring about the size of a jar lid. Awesome.

I’d taken a black leotard and a pair of black tights and painted some gray tiger stripes on them, like Tigger’s. I was wearing gray-striped black gloves on my hands and (plain) black ballet slippers on my feet. I have to admit that Logan and I had cheated a little on one part of our costumes: we’d rented fur headdresses from a costume place in town. But we planned to make up our faces ourselves.

There were Claudia and Austin. They were not in costume, either, unless you’d consider Claudia’s wild floral outfit, gigantic hair dip, and armload of silver bangle bracelets a costume. Most people would. Claudia didn’t. Austin, who was wearing a suit and tie, looked more like her father than her date.

 

Outfits in Stacey’s Mistake:

Claudia had on the black outfit we’d talked about over the phone so long ago. And she was wearing her hair simply, for once – brushed back from her face and held in place by a white beaded headband.

Kristy was wearing a white turtleneck with little red and blue hearts all over it, a red sweater, jeans, and sneakers.

Dawn had chosen and oversized peach-colored sweater-dress, lacy white stockings, and black ballet slippers.

I was wearing a short, short yellow dress that flared out just above my hips, white stockings, yellow push-down socks, and these new shoes that my parents hate.

[Mary Anne] looked like she’d walked right out of the pages of Little House on the Prairie…a ruffly white blouse, a long paisley skirt, and these little brown boots.

Laine was beyond chic. She had chosen a short black dress, black stockings, and simple black flats. On one wrist was a single silver bangle bracelet. On her dress was one of those silver squiggle pins.

 

Outfits in Claudia and the Bad Joke:

I [Claudia] wear wild clothes, such as baggy pants and sweaters, high-top sneakers, and jewelry I make myself. For instance, at the film festival, I was wearing earrings made of wooden beads that I’d painted.

In a moment, the door was opened by a friendly looking girl [Betsy Sobak] with brown hair, which had been pulled into two ponytails and tied with big blue ribbons. She was wearing a very snazzy pair of red pants that were held up by red suspenders. Under the suspenders was a blue-and-white-striped T-shirt. The legs of her pants ended in cuffs, and on her feet were running shoes tied with purple laces.

Outfits in Kristy and the Walking Disaster:

Her [Claudia’s] artistic flair runs over into her clothes. You should see how she dresses – wild! Baggy jeans, skintight pants, miniskirts, odd layers of things, bright colors, and weird jewelry. Also, she fixes her hair differently every day, and she does things like paint her toenails with sparkles. Once, she went to school with glitter in her hair.

Outfits in Mallory and the Trouble with Twins:

Both [Marilyn and Carolyn] were wearing blue kilts with straps that went over their shoulders, white blouses with lace edging the collars and sleeves, white knee socks, and black patent leather Mary Jane shoes. Their brown hair was cut in a bowl shape, framing their faces, and each twin had put on a blue headband with a blue bow on the side of it. Also, each wore a silver ring on the pinky finger of her right hand, and a beaded identification bracelet on her left wrist.

Matching plaid dresses, white tights, black patent leather Mary Jane shoes, red ribbons in their hair, gold lockets, gold rings, pink nail polish, and (thank goodness), their name bracelets.

Marilyn and Carolyn, dressed in blue sailor dresses, red hair ribbons, white tights, and their Mary Janes, took off their bracelets, dangled them rudely in front of me, and dropped them on the floor.

[Mrs Arnold] was wearing two necklaces, a pin, bracelets on each wrist, rings, earrings, and even an ankle bracelet. Her stockings were lacey, and she was, well, as Claud might have said, overly accessorized. Practically everything she wore had a bow attached. There were bows on her shoes, a bow on her belt, a bow in her hair, and a bow at the neck of her blouse. Her sweater was beaded, and she hadn’t forgotten to pin a fake rose to it. Whew! As for cute, her earrings were in the shape of ladybugs, one of her necklaces spelled her name – Linda – in gold script, her pin was in the shape of a mouse, and the bow in her hair was a ribbon with print of tiny ducks all over it.

Marilyn was carrying a bag with the (pink) jeans skirt and a ruffly white blouse in it…
Carolyn was carrying a bag with the jeans and the moon-and-stars sweat shirt in it…
Marilyn bought the knee socks with the hearts on them (“I’m tired of tights,” she explained) and a pair of pink barrettes…
Carolyn bought some push-down socks like the ones I’d gotten, except they were yellow, to match her new sweat shirt.

Our president, dressed in jeans, a white turtleneck, a pink-and-blue sweater, and new running shoes, was sitting in Claudia’s director’s chair. Her visor was in place, and a Connecticut Bank and Trust pencil was stuck over her ear.

[Claudia’s] long hair was fixed in about a million braids which were pulled back and held in place behind her head with a column of puffy ponytail holders. She was wearing a T-shirt she’d painted herself, tight blue pants that ended just past her knees, push-down socks, and no shoes. From her ears dangled small baskets of fruit.

Mary Anne was wearing a short plum-colored skirt over a plum-and-white-striped body suit. The legs of the body suit stopped just above her ankles, and she’d tucked the bottoms into her socks. I don’t know where her shoes were. She’d taken them off. The neat thing about her outfit was that she was wearing white suspenders with her skirt.

Dawn was wearing this cool oversized (really oversized) blue shirt. One of the coolest things about it was that it was green inside, so that when she turned the collar down and rolled the sleeves up, you could see these nice touches of green at her neck and wrists. She was wearing a green skirt – and clogs. I’d never seen a person actually wearing clogs, just photos of people in Sweden.

Jessi and I looked dull, dull, dull. We were both wearing jeans. Jessi was wearing a T-shirt that said You are looking at perfection. And she was wearing running shoes. But no interesting jewelry or anything else. Same with me. I was just wearing jeans, a plain white shirt, and running shoes. Yawn.