Almost Famous is rightly remembered as Cameron Crowe’s greatest contribution to film, an era-defining ode to music, style, and incredible one-liners. My apologies to Elton John, but has there ever been a more moving rendition of “Tiny Dancer” than the one Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) sings on Stillwater’s tour bus, Dolores? Was Philip Seymour Hoffman ever better than in the role of jaded music writer Lester Bangs? Who could forget Frances McDormand’s vaguely hysterical delivery of the line: “Rockstars have kidnapped my son!”?
None of it would be as impactful without Betsy Heimann’s genius costuming. (Heimann is also responsible for the on-screen wardrobes in both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, if you need further convincing of her genius). For Almost Famous, she made the vast majority of the looks from scratch, down to the last ’70s-style band T-shirt. For Zooey Deschanel’s character, she actually tracked down a hostess who used to fly with the now-defunct Pacific Southwest Airlines decades earlier, and copied her vintage uniform exactly.
It’s Penny Lane’s looks, however, that stay in your mind long after the credits roll. As Almost Famous turns 25, revisit the five essentials in the head Band Aid’s closet.
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The Crop Top
Penny Lane gives good crop top throughout Almost Famous—with Heimann hand-sewing matching velvet bell-bottoms for Hudson to make sure she showed just the right amount of midriff. The most memorable crop tops in the film? The lacy one that Hudson wears at Stillwater’s first concert and an embroidered one that Heimann actually made by cutting up an old tablecloth.
