Roundtable: Aria, Season 1

The Participants - PLL editor Kate and writers Ann, Anthony, and Lauren
The Subject - Pretty Little Liars' Aria Montgomery, as seen in Season 1

Kate O'Leary: Góðan dag* to our first PLL roundtable, featuring everyone’s favorite world traveler, Aria! Let’s start with this look from The Perfect Storm: Ann Foster: It's like the movie Enchanted, but instead of a Disney princess come to life, it's a fetish anime character come to life. KO: Maybe she’s auditioning for a Practical Magic sequel we don't know about. Lauren Viscomi: She looks like a high-end goth doll. And that is not a compliment.   Anthony Casey: I think she looks like she rolled around in a Taylor Momsen's closet. KO: Definitely has some Momsen qualities. How unfortunate.    AF: I can just imagine Taylor Momsen wearing this at the start of a concert, then ripping off the dress to reveal a full-length bodystocking and little else.    KO: Maybe Aria does that when she has alone time with Ezra. AF: Thanks for that traumatizing image. I'd like to note that this is a terrible choice to wear to school. The skirt would get totally smushed sitting at a desk all day. *Means “good day” in Icelandic. See, reading YKYLF is educational.

  

KO: Onward to Je Suis une Amie. When I recapped it, I declared je n'aime pas upon seeing this outfit. (Seriously, this is turning into a language learning course): AF: Wow, that's a lot of look.   AC: Fishnets and florals and leather, oh my! Is this Doctor Quinn on meth?    LV: I hate these cropped jackets. Why do they insist on wearing them?   AF: Maybe ABC Family bought shares in a cropped jacket factory.   AC: I suppose they're doing some fair trade: OK, you get to wear eleven accessories and tights AND a dress but not a full length jacket.   LV: In all seriousness though, I love the boots    AC: ...and I love the dress. But what's with the weird scallop thing it's doing at the bottom?   AF: I have no idea. Somewhere, Tim Gunn is frowning and saying, "Aria, this concerns me."      KO: Wait - I think I might understand the skirt. It may have a bustle in the back.   LV: I think so too - and pockets.   AC: Whoa, check out the cuffs on the jacket. Just noticed. These landlubbers should be grateful the Pirate Queen graced their shores.  AF: EEE! Anthony, how did I miss the cuffs? Very 1600s.    KO: And that's where the fabric for the length of the coat went - into the cuffs.

KO: Let's take a look at this number from Careful What U Wish 4... AC: "Whut, we're not ALL wearing a doily to the dance?"    AF: The salesclerk at my local American Apparel was wearing this exact look last week. No lie. LV: Well I love this outfit. It's one of my fave Aria pieces of the season.   AF: It's cute, but not so much for a 17 year old at a school function. Though, on Serena V-D-Dubs, it would be considered modest.   KO: Aria is dating an older man...    AF: I'm struck by the lack of accessories. I only see two (matching!) earrings, a bracelet, and a watch.   LV: No cropped jacket or dangly feathers from her hair or ears, either. KO: It's nice to see Aria in a semi-normal outfit.  Ann: It's crazy that for Aria, this is considered semi-normal.   AC: If this is what a year in Iceland does for 17 year old girls, I need to get there stat.   KO: Is that why she has an obsession with feathers? Are feathers big in Iceland? We should research their fashion for answers...   AF: I bet Iceland is so cold that there are no birds, and so feathers are used like currency.   AC: OH! Has anyone checked out Lucy Hale's tumblr? She's totes deep LV: Does she say anthing about Iceland?

KO: And now for something completely different, we have this piece from The New Normal: LV: Barf.  AC: I wonder what her Bond Girl name would be...   AF: Oh, you guys, this was my fave look of hers that week. It's like a total 60s retro look with furry cuffs! Furry cuffs, come on! And her bond girl name is clearly Aria Lala.   LV: No, I still say “barf”. This coat reminds me of something that Samantha from American Girl would have worn. AF: OK, the fur on the bottom hem is maybe a bit much...   LV: A LOT bit much.   AC: I really like the coat. But it needs some patches or something. Something that screams "I'M UNIQUE AND READ BOOKS"   AF: The toggle front buttons remind me of- LV: Paddington Bear?   AF: YES!     AC: So it’s a bit of American Girl Samantha with a side of "Anastasia fleeing from the Bolsheviks" and “a bear from Darkest Peru”? KO: Wow, PLL is so multi-cultural!

KO: Onward to this unfortunateness from Can You Hear Me Now: AC: I don't... I just... what?   KO: It's. A. Cropped. Sweater.   AF: On the bottom, is that shorts or a skirt? I don't know which is worse.   AF: Skort? Is that a skort?     LV: She looks like a sexed-up Heidi. And I don't mean Heidi Montag. I mean Heidi from the Alps. AC: There's a satin ruffle. There are elastic cuffs on the sleeve. And calling that a sleeve is being generous. And are there multiple belts?    KO: I just don't understand why someone would put any of these pieces together. AF: Is it all one top? Or is it two things layered? If it's all one top...how and why did it come into creation? AC: Look at her parents. Then look at this. Who let her leave the house?   KO: So many questions. So few answers.   AF: Saving grace: on her thumb, you can see very cute pale blue nailpolish. LV: The sleeves confuse me. I don’t like being confused. AF: I think it may be a peach sweater with a satin ruffle top on top. LV: I think you may be right. AC: I think I may have gone blind.

KO: Here's a good one spotted in To Kill a Mocking Girl: AF: Going fishin'?   AC: LOVE.   KO: This is hat is SO CUTE. I need it. Now.   AC: Except I remember this episode and she was wearing multiple belts. Which, if you hadn't guessed, I can't stand.   LV: She looks a little like a cross between Beetlejuice and Wednesday Addams. But I love the hat.    AC: It's like Woodstock threw up on Aria but I agree, it totally works. Floppy hats are so hot.   AF: Seriously, though, this hat is good for fly fishing. Is it what she wears when raiding the fishing supply store for lures to wear in her hair?   KO: It's her version of the "nautical look". Obvs the stripes must be black for more edginess.   LV: Right, because ARIA IS EDGY.

KO:Let’s go all the way back to the pilot... AC: BOOTS.   LV: UGH, she's pulling a- KO: Quinn from Glee LV: Right!   AF: I had these same boots. I wore them OUT. Love them. AC: Awesome boots. Cute dress. But this Drew Barrymore look was over in '94.     AF: For the true 90s look, I would have added a white baby tee layered inside   LV: Awww yes. AF: Maybe I like this so much because of nostalgia for 1994. But why would Aria have nostalgia for 1994? Wasn't she born in, like, 1994?    LV: Well, 90s or not, this makes her butt look really big, and we all know that it just isn't.  AC: She’s like a sexy dairy maid. A grunge sexy dairy maid. Didn't Pearl Jam write a song about that?

KO: Staying with this theme, when Lauren recapped The Homecoming Hangover she noted that Aria looked like she’d eaten too many of Hefty Hanna’s cupcakes:   AC: Ah, so we meet again, ridiculous socks.   AF: We're back to the fetish-anime-character-come-to-life aesthetic.   LV: Oh God, I did recap this one. And I stand by my observation. AF: Are those... lace fishnet knee socks?   LV: They're like old witch stockings, with witch shoes.   KO: See? She is auditioning for Practical Magic! AF: And of course the cropped leather jacket.  LV: And a balloon shaped bottom, that makes her bottom look like well, a balloon.  AC: Floral dresses are cute. Pairing them fishnet knee socks makes you look like you have daddy issues.   KO: Or like Taylor Momsen. Oh, wait...is that one and the same? AC: I always wonder what the other girls at their school think when the PLLers arrive.   AC: Like, you know the rest of the class are rocking AE or Hollister or UO, and this broads just got off the Euro Trash Express.    KO: I've wondered the same thing, Anthony...but then I suppose they're used to Mona. AC: Mona is... special.   LV: Emily is the only one who could blend in with the rest of the kids. Maybe one day they can use her as their mole.   AF: Heh, we should do a roundtable for Mona!    AC: I don't have enough gin to look at many photos of Mona in succession.

KO: We end on a high note from The Badass Seed: LV: Pretty sure I called this one "my favorite PLL outfit of all time" or somesuch. KO: You did. AC: BAH, my ovaries are clamping this is so cute.   AF: "I'm like SO channeling my inner stage manager, you guys."   LV: Love the necklace, and the boots, and the cardigan...  KO: It's nice to see her ditching the goth colors and wearing white.  LV: ...and, and the top with that pattern that just makes me want to touch the material... AC: Can we talk about the top?    KO: Yeah what is that material? Almost looks furry...    AF: The necklace is a bit "I made it myself out of spearheads, you guys!"   KO: Spearheads she picked up in Iceland. AC: It's the Viking way.    AF: I think this one works b/c of the lack of patterns. This is also the most normal-teenagerish she has ever looked.   LV: You're right, it's a typical school-girl outfit. i wish she dressed like this more often   AC: It's the cardigan. The source of all her power lies in that cardigan.   AF: But if she dressed like this more often, she wouldn't be our Aria.   LV: Truth AF: Note: shoutout to That’s So Aria on tumblr KO: Ooh...I was looking for a reason to procrastinate!

Comments

[Lauren V]

I'm more of a fan of Hanna's style. Aria's outfits are a little much for me at times, but she does get to wear some pretty rad outfits.

[L-A]

As much as I love this show (and oh do I ever love it), I think I love you guys and your snark more. I wish y'all could have seen the Aria worthy outfit that passed me on Saturday: cowboy boots, short denim shorts, cropped suede vest with a fringe that went down past the edge of the shorts and a blue feather in her hair. I kid you not.