It’s been over 20 years since How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days was first released. The movie itself tells the story of a sparky young journalist working the ‘How To’ column for a women’s magazine while secretly aspiring to be a political reporter. But what a lot of us remember from How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days is one particular yellow dress.
But before we get to that, let’s recap how this movie has influenced fashion both on and off the screen.
Andie Anderson (played by Kate Hudson) walked so characters like of Andy Sachs (in The Devil Wears Prada) could run—in Jimmy Choos, to be specific.
The story had all the glamour and style of the Cosmo-adjacent fictional title Composure (Hudson rocked Saint Laurent, Prada, Marc Jacobs and more), but the heart of so many women who have gone through the trials and tribulations of romance.
Inspired by her close friend whose unwitting behaviour is turning men away, she sets off to teach her readers how to lose a man in just 10 days, with ad executive Benjamin Barry (Matthew McConaughey) being the unlucky guinea pig.
Meanwhile, Barry, a bit of a New York player, must convince said writer Andie Anderson to fall in love with him in 10 days in order to win a lucrative diamond contract with fictional jeweller DeLauer.
The story sets off a comedy of errors—Benjamin forgetting to maintain the ‘love fern’ so kindly gifted to him by Andie, and Andie requesting a very specific Diet Coke order so many times that Benjamin missed his favourite sporting team, the New York Knicks, winning courtside.
Years on, the tale of the pair’s unlikely love affair still brings people back, with Andie’s feminist attitude and Benjamin’s bad-boy-turned-gooey charm. But the real enduring legacy is the Andie’s iconic yellow dress, which even made headlines in 2021 when someone found an identical version in an op shop.
In a Vanity Fair oral history, the How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days cast all spoke about how the dress became such a cultural moment (it now sits in the Costume Designer Hall of Fame). It turns out that the inspiration was the yellow hue of the Isadora diamond, situated on the bejewelled Harry Winston necklace Hudson wears to the event.
“[Karen Patch, the costume designer] liked that color of the Isadora—the yellow diamond. So the color was very specific,” Hudson told the publication. “[Karen] worked with the [Carolina] Herrera team to create something that she felt was timeless, classic, and clean. I remember all of our fittings and making sure that the lines of the dress were clean and sharp, and the back was all very specific to Karen.”
Carolina Herrera is known for her elegant and glamorous designs, which have often been favoured by America’s First Ladies, including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
“I love that dress,” Hudson continued. “I think that color just was one of those statement colors and was great on camera.”
Allegedly it was director Donald Petrie who advised Hudson to do a “full turn” when she arrived on the staircase.
McConaughey agrees that the dress really helped Andie make an entrance. “[Kate] in that dress was 100 out of 100 knockout. It completely worked,” he explained to Vanity Fair.
The producer on the film, Lynda Obst added that the dress has not lost its sparkle all these years on.
“It’s a style that’s being used still right now, which is that kind of a camisole top, so it’s oddly not out of date for a movie from then, fashion-wise,” she explained.
Obst is not wrong, with dupe videos for the Herrera dress garnering tens of thousands of likes on TikTok, as a new generation of rom-com fans embrace the now-heritage film.
If you’ve also been looking to have your ‘Andie Anderson’ moment, look no further. Here are a few dupes (and updated versions) that will have you thinking every song is about you.
Modern Versions Of Andie Anderson’s Iconic Yellow Dress You Can Buy Now
Shona Joy Sofia Spliced Maxi Dress, $320 from THE ICONIC
SNDYS Camilla Maxi Dress, $99 at THE ICONIC (exclusive)
Moon Dance Verona Maxi Dress in Ice Yellow, $300 from Bec and Bridge
Bec and Bridge Margot Split Midi Dress in Butter Yellow, $267 from SSENSE
Sass and Bide Artemisa Dress in Yellow, $320 (RRP $490) from MYER
Kaiia satin cross back maxi dress in lemon, $95 from ASOS
Wycombe Dress, $495 from Acler
One Fell Swoop Emmeline Maxi Dress in Limoncello, $569 from Coco and Lola
If you feel like diving back into the New York cityscape for some How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days nostalgia, you can stream it now on Binge and Foxtel.
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