Project X

Fashion and Film Analysis

The year was 2012; Jersey Shore was on it’s last season, Tumblr and American Apparel were still going strong, Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO was released the year prior, and it was the end of indie sleaze. The end of this era was marked by none other than the cult classic and ultimate party movie; Project X. This movie made it’s mark on thousands of teenagers, and ended up in my hands after it was added to Charli XCX’s list of movies that inspired Brat, the critical acclaim 8th (technically 9th if you’re a hardcore angel), studio album by the singer. I had always heard the legends of this movie, but never took the time to check it out. It was like any other day, I got an urge to watch a movie, and after spending some time checking out some of the other titles on the movie list, decided to check out Project X. Now, seven watches later, it has become a favorite. On my fifth watch, I finally noticed one of the characters sporting an argyle Lacoste sweater vest. This got my mind turning, and that leads us to here and now, a year and some change later I am sitting down to write an essay about the film that changed how most teenagers (of the time period) partied forever.

“This is Project X, yo.” Costa says as the movie opens. Costa is Jewish, obsessed with girls, and dreams of his life back in Queens, often using that as motivation for the party, because he’s tired of being perceived as a loser because of his friends. I think a part of it is because he believes him and his friends deserve better; they deserve to be popular and get the girls, they deserve to be included in the parties and social gatherings. One of the scenes that backs this up is in the locker room, he overhears someone who he perceives as being less than him got invited to a party, and he feels the FOMO of this. “We should’ve been at that party man.” He tells his friends. You can tell Costa is the ringleader of the party, despite Thomas being the overall main character, based on his heavy emphasis on making it work, and the lengths he went to make sure people showed up. “The last thing you want is no-one at your party…” He says to Thomas after Thomas is afraid a “bunch of losers” will show up. Costa puts the party on Craigslist, sends out email and text chains, and even calls a few radio stations. The aforementioned technologies now an ancient relic of our modern era, and that aspect of flip phones and home video cameras is a fun element of this film, truly immersing us back to before everyone had a smart phone and spent most of their time on TikTok.

Costa is always wearing an argyle sweater vest of some sort, he’s dressed very professional for a teenager, and I believe this spans from his business-man mindset and maybe his Jewish heritage. He’s making business calls, supplies the drugs and bounce house, and gets the party two DJ’s. He starts off in an argyle sweater vest, white shirt underneath, and dark jeans, changing into the Lacoste sweater vest of the same pattern, but different colors, for the party. I believe this constant silhouette or uniform for Costa is a nod to how sure of himself he is, he’s already grown into who he is as a person, or at least he just has a very strong sense of identity. The only time you see Costa change what he wears, is at the very end of the movie, when he sports a white tank top, puffer coat, and some shades, still sporting his party chalice. This also nods to how unaffected he was by the party, not only did he get out scot-free in terms of legal trouble, but he also finally got to return to the “party god” status he had in Queens.

Thomas Kub is our main character, and as his wardrobe suggests, he goes through a lot of change throughout the movie. He is always sporting a zip up jacket, a graphic tee, and some jeans; zip-up jackets are a trend in the film; we’ll talk more about trends later. Even though he wears similar outfits, it still changes, at school the day before the party, he wears natural colors, browns and darker clothing, blending in, comforting classics. At the party he changes into a plaid shirt over a graphic shirt and jeans, still very comforting and classic clothing, but I think the choice of a pattern instead of solid colors, is a nod to him wanting to be a bit more noticed. Thomas goes through one of his first character changes in the beginning of the party, he was against this many people showing up, he didn’t want the house to get ruined. As he goes to stand on the table, in attempt to get people out of the house, The party legend in their school; Miles Teller, walks into the party and shouts his support for Thomas on the table, he also spots the girl he wants to impress, Alexis as she also supports his party. This peer pressure, the vehicle for the party, makes him decide that maybe the party isn’t that bad after all. Later in the party this veil of reform and control over the party is finally shed after he gets pushed into the pool by Costa, and is forced to change his outfit. He then sports a more loud outfit, white shirt with a graphic of electrical tape, in blues and reds, and a pair of jeans. This outfit feels a bit more seen compared to his others, it’s more bright visually. Think of when you’re walking along the street at night, white and other bright colors show up more in the dark, and in the darkness of a party, this is also present. The parties events also turn after the outfit change, they get sexier, they get darker, especially after the gnome is broken and the ecstasy pills are spilled onto the grass, note the white color of the pills against the grass. Thomas has fully shed any nerves of the party going wrong, any nerves of him being perceived as a loser, as he stands on top of the roof of his house, looking at thousands of people who came to his party, and flips off the helicopter above him, shouting, “My party is the shit. My party is legendary”, and he jumps off the roof.

Next up is J.B. J.B, is perceived as a nerd, we can base this off of how the other characters interact with him, and also his baggy clothing, polo shirts, and of course, the symbolism of glasses. J.B undergoes big change during the party, perceived as the loser he has “a lot to live up to”, just like his friends. Despite being on the lower end of social status, even within the “loser” group, he ends up getting the most action from girls, because he is authentically himself. J.B is a fun character because despite the change into a suit from Mens Warehouse for the party, it is still an outfit change that is authentic to who J.B is. Even after Costa scoffs at him for wearing it (“What the fuck are you wearing?”), J.B doesn’t change or succumb to peer pressure. Instead he does his own thing throughout the party. During the party, J.B sheds parts of the suit, until the party is over, leaving him shirtless and in a makeshift cast of plastic bags and duct tape. The reason he has this cast, is a moment that I believe shows the full arc of J.B as a character. Anything that still held him back; the rude remarks from Costa, the perception of him by his peers, are finally thrown off, literally, as J.B tells Costa to shut up, gives his glasses to Dax, and jumps off the building, onto the bounce house. J.B is tired, physically broken, but he has nothing left to prove. He made out with a cute girl, and stayed true to himself, and I love his growth as a character.

The destruction of the house is important for me to note. This two story house, styled very particularly, very minimally, with specific standards and rules set in place by Thomas’s parents; whose outfits show who they are and what social class they can be perceived in. His dad sports a polo shirt, slacks, and glasses, and his office is off-limits because of his work. His mother wears a shirt and cardigan that are matching, and the colors of their outfits speak to quiet luxury, (grays and dark colors, no labels, no graphics). The house looks like it could’ve been decorated by an interior decorator, the neighborhood it sits in is the suburbs, every house the same level of stories and styles. This conformity, conservatism, is that much more satisfying when it is destructed. Even if unintentional, the rebellion of these teenagers, the physical ripping apart of the house, speaks to a break from this normalcy, a break from these standards held by Thomas’s parents’ social class. The destruction of his dads car, a very nice sports car not to be touched, then being pulled out of the pool at the end, the chandelier being swung on and then pulled from the ceiling and crashing into the ground, the windows being broken (which also nods to Costa’s loss of control, as he mentions he has a friend who can fix that, and then later on apologizes to Thomas, because he doesn’t know how to fix any of this.)

The return of T-Rick is a very tense scene. The fire obliterating the neighborhood acting as a curse of the party, what was supposed to happen after all this destruction? All this mayhem? It acts as a wake-up call, a moment for the characters to reflect on whats truly important (Thomas searching for his dog despite the crowd running away from the scene). I also think this wake-up call comes to Thomas a few scenes earlier, after his recklessness of wanting the girl he was pressured to want, affects the relationship he truly wants with Kirby. Kissing Kirby is like kissing someone in the group, Costa mentions; this party was supposed to be something new, something different then who these characters were before, not a return to comfort, but a break from normalcy.

This is the perfect moment to talk about Kirby and Alexis. I perceive the colors of their outfits, especially during the party, to speak as symbols, especially for Thomas. Kirby wears white, and Alexis wears black. We can perceive these colors as a take on Angel and Devil, at least that’s how I like to see it. Black is sultry, black is mystery, white is pure, white is comfort. Kirby wearing white, as she is the relationship Thomas realizes he actually wants (of course after he screws it up), acts as a beacon almost. Like I mentioned before, white is an easy to see color, and if you look closely, you can spot Kirby in the background of some scenes. She’s also always with Thomas when he needs a break from the party, she’s the person he can go to for a quick reality check. After taking the pill, he’s in the pool with her, and he mentions that he’s having fun because she’s there. Alexis wearing black, is the siren call almost, even though Thomas made the decision to go after and pursue her interest in him, I believe the color of the clothing still acts as this symbol.

Speaking of the color black; we can talk about the day after the party, at least in kronos with the story, the characters outfits reflect on how they feel after the party. Thomas is wearing all black, his friends are sporting their usual outfits. I believe Thomas is wearing all black because he is mourning the loss of what he had, the relationship with his parents now most likely being strained because of the party, but most importantly the loss of his relationship with Kirby, who even amongst the cheers of the students, his peers this parties sole purpose was to impress, is unimpressed, and when Thomas spots her, the crowd gets quiet, and Thomas runs after Kirby, meeting her and telling her that he doesn’t care about repairing anything else but his relationship with her. He’s finally decided that she’s the girl for him. This ends the movie with a happy note, and I love this part because even though you can tell it’s definitely staged, Kirby’s body movements looking like clear blocking, it wraps up the events in a nice bow, and gives the viewer something to be hopeful for for Thomas. The before credits scene then takes us to Costa, who as I mentioned before is sporting a puffer coat with fur lining, a tank top, shades, and his party chalice, who is clearly unaffected by the events of the party.

Even though I could stop there, it would be criminal to not talk about some of my favorite fashion and music moments in the movie. The first fashion moment I want to talk about is the Playboy girl. Her presence in the movie, more specifically at the party, is notable because of her status as appearing in Playboy. This status is important, especially in the 2010s, because there wasn’t a single teenage boy back then who didn’t have some sort of poster from Sports Illustrated or of some model in a bikini hanging on their wall. Her status acts as a token or trophy, which is put into play when the freshman who weren’t “allowed” at the party by Costa, are then seen (by Costa), dancing with her, their respect then earned. She wears a blue tank, white shorts, and my favorite part of her outfit is the dangly necklace and the flower brooch pinned to her shirt, a nod at the business casual dress back in the 2010s.

Next up we have the infamous flower pattern dress, it reminds me of Forever 21, every girl had a dress like that, or at least saw one in the store at that time.

There are a lot of different brands in this movie that are huge era symbols, Adidas, Vans, Converse, shirts that look like Ed Hardy, skater brands and apparel; but the biggest to me is American Apparel. Even though you don’t see a label, the brands ethos and image is reflected in the film. Solid color underwear; specifically hot pink, metallic skinny jeans, clothes with no graphics, tennis skirts, etc. American Apparel was a huge vehicle for the Indie Sleaze aesthetic, and as this was reportedly the last year that indie sleaze was recognized (2012), it makes sense that you see it echoed in the crowd of people.

The soundtrack features very iconic songs, especially of that era of partying, but one of my favorite songs on the soundtrack is “Heads Will Roll - A-Trak Remix”. This song is featured after everyone takes the ecstasy, and is even used as visual imagery, syncing the lyrics “You’re all Chrome,” to a girl wearing metallic skinny jeans. This song is perfect during the come down of the party, as some of the sounds of this song feel sinister, and reflect that vibe of the parties atmosphere perfectly.

The music is what made this movie such a good film, the songs chosen reflect the era and party culture during the 2010s so well, and are nostalgic in a way to the era of fist-pumping and partying hard because of the 2008 recession. (Tik Tok by Kesha was released in 2010).

This movie contains more than the ultimate party, and I hope I proved that to you if you’ve read this far. Sometimes movies and films that feel silly can be so much more under their surface. I loved taking a look at the fashion and the characters, because their arcs and how the party effected who they are as people made the film much more than just something every party goer could hope to achieve at least once in their lifetime. Even though I don’t recommend torching your whole neighborhood and destroying your house, I do recommend partying hard every once in a while.