13 Reasons You Need to Buy A Cape Right Now

Over the weekend, I saw the final installment of The Hunger Games franchise. Just like in the other movies before it, Jennifer Lawrence plays a total bada**. Her character, Katniss Everdeen, is a hero, and sparks a revolution in Panem among the oppressed in an odd, but not entirely unimaginable, dystopian society where kids are forced to kill each other for sport and entertainment. As a teenager, she becomes a symbol of freedom, feminism, and hope.

During one particular scene (don’t worry, I’ll refrain from spoilers), she’s attempting to go incognito as she’s traveling through a war zone in the capital city, so she covers up her combat uniform — a black spandex ensemble — with a teal hooded cape. This costume (one of many wonderful designs from a bunch of talented artists to appear in the The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2) had me pulling out my phone (so sorry to anyone I bothered with my bright screen in the theater, but to be fair, many others were texting too) to jot this down: all of the baddest bitches in movies, TV, and life wear hooded cloaks. From Queen Amidala in Star Wars to Taylor Swift in her “Bad Blood” music video, the style is almost a requirement for becoming a female heroine. Fashion designers have seemingly found inspiration in these, well, inspiring women as well because hooded capes have been on the runway for years in groovy patterns and more modern silhouettes.

Sure, the hooded cape is mostly a staple for those in fairytales, futuristic lands, and fiction, but maybe — just maybe! — it’ll find its way to today’s leaders as a sartorial symbol. Anne Hathaway already wore a gold one. Can’t you see Lena Dunham rocking one next?

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