They've Got Chills! The 'Pink Ladies' Cast Reveals What It's Like to Wear Those Iconic Jackets

A new generation of the girl gang suits up for 'Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies.'

James Dean perfected the rebel look in the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause, and teenagers ever since have picked up the gauntlet to see who can look the coolest. Dean’s role inspired the wardrobe of many to follow, including John Travolta's Danny Zuko in Grease, Henry Winkler’s The Fonz in Happy Days, and even Robert Pattinson's Edward Cullen in The Twilight Saga movies.

But with the arrival of Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies on Paramount+, the girls of Rydell High are getting in on the action with their specially cultivated girl gang pink jackets.

Set four years before the original Grease, Rise of the Pink Ladies is the story of four fed-up outcasts, who dare to have fun on their own terms, sparking a moral panic that will change Rydell High forever when they band together to form The Pink Ladies.

The Ladies include Marisa Davila as Jane Facciano, a brainiac good student; Cheyenne Wells as Olivia Valdovinos, a scandal-ridden cynic; Tricia Fukuhara as Nancy Nakagawa, a fashion maven; and Ari Notartomaso as Cynthia Zdunowski, a tomboy.

Related: Get All the Deets on Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies

Parade checked in with the ladies to find out just how cool it was to put on those Pink Lady jackets.

“You’d think I’d feel like super energized and ready to take on the world,” Notartomaso shares. “But I actually just cry. It’s so special. This jacket is like a huge part of the air that we breathe. Grease is such a beloved film by so many. To be able to be a part of that, to be able to wear a jacket as part of a group that we never saw ourselves in growing up. I don’t think any of us ever would have felt like we’d be able to become Pink Ladies simply because of how we looked and who we were. To be able to do that was magic. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.”

“When you put the jackets on and you pop that collar, there’s nothing you can’t do,” adds Davila. “You rule the school, and it gives you the confidence that you need. You’re just set, you got all the right tools. The jackets are really like the last piece of the puzzle to feel so empowered to take on the day and any task ahead of you.”

And Fukuhara says it doesn’t feel real to her and she’s not sure it ever will.

“Every time I put it on, it’s like a warm hug,” she says. “It’s your fellow Pinks, who are there with you right now, and every Pink that’s going to come after you in the show and, figuratively, for what they stand for. It’s really nice. I actually have to disassociate because, otherwise, if I really allow myself to feel something, I’ll just never get through the day. I think, 'Truly, it’s just a jacket, it’s just a jacket, it’s just a jacket. Leave it alone, it’s fine.'”

Related: Where to Watch 'Grease' and How to Stream the Olivia Newton-John Classic

And Wells agrees, saying, “Bam. You’re a cool kid.”

The Pink Ladies have finished filming all 10 episodes of Season 1 of the series, but they still remember the special moment from the first time they put their jackets on.

“We were trying to figure out what we were going to do with our sleeves because we wanted everyone to have a sense of individuality, even in this thing that is providing unity for all of us,” Fukuhara says. “Was it the J Crew thing where you go up and then you go down? I don’t know. Some people are rolling that, and some people are just buttoning it. It’s kind of neat, special, it’s sweet.”

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies is streaming on Paramount+.

Next, Test Your Grease Knowledge!