Fashion in the Movies

April 26, 2024

Today that doesn't sound like much, but back in the 1950s, it was not only a novice concept, it was really something that didn't occur, even though costume design was a huge part of the movies.  

I have to say that I have an insider look at this, cause my cousin has won a number of Oscars for costume design.  She's also very generous with her designs and is as talented and imaginative as she is skilled.  When we first met and started talking a little about each other's business (this was before I had started doing much online and was mostly designing for clients), she was very impressed that I sketched, designed, and then drafted the pattern and put the whole thing together.  I felt she was being very generous with her good nature, but she's still feels the same today!  

Some of the things she has done have been historical, and she's loved learning from those historical movies.  She does a lot of work today with Wes Anderson, who I frankly don't get, but she loves working with him.  

This could go on and on, starting with the beginning of the movies, but the real impact of movie fashion - where the fashion is set by the movie and not the other way around really started in the 50s.  You might look at a lot of art-deco movies and film noir movies, but they were more stylized.  And they were all definitely reflections of the styles of their times.  But they also weren't applicable to normal everyday life.  Basically the movies were escapism in the 1930s from the Depression and the hardness of life. 
 

The reality is that none of these outfits would have worked in a world where this was the normal dress.

And although this looked a little more stylish than most streetwear of the day, it certainly wasn't what was in the movies.  And Hollywood did a good job of creating a make-believe world that would hold folks up during a very bleak time of history.  

In the 1950s, the movies, but also the times changed.  The world had been at war and the US did not suffer any of the destruction that Europe or Asia suffered.  As a result, there was the change from wartime to peacetime, but the US experience a wide range of wealth.  The middle class became wealthy and even had disposable income.  So when the movies created fashion, for the first time, people could actually wear the fashions in the movies, and had places to wear them.  In A Place in the Sun, Edith Head did a dress for Elizabeth Taylor that literally took the fashion industry by storm.

The movie was about a fellow who wants a better life and accepts a job in his rich uncle's business and meets Elizabeth Taylor, falls in love, while having been dating another woman, Shelly Winters, and is looking for a place in the sun!  The dress Elizabeth Taylor wears is so gorgeous and Taylor is so spectacularly beautiful in the movie, that spring after the movie came out, every shop was inundated with requests for this dress.  There were still enough home sewists at the time, that I'm sure there were a lot of these dresses made.  But the fashion industry wasn't even slightly prepared for anything like this and was completely caught off guard.  

Never again.  

This was during Bacal's modeling days before she really took up acting, and when Howard Hawk's wife picked her out as a beauty, and as they say To Have and To Have Not happened!   I even copied her outfit in the movie, the best one.

Alas it has long since seen better times and someone else is wearing it now - if they can fit into it.  
 

But I also loved the dress above so much that I styled some cards of my favorite fashions.

I was after a line drawing of these styles because they were so iconic that a line drawing would bring them all back to life.  

This outfit was so stunning that Cary Grant couldn't stop looking at her.  And of course I had to have my take on it.

Each one of these cards, tells a story.  Bacal, was discovered in the photo above, while Grace was also discovered, and got married shortly after filming this movie.

Liz's other iconic dress was her full slip in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and there were other reasons I loved this dress, it flowed and moved, and Taylor wore it like the dress was part of her.  

This was one of Edith Head's tour de force as was Marni, but this had such fabulous lines and that Dolman sleeve was so chic and designers played around with that sleeve style during the late 50's and early 60's.  

Holly making her trip to Sing Sing to hear the weather report dressed to the nines in another version of a little black dress done by her fav designer Givenchy.  The tale of Audrey, Givenchy and Edith Head is probably more often the case than not.  Givenchy did the famous ball gowns and Paris gowns in Sabrina but got no credit even as Head accepted an Oscar.  Hepburn got even with Head, and used her for a lot of her later movies.  But this dress will live forever as one of the classics of cinema and display the ultimate power of fashion that the movies has on  fashion.  
 

Another huge impact on fashion was Annie Hall and Diane Keaton's wardrobe, which was supposedly made up by Keaton for the movies.  Even today, Keaton's style is still as iconic and eclectic as any artist out there. 

What's most fun about traveling through movies, is that there isn't one among us who hasn't gotten an idea or inspiration from something in the movies.  

I have a bad habit of watching a movie, and devoting most of my time to how the seams are sewn, or how the garment is designed and how well the designer does is showing off the actor/actress in the best way possible.  I also notice lots of mistakes.  Some are obvious fitting mistakes where a character would never wear what the designer has chosen (or the director), and some are merely overlooked mistakes.  

One thing that my cousin and I agree is that the attention to detail pays off.  She did the costumes for Chariots of Fire and couldn't get them to hang and move right until she put the characters in authentic historical underwear.  And then everything looked correct.  That attention to detail pays off.  She won her second Oscar for that.  I always thought her hardest movie was Dick Tracy because the colors had to be all the comic colors that were in newsprint and she stayed true to that.  So the trench coat that Dick Tracy wore, wasn't really beige as it actually

yellow cause that's how it would have been printed out in the comics.  Again that attention to detail pays off.  She should have won an Oscar for that, but she had stiff competition - Cyrano de Bergerac, which was a deep period piece that hires many industry experts and skilled technicians, and the Academy will always vote for those movies because it keeps their supporters in business.  

Here we are in Dallas catching up with family.   

So the next time you see a movie, enjoy it, but enjoy the costumes as well.  And I'm particularly fond of the more modern ones, particularly when they have excellent style and fashion in them.  From Bond's suits (although I think they fit too tightly - too Italian cut, and I love that draped, Duke of Windsor cut), to Succession, there's a lot more out there than you think to admire.  Although it might be on the screen at home and not in the movie house, doesn't make it any the less interesting or inspiring.  

Some Life Updates.....

Part 1 
So my Walt has bit the bullet and has done the knee-replacement thing.  I'm thrilled because I suspect he's been living with a lot of pain and certainly a decreased range of motion, so we're both looking forward to the end result.  The inbetween isn't so much fun.  When you have pain it's one thing, but when someone you love has pain, it's really hard on you.  I'm sure he's doing a lot better than me (he has some drugs for one thing), but it's also not fun to see the swelling and bruising that looks pretty horrific right now on someone you love.  The home care though is outstanding, and they've been very patient with my concerns, and the patient's lack of patience!  I hope we can recommend this process and I'm really looking forward to him walking and even some hiking without his knee buckling or freezing up.  

Part 2
In the amazing tech world we live in, there are so many more things available to us that we could hardly think of even a very short time ago.  But there are the problems too.  Apparently backup hard drives don't last more than 5 years, so you should get a new one every 5 years.  Mine had been chugging along famously for about 7 years, and really didn't think there was a problem, until...well...there was a problem.  I worked at backing up as much as I could before the final gasp (well, I'm hoping not), and part of what I keep on the back up drive is my emails - for like decades.  So I can still check in with email periodically, but it's fraught with difficulties and certainly not the preferred nor easy way to do it.  So be patient for my responses, and yes.  I'm still around.  In the meantime, my "other" patient is in some far-off lab, being scanned and hopefully coaxed into releasing the information and my past emails.  

The SewingArtistry Resource Library is designed to contain information to not only make your sewing better, but to aid in you fitting and flattering your shape, size and style.  Check it out. 

Look for future classes coming in 2024
The Core Pattern Shirt, (one of my favorites for woven core pattern that you can make into a myriad of different garments), 
Basic Knit Top (core pattern class for knit basic tops, shells, tees, dresses, and tunics)
 

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