Filmland Follies

            I recently watched Sabrina for the first time and fell in love with the costumes (which is easy to do when they're designed by Edith Head and worn by Audrey Hepburn). The most famous gown from the film is the one I'm analyzing for this article - my fourth Dress in Detail! If you haven't read my others, you can check out the Scarlett O'Hara dress , the "I Don't Care" dress , and the "Never Gonna Dance" dress here!               Audrey Hepburn is well-known for her status as a fashion icon. She regularly worked with European fashion houses, and her stardom helped launch some of these designers to the same level of fame. Audrey's tendency to favor these expensive foreign designers sometimes caused friction with her costume designers, which is exactly what happened on the set of Sabrina .                Edith Head was the official costume desi...

               Here I am with another Dress in Detail costume analysis! (If you missed my others, on Judy Garland's "I Don't Care" dress and Ginger Rogers's "Never Gonna Dance" dress, give them a read!) I must confess to you that I've never seen Gone With the Wind , but the costume design is legendary. Walter Plunkett (who I just featured in my Singin' in the Rain article) was the mastermind behind the extravagant, historical costumes of this film - and none were grander than Vivien Leigh's. I'll be taking a closer look at the famous red dress from the birthday party scene which perfectly sums up the character of Scarlett O'Hara.             The "Scarlett" dress is meant to be a showstopping attention-getter, slightly scandalous for the 1870s. It certainly achieves its goals. The design for this costume was meant to be wildly different from both what the other characters were wearing and what Scarlett...

               Singin' in the Rain is one of those gorgeous films where you can pause at any moment and it might as well be a painting. Besides being an iconic movie, it's a stunning combination of Technicolor and fashion - which is why I decided to round up the costumes in one big stunning survey. Here it is: the Singin' in the Rain Costume Analysis !                  Scene One: The Movie Premiere               At the beginning of Singin' in the Rain , Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) are at the premiere of their latest film, The Royal Rascal. The year is 1927, and silent films are just making the switch over to talkies. Don and Lina are dressed in coordinating white outfits - because they're such an amazing screen team who totally adore each other! (Sarcasm intended.) Even though Don can't stand Lina, their matchy-matchy out...

                If you know me, you know I love movie costumes. I recently watched Royal Wedding for the first time, and boy, oh boy, did it have amazing costumes. The movie was originally planned as a Fred Astaire/Judy Garland vehicle to capitalize on their smash success in Easter Parade . Costume designer Helen Rose began making costumes for Judy, but when Judy had to drop out of the film, Rose transferred those designs over to up-and-coming star Jane Powell.               I had to do a fair bit of research to figure out who designed Royal Wedding 's costumes. There wasn't a designer credited in the film, and the Wikipedia page doesn't list one. Eventually, thanks to handy-dandy IMDB, I found one little bullet point hidden in the Cast and Crew section: "Helen Rose (uncredited)." Uncredited??!?! was my general reaction to that. Helen Rose was an icon of costume design! She did On The Town ...