That said, here's a start. If a garment, a makeup style, a perfume reminds me of one of these, I find it very hard to resist:
FRED AND GINGER
I've thought, watching Fred and Ginger movies from the 1930s (The Barkleys of Broadway, from 1949, is rather tedious), that I would be content to dress like Fred Astaire half the time and Ginger Rogers the other half. Fred Astaire is famous for the "top hat, white tie and tails" look, but he preferred slightly tweedier, more casual clothing. Really, few men wore clothes, any clothes, as well as Fred Astaire.
A pity more videos aren't available legally, since so much of what I love about Ginger Rogers' dance dresses is the way they moved. Sometimes this reflects their utter impossibility as garments: a forty-pound beaded dress, a mass of whirling, shedding feathers. You wouldn't wear something like this in 2009, and yet, how absurdly romantic, how decadent.
Here, the perennially gorgeous "Never Gonna Dance" gown, with its tightly tucked bodice and cloud of a skirt (layers of chiffon)? I dream of owning a version of this one some day. It still looks fresh, despite being made for a 73-year-old movie.
With regard to videos of Fred and Ginger, there tends to be a cycle on Youtube: people post videos of the dance sequences, Warner Brothers cracks down, and then the videos reappear. I'm loath to post links to videos that will shortly be removed for copyright violation, but among the numbers I adore are "Pick Yourself Up", "Never Gonna Dance", "Change Partners", "Cheek To Cheek", and "Let's Face The Music And Dance."
TOMOKO KAWASE
Tomoko Kawase (often referred to as Tommy) is the singer in the Japanese band The Brilliant Green, which I followed semi-obsessively for years. At this point she has a couple of side projects (which started out parodic, but now seem to be all oh-isn't-she-cute all the time, meh), and has styled herself every which way, enough that I'm not sure one can say she has a style.
One of Tommy's more parodic videos, this one clearly taking off Avril Lavigne's video for "Complicated." I love that she smashes the guitar at the beginning of the video.
Watching this woman's career has given me a sense, however vague, of the differences between North American and Pacific Rim fashion. A gross generalization, I know, but bear with me: to my mind it seems there's something distinctive about (particularly) Japanese and Korean designers, a demure femininity, a playfulness, a willingness to countenance frills, slouchiness and shapelessness, but somehow in a way that works on petite women. Being petite, slender and flat-chested myself, I appreciate this. Look at the publicity images here: much is abominably cutesy or '80s throwback, but what works has a slouchy, schoolgirlish charm that I find immensely appealing. (As for the image above, eh to the Elmo doll, but I love the pattern on the dress.)
I was in Bangkok in 2004, and the younger, more well-heeled women there almost had a uniform: flowy jersey top, full 1950s-style skirt, pointy-toed heels. I still love dressing that way.
MARILYN MONROE
Hard for me to take inspiration from Marilyn Monroe, since I look nothing like her, but I've always found her compelling. The camera worshipped her. I especially love her in The Misfits, the last movie she completed before she died: not the best movie, but few things Monroe did -- or wore -- felt this simple or unstudied. You get a sadness from Monroe, a fragility, and an innocent sensuality, like a cat in sunshine; hard to know whether that was authentic to her or merely Arthur Miller's idealized image of her, but she embodies it. I love the way she wore a white shirt. And I love this dress.
"I would be content to dress like Fred Astaire half the time and Ginger Rogers the other half." Hahaha. He did dress well. I heard that he had his suits custom-tailored at Saville Row so it would look very, very neat and yet have special adjustments to give freedom to his movements. I'm afraid, however, that the only Fred Astaire movie I'm really familiar with is, ack, Funny Face.
ReplyDeleteThe Misfits is one of my favorite MM movies too, though I kind of enjoy Some Like It Hot more, but I think less for her sake as opposed to the others. As you say, her performance feels a little more near and real. Even if it's not quite accurate, it at least takes her out of the stock character she always plays and wonders how she got to be that way and how she might feel about it.
That white chiffon dress really is a dream. The perfect wedding dress, actually.
ReplyDeleteThe character feels more real, I agree, though we'll never be able to distinguish how much of it was MM (and was it all acting, or was it some of the real person bleeding out to the performance?) and how much of it was Miller (did he put his real insights of her into the story, or was he just under the spell of her mystique like everyone else and was only perpetuating the myth in his own way?). It's a messy tale. I certainly don't envy MM having Arthur Miller as a husband. That's a queer kind of birthday gift to give to your wife: a movie that you wrote with HER in mind specifically, starring as a depressed woman who has almost given up on life? And a divorcee at that?
At any rate, I personally cherish the belief that it was DiMaggio who loved her the best and for who she truly was, whoever that might have been.
I love when Monroe dances barefoot in "The Misfits"...so gorgeous. I've read over a dozen books on Monroe (a minor obsession of mine is old Hollywood) and yes, DiMaggio was the best thing for her. However much he loved her, he hated her public persona. Traditional Italian in 1950's America couldn't stand seeing HIS wife being sexualized and enjoying it, and it was that which drove them apart. Alas...
ReplyDeleteMy favourite film of hers is "The Prince and the Showgirl". I don't know if it was Jack Cardiff's cinematography or the peculiar way English sun is captured on film, but her complexion is so radiant, she literally glows on the screen! Her Edwardian costumes are delightful, as well as her leading man...Larry Olivier!
As for Fred and Ginger..."Top Hat" is the GREATEST (the deco sets alone), one of my favorite musicals. "Carefree" is fun too, even if there weren't a lot of dance sequences.
"Funny Face" is wonderful, but the best Astaire sans Rogers picture I think is "Easter Parade".
I love Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, and Thelma Ritter, and Clark Gable ain't half bad either, so yeah, I really like The Misfits. There's a beautiful coffee table book of photos from the filming somewhere -- I must get a copy.
ReplyDeleteAnne, I do wonder how Miller and Monroe meshed -- on the one hand it seems like a wonderful gift for her, since I understand she wanted to be a dramatic actress, and on the other...well, she isn't around, alas, to say what she thought. She appears to have had a very severe anxiety disorder, at the very least.
Kathleen, my favourite F&G movie is Swing Time, but Top Hat is of course fantastic too -- you can really see the evolution of the romantic comedy in these movies. I like almost all of them in the 1934-38 period, aside from Shall We Dance? which has a couple of okay numbers in a generally really boring, tired movie. (And the ones where F&G aren't the romantic leads generally suffer from that.) I still haven't seen The Prince and the Showgirl! I ought to, for sure.