Sunday, January 8, 2012

Fashion On Screen Part 2

 It only took me one and a half years, but here it is! The follow up posting to Fashion On Screen Part 1. This post seems to have been a hit as it drives the most traffic to my ever-so-neglected blog. The thing with law school is it takes all the time you have and then some. However, this semester I am resigned to being a below average student so here is a post I should have dedicated to Property Law readings.

Le Divorce

Kate Hudson in a 1920s red velvet jacket with wide lapels and a double row of buttons.
Kate Hudson in a trench by Chloé with lions and a champagne glass patched on the shoulder.
A Hermès Kelly 28 rigide in Braise crocodile porosus with gold hardware.

Kate Hudson reveals her Egyptian hair cut at the height of her Parisian Mistress transformation.
Don't worry, the purse had a stunt double.
We love our bread, we love our butter, but most of all we love berets! If you ever find yourself craving some very stereotypical French dressing then this is the film for you replete with scarves worn in every fashion imaginable and sweet collars that will remind you of the preppy innocence of Madeline.

Carol Ramsey, who most recently wardrobed Horrible Bosses, was the costumer designer for this film and she definitely won me over with this one. From the frivolous lingerie Kate Hudson sports to the simple and romantic blouses littered throughout the entire cast, it is quite difficult not to fall in love with the very romantic styling. 

My favorite look of the film was Kate Hudson's chocolate brown suit that not-so-secretly contained a pink corset underneath. This look was worn for a midday seduction of Kate's older French gentleman friend with whom she has an affair with. The juxtaposition of a suit with lingerie is a bit common now, yet still carries novelty every time I see it.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes



Marilyn doing a costume test in a dress with a black and orange houndstooth pattern. 
Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" number, which sold at auction in 1999 for an astounding $1,267,500.
I've always had a soft spot for gold diggers and I think it's because of this film. For those of you who have never seen Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, it revolves around Marilyn Monroe, "Lorelei Lee", a sex bomb looking for a wealthy husband. Of course Marilyn could never play a cold and calculating gold digger. That would just be silly. Instead she plays a delightful, and charming woman who truly wants to find love, but with the prerequisite of a very large bank balance. Marilyn argues at one point to a skeptical man "Don't you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty?  You might not marry a girl just because she's pretty, but my goodness, doesn't it help?" Sounds like impenetrable logic to me.

Charles LeMaire Travilla was the costume designer for this film and designed my favorite dress of the film, the wildly famous pink ballroom gown number. If you've never seen this scene of the movie you really, really must!


I will likely do another one of these Fashion on Screen posts for my favorite Sex and the City looks and some other fashionable films. Feel free to make some request as our tastes my coincide :)

(image credit: breoken-tears.org, fanpop.com)

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