MOD a la MODE

 

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The youth and vitality of the Mod movement, and the importance it placed on fashion, make it perpetually inviting. As a reaction to both staid English society and its opposite - the denim and leather-clad 50s rockers - it displayed a combination of flair and rebellion. Mod was short for modernist, and it came with a bang to the U.S. along with the first wave of English pop bands. The English Mods became obsessed with fashion, not just with a look but with the continual acquisition of new garments of high quality. Unlike the Hippy movement that followed, the Mods believed in good tailoring, expensive suits, and a sophisticated look. The Mods also had to creatively search out their fashions, since the marketplace was not awash in youth-centric clothing as it is today. The Mod's mini-skirt caused the biggest fashion trend, a style English designer Mary Quant is credited with starting. English model Twiggy pictured above caused a sensation in the U.S. , a youthful new look  for the 1960s. Here she is dressed in a knitted miniskirt and sleeveless top. While bright colors were also seen in Mod, whites and light creams were popular as they stood out from the gray working world. It took a few years before the Mod aesthetic was truly represented in Hollywood films, where the studios were conservatively trying to find their place amidst the boom of television shows.

Goldie Hawn came to movies from television, one of the new stars created on Rowan & Martin's Laugh In in 1968. Her pixie good looks made her a natural American counter-point to Twiggy. Here she wears a pleated babydoll dress in Cactus Flower, in 1969. This dress and the other costumes were designed by veteran costume designer Moss Mabry. Mabry had designed Rebel Without a Cause, among many others, and had also designed the Mod-influenced costumes of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.

The stylish but hip wardrobe of Faye Dunaway represented Mod sophistication for the young working woman. Here in The Thomas Crown Affair, 1968, she wears a miniskirt and a crisply tailored jacket, complete with a wide-brimmed white hat and gloves. She makes the perfect complement to Steve McQueen. Theadora Van Runkle designed the costumes for Miss Dunaway in the movie. She was herself a young and stylish woman, a new and talented costume designer on the scene. She had also designed Faye Dunaway's wardrobe in Bonnie and Clyde, where her new interpretation of the 1930s wardrobe made a big fashion splash across the country.

Julie Christie had the good-looks and a fascinating face that made her ideal for both historical films like Doctor Zhivago and modern contemporaries like Shampoo. She had starred in the  English fashion-forward films Darling and Petulia, and is pictured here in In Search of Gregory, 1970.  This movie's costume designer was Gabriella Falk.

Some of the veteran costume designers adapted to the newer fashion styles of the 1960s. Edith Head was one. The costume sketch at left is for Elke Sommer in the film, The Oscar, 1966.  In this film about Hollywood movies, Sommer plays a sketch artist to Edith Head herself.

Renie, like Edith Head, had started in the studio wardrobe departments in the 1920s. In this costume sketch for an unknown production, she has designed two mini-skirted outfits for "Elsa" to wear at a scene at the famed Whisky-a-Go-Go on the Sunset Strip.

The best movie of the Mod years was, in my opinion, Blowup, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. It was set in England and based on a fashion and street photographer played by David Hemmings. The movie was a perfect symbol of its 1966 world - starring a young Vanessa Redgrave, models Verushka and Peggy Moffitt, Jane Birkin, and Sarah Miles - all wrapped up in an ambigous plot mixed with fantasy and reality. Among its thrills, a small nightclub concert scene featuring The Yardbirds, with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page both playing. It was the first English feature film with frontal nudity. Like the mid-1960s, the world of Mod quickly changed. It remains fascinating as a movement that combined youthful rebellion with an emphasis on good fashion.

THE GOWNS THEY DANCED IN CHEEK-TO-CHEEK

In the days of dancing cheek to cheek, the gowns were a big part of the thrill. There was no mistaking that the big-city look of the 1930s dancing gown was to show sex appeal. Evening gowns were mostly backless, and dancing close gave the generous opportunity for hands on bare backs. The fabrics and materials of the gowns themselves were those that accented the shape of the female body - especially those created for the dancing stars of the Hollywood movies. Gowns made of glass bugle beads not only shimmered under the lights, but hugged every contour of the body. Chiffons could be see-through and given volume to swirl in a dance like the one worn by Rita Hayworth above in You Were Never Lovelier. Added sequins could provide decoration and that touch of sparkle. The gown above was designed by Irene, invariably a sign of something wonderful. The movie came out in 1942, but the gowns were a carry-over of 1930s glamour.Rita dances with Fred Astaire, who partners with all the ladies in this series.

                                                                                              

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire were the classic dance partners - the ones that danced to Irving Berlin's Cheek to Cheek in Top Hat. In this photo they dance to Smoke Gets in Your Eyes in the musical Roberta in 1935. Ginger wears a gown designed by Bernard Newman, who favored the "wet look" of black satin, which reflects beautifully the highlights of Ginger's body. This one is also decorated  at the bodice with a rhinestone fur clip.  

Bernard Newman designed several of Ginger Rogers' favorite movie dancing gowns. The one below  is made of silver lined glass bugle beads and includes a fur stole. The gown looked maginificent on Ginger in Follow the Fleet (1936), and the dance scene was one of Fred and Ginger's best. Fred wasn't thrilled with the gown though, since the wide sleeves slapped him when Ginger twirled away.  The polished floors and the Moderne style stage sets at the RKO studio help make this a truly great scene. 

                                                                                

Costume designer Walter Plunkett designed Ginger's gowns in her first two movies with Fred Astaire at RKO. He designed a basic silhouette of a tightly- fitted hip, waist, and bodice with a fuller skirt that opened out in dance. The gown below is from The Gay Divorcee (1934), their first film in which they were the stars. Plunkett also included the fringe at Ginger's shoulders with the same fabric at the skirt bottom to accentuate her movements.

Rita Hayworth again dances with Fred Astaire in a  publicity shot for You'll Never Get Rich (1941)  below. This gown was also designed by Irene. The photo was actually shot on the roof of the Columbia Studio in Hollywood back before they photoshopped these kinds of shots. This was Rita's favorite movie she starred in.

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The beautiful gown below is also designed by Bernard Newman who dressed Ginger in some stunning gowns. It too is made of silver bugle beads sewn onto a turquoise chiffon fabric base. The weight of the bugle beads hugs the body. Bugle beads also form the belt, collar, and stripes on the skirt. Even the shoes are of turquoise color stitched in silver, though the film was shot in black and white. Wonderful.

 The first movie Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire made together was Flying Down to Rio (1933). The top billing went to Dolores Del Rio, the Mexican beauty, and Gene Raymond. Del Rio dances with Fred below in a gown designed by Irene.

These gowns are beautiful and wonderful to look at on film. They not only enhance the beauty of the star but are an important part of the dance scene itself. The costume designers fulfilled dual roles in creating these pieces for film - beautiful gowns designed for a particular star to wear in a particular scene that climaxed in a dance. While the look today for dancers in  shows like Dancing With the Stars is  beautiful and the outfits even more revealing, they are much more of a costume, much less of a dress or a gown. Although the movie "costume designers" usually bore that title, they designed the wardrobe for actors to wear in all types of scenes and settings. Some preferred the film credit "Gowns designed by" or "Wardrobe designed by." Regardless, over the years they have designed stylish, sometimes fashion-setting, and even iconic looks of beauty and glamour.

STARS AND STRIPES

Stripes have always caught the eye, in garments as in nature. Their use in clothing has ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, and they have appeared on garments at opposite ends of the social strata - from chain-gang garb to the very expensive mitered suits designed by Adrian and Irene, and from homey pajamas to suits made from the striped woven woolens of Pola Stout. Stripes can be simple or bold, colorful or muted, vertical, horizontal and diagonal. In the hands of Adrian and Irene especially, stripes were combined into such marvelous angles that not only were they wonderful to look at, but the silhouette itself was emphasized into the designer's total look. Expert tailoring was needed of course, which skill they both had at MGM and at their own fashion houses. Such expert handiwork is now an endangered skill in this country. One would be hard-pressed to replicate some of the striped and mitered vintage Irene and Adrian label suits. Matching small stripes and angles at sleeves, shoulders,collars, pocket flaps, and tailored waists is no easy feat.

Stripes are also wonderful to behold on other garments. There is nothing like a cheefully- colored striped shirt or blouse to shout summer. While rare to see today, boldly striped, full dresses and gowns can be amazingly beautiful. Stripes draw attention, but their versatility make them ideal to use in a variety of settings. From lounging to glamming - stripes fit the bill.  That's why the Hollywood costume designers loved to put stars in stripes.

The beauty pictured above is Loretta Young in Bedtime Story (1941) in a suit designed by Irene Lentz Gibbons, the designer known simply as Irene.

Adrian designed this costume for Greta Garbo to wear in The Single Standard in 1929. It was a lounging pajama outfit, a style  made popular in 1929-1930, especially after Garbo was seen wearing them in this movie. The pants were striped also.

This gown was designed by Bernard Newman and is worn by a fashion model in the film Roberta (1935). Newman was the costume designer for RKO for a few years in the mid 1930s. He had been a fashion designer in New York and later free-lanced as a costume designer for several studios. Roberta made a big splash with its fashion-show sequence and its stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Irene Dunne, and another fashion model, Lucille Ball. Adrian later designed the costumes for a re-make called  Lovely to Look At in 1952.

                 

                                                      

   

 Loretta Young models another striking striped dress in Doctor Takes a Wife (1940). No designer is credited for the costume, although Irene frequently designed Loretta Young's film and personal wardrobe in this period.

Rosalind Russell wears this eye-catching suit designed by Edith Head at the Paramount Studios in 1942. After 1940, women started wearing their hats strait, not slanted, as had been the style in the 1930s. Wide-brimmed hats were popular at this time. Here Ros holds hands with the statue of a giant ground sloth, no doubt in Hancock Park in Los Angeles, home of the famous tar pits.

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The cheerfullness of this simple striped blouse amplifies the sunny smile of Rita Hayworth, circa 1942. Rita was one of the pin-up girls of World War II. Her long full hair, seen in movies just before, during, and after WW II, became the craze for teenage girls and young women tired of wearing their hair up. Rita also shows the natural combination of stars and stipes.

OSCAR GOWNS SHOULD WIN AWARDS

Like The Young Victoria that won for Best Costume Design, the 2010 Academy Awards seemed to show the best of both tradition and youth in the gowns worn for the evening. Gone was most of the excess and instead, we saw many beautiful gowns on many gorgeous stars including the standouts for my Most Glamorous award for Sandra Bullock and runner-up Rachel McAdams. Some of the biggest names in the world of fashion design had their gowns worn for the occasion. This symbiosis has been very competitive of course, but the results that are the most successful always involve a combination of human elements that remain within the realm of art. The relationship between the star and their stylist has replaced the relationship that existed in the old studio system, where the costume designer and the star often had a close working relationship that resulted in the classic iconic looks. The desired look over the past few years at the Academy Awards has definitely been of the classic, glamorous movie star. Many fashion designers have also been designing gowns in that style that work beautifully at Award functions. Some of the gowns that seemed to work less well at the Oscars were those taken right off the runways. They seemed to have just that one-degree of separation that made several of them seem awkward. The favored styles leaned toward metallic finishes, dusty-rose colors, and asymmetrical designs. Over-all, this was one of the best-dressed Academy Awards in memory.

While The Young Victoria, with its beautiful costumes designed by Sandy Powell was very deserving of its Best Costume Design award, it would be refreshing to see a contemporary, not a historically costumed film, receive an Oscar. It is understandable that the historical and fantasy films make the big splash in costuming, but designing a modern wardrobe has the same function of delineating character and furthering the plot, while placing the audience within the story. One would have to go back to 1979 and All That Jazz to get close to a contemporary setting (for that time) for an Oscar costume win.

Sandra Bullock in a Marchesa gold beaded gown wins my Most Glamorous award for the Oscars evening. This was her big night and well deserved.

Of course the Fashion Police also selected Sandra Bullock as the Best Dressed, so just to show the contrariness of the Silver Screen Modiste, my runner-up for  Most Glamorous  is the beautiful Rachel McAdams in this wonderful Elie Saab gown from his spring 2010 collection. The Fashion Police thought it inappropriate for the occasion, which I disagree.The gown is reminiscent of Adrian's 1950 big swirling pastel patterned organza gowns. The Elie Saab on Ms. McAdams is a winning combination. 

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WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE?

Seeing a beautiful floral print dress fluttering in the breeze is enough to cheer one's day, but there just isn't enough of them around anymore. Over the years the beautiful printed silk fabrics these were once made from have drifted into the cheaper price points in both fabric and manufacture. It got so that a floral print dress was almost sure to be disappointing thing to see - no better than the calicos of our pioneer forebears, and guaranteed not to last as long. And forget the notion that floral patterns in this day can ever match up at a seam in any semblance of reality. Note above how wonderfully the flowers seam at the bodice, and the leaves decorate perfectly the slight decollete, even appearing to point toward the face of the model. A remarkable Irene Lentz Gibbons-designed gown. It is no doubt made of printed silk from the French house of Bianchini-Ferier in Lyon. Designed by Irene, circa 1950.

Floral prints are not just suitable for day-time wear. Irene also designed the gown Vivien Leigh wore at the Academy Awards when she won her Oscar for Gone With the Wind. Vivien Leigh selected the floral print dress at Irene's fashion show at Bullock's Wilshire. After all of the strain of making GWTW and the stress of her nomination, she wanted to feel relaxed wearing the flowers she loved so much. I searched in vain for a photo that did the dress justice.  A return to glamour at the awards ceremonies is always welcome, only sometimes the designers try to hard.

Gilbert Adrian was not only a master costume and fashion designer but also a great wit. After he started his own line in 1942 he would give a name to each of his designs and often include whimsy in his creations.  Adrian loved florals, but also printed fabrics of all sorts including fabric designs he painted himself. He enjoyed the leaves so much on this dress that he added one peeking out through the sleeve. This dress designed by Adrian, 1946.

Here is another design by Irene using a beautiful floral print on a white ground. Irene favored the slim silhouette, perfectly accentuated by the tied-back stole of the same material. Irene, circa 1958.

 Rosalind Russell graces this beautiful floral house-dress in the mid 1940s. These bold prints were likely made by the screen printing process. Floral designs as well as other types of decoration could be made on silk in a variety of ways. China, Japan, and India as well as much of Asia and the Middle-East had developed a variety of ways to die and decorate silks and other fabrics. Wood-block printing was an old method as was hand-painting. Stencilling and its variant of screening, including using a newer photographic process, led to the wide-spread availibilibility of beautiful floral fabrics beginning in the 1930s. Before that, French couturier Paul Poiret even used artist Raoul Dufy to hand-paint his gown silks. In the 1950s and especially the 1960s, an explosion of interest in possessing beautifully printed silk scarves by Hermes and Pucci - to be worn around the head, wrapped around a belt, or tied onto purse straps, expanded floral brightness everywhere.

In recent times, designer Christian Lacroix has consistently used floral designs in his couture and fashion creations. He is a native of Provence in France, where flowers are not only abundant in the landscape but are used as regular motifs in folk costume and house-hold textiles.

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These floral dresses are from Christian Lacroix's spring - summer 2006 Haute Couture collection. They are just three of several in his collection that year. There were many others in his previous collections as well. Alas, Mr. Lacroix's fashion house went bankrupt last year. This spring we see signs that floral patterns are trying to make a come-back. Let us hope that like real flowers, they will spring back to life. Could they please be bigger and prettier. And yes, mostly match at the seams?