The past several months have found me filling my DVD queue with films from Hollywood’s golden age. Casablanca. The Women. The Philadelphia Story. Gone With The Wind. My recent obsession has been Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 film Notorious starring Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant. The film is full of suspense and intrigue and lies and espionage. The chemistry between Bergman and Grant rivals that seen between she and Bogart four years earlier. Yet with all of that, for me the film began and ended with the costumes designed by Edith Head. Sequined zebra-print cropped tops worn with maxi skirts. Low cut velvet gowns. Riding hats. Bows and gloves and exaggerated shoulders.
Unlike the clothes and silhouettes that dominated the 1960s, I could never imagine items like these being a part of my life. But in the end, that is the point. What I'm searching for is the momentary escape.
Though references to multiple decades could be found in the Viktor & Rolf Resort 2012 collection, the ones that caught my eye were those that clearly recalled the era that most of these films inhabit.
I drink them in for a moment, and then I return to the real world.
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3 comments:
As soon as I saw the title Notorious in your post I thought - zebra crop top! - and there it was, in your first picture! That costume is one of the most memorable I've ever seen in a movie, and I've never seen anything close to the balance between bold and elegant in a zebra print since.
I think that is the best anyone has ever looked in a crop top in the history of crop tops.
I was caught by the image of Ingrid Bergman in the hat.This is actually from a scene that was cut from the final released version of "Notorious" and which now 'exists' as a few 'stills'.The hat was, somehow, intended to play a part in the entrapment-during a 'chance' encounter on horseback-of a former acquaintance of Bergman's character in the film, a Nazi 'big wheel'.
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