The Thin Man (1934) - Pre-code wisecracks, hangovers, slinky dresses and fur

 The Thin Man is an old favourite film of mine, partly for the hilarious dialogue and warm joshing between Myrna Loy and Charles Powell and partly for the impossible 30s glamour of the costumes, which are by Dolly Tree, a British designer. As well as clothing, she was good at illustration and career advice.

If you like fur, elaborate sleeves, velvet, bias cuts, perky hats and want to know how to look good with an ice pack on your head, you're in for a treat... screen shots of my favourite outfits after the jump.

Ozma (Return to Oz)

So... my main achievement over the holidays has been finding and stalking some new Instagram subcultures. One of them is Disney Princess cosplay, oh yes.

While I kind of love it, I think the only Disney princess I'd want to go out in public as is beautiful Ozma from the highly awesome and dark, 90s Disney film Return to Oz. I love her green dress and Ruby slippers and her Art Nouveau headdress. She is a bit of a cross between Glinda and the fairy Sherly Lee plays in Wild at Heart.

I also love me some ostrich feathers...

Under the Skin

We saw Under the Skin, Jonathan Glazer's new film, last night. It is a slow burn but very inventive and disturbing. It will really stay with you, especially the incredibly cold-hearted scene involving a family on a beach and the last five minutes of the film, when you finally get a hint of what is going on/under the skin of Scarlett Johansson's character.

I'm not much of a Johansson fan, but what I've heard called her 'detached cool' works well in this film. The sequences when she is trying to charm Glaswegian men into her car are a bit like You've Been Framed. The fake English accent she puts on and TV presenter charm are as alien as if she had grey skin and an ET neck. It all works against the background of Sauciehall Street and gangs of pre-teen neds perfectly.

 The other big draws to this film are Adam Pearson (a fellow Croydoner) a disfigured man who is preyed on by Johannson but ends up inadvertently triggering a switch in her journey. Also the eerie soundtrack by Mica Levi.

This film is a brutal Kubrick, Lynch, Morvern Callar type mixture. Watch it!

Cinema Sunday: Martin Scorsese's 'After Hours' (1985)

Cinema Sunday is where I share shots from movies that I think are good and everyone else should see. Bonus points if they have good costumes and set design. Them's the rules.

Martin Scorsese's 1985 film, After Hours, isn't that well known but is worth getting to know. It is a funny, malevolent story of a fresh faced NY word processor (apparently that was a job once) who goes out into Soho looking for a little action and ends up being persecuted by a selection of misfits, burglars and crazy ladies. Every offer of help in getting back uptown and home turns into another danger.  One surreal thing after another happens to this poor yuppie. He also leaves a trail of destruction in his wake; a selection of blondes, bartenders and burglars who are out of pocket, locked out or out cold.

The 'hero' Paul, reminds me a lot of the main character from the Coen Brothers' new film, Inside Llewyn Davies, only in that they are both slightly charming but quite unpleasant guys who get put through ordeals that you might not feel entirely sorry about.

If a twisted story about 80s New York isn't enough to tempt you, then you should know that After Hours is very enjoyable just for its style, from 80s office life to the kooky studio apartments and lofts of the women Paul meets along the way.  Click below for more pictures or watch the trailer here.

Double Indemnity - 1940s style

I am in 40s style swoon at the moment. Why don't the shops make more slinky long black dresses with bell sleeves?

I would do screen grabs of Double Indemnity awesome costumes but I only have it on Blu-Ray :(

Console yourselves and read more about Edith Head's costumes for Double Indemnity here.

The Rite of Spring

I love these Russian pagan costumes from the film Coco and Igor.

2013 actually marks 100 years since the first performance of the Ballet Russes Rite of Spring in Paris. An audience riot erupted and the journalist and photographer Carl Van Vechten claimed that the person behind him got carried away with excitement and began to 'beat rhythmically' on top of his head!































 There is an interesting radio programme about the Rites of Spring here and there are great photos of the costumes of the Ballet Russes here and here.

Sergei Bondarchuk's War and Peace

According to the FT, there is a nostalgia craze in Russia for imperial tsarist history. Putin has commissioned a new set of textbooks taking a revisionist and slightly simplistic look at the Tsars - some people think in order to shape a new national identity built around strong leadership but NOT wrapped up in Communism.

What better way to celebrate a slightly sinister bit of propaganda than some screenshots from a truly masterful bit of propaganda?



Sergei Bondarchuk's War and Peace is a Russian epic. As Roger Ebert said: "By now the statistics regarding "War and Peace" are well known, but forgive me if I recite them with a certain relish anyway: the film was five years in the making at a cost of $100,000,000, with a cast of 120,000, all clothed in authentic uniforms, and the Red Army was mobilized to recreate Napoleon's battles exactly (it is claimed) as they happened."

Apparently, the embarrassment of riches thrown at the production was because the film equivalent of an arms race was going on after the 1959 American-Italian of War and Peace was released. It was decided that the Russian version must top it; at any price.

This scene (one that I watched quite a lot as a little girl) is Natasha's first ball, where no one will dance with her untl Pierre sends his friend Andrei over. So romantic!*

*This scene is great but the book is so much more - read it if you haven't!

90s Fashion on film - Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion and Clueless

90s fashion is all over the place at the moment. You can't brush past a shelf in Topshop without having an avalanche of Juju jelly sandals fall on you. I'm in that awkward spot where I saw all these styles the first time round and was too young and awkward to wear them so I really feel like I have unfinished business with crop-tops, chunky platforms, mesh and big plastic rings. I still want the style of Cher Horowitz and Romy White, just as I did when I was 10 and trying to convince my mum to buy me clothes in Tammy Girl.

To preserve some dignity, I'm trying to scratch this itch by watching my favourite 90s style films instead of going out and blowing a load of money on chokers, over the knees socks and ying-yang emblazoned t-shirts.

Both Clueless and Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion were costume designed by Mona May, who seems like possibly the sweetest woman ever born:

"Color is my love, so I think the world is wearing too much black. I understand it—I have to wake up really early, and at five a.m. black is the easy choice. It’s one more step to go and pick something purple. But we all have hidden artists in us, and it’s fun to play with colors like they’re crayons." NYLON, 2008

Here are my favourite 90s outfits from her two greatest films. I'll let the likes of Rebecca do 90s style properly and resist the temptation to dig out my old jelly platforms... for the moment.

 

Oh Clueless. Oh, Romy and Michelle. Check out this blog for lots more pictures.