Fashionably Fluffy : Golden Girl from the Golden Age
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| {Fashion illustration : Mitzi Ruffled in Pink, Ivory and Blue © Shell-Sherree} |
While we're thinking 'costumes' in light of yesterday's annual Met Ball fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York city ~ {and some designers ran out of fabric, it seems} ~ today's costume illustration is closer to home for me.
Costumes from the Golden Age of Hollywood is currently on display at the Museum of Brisbane {closes 24th May 2015}. My mum, sister, niece and I went along for a very lovely 'girly' morning out. This gorgeous curation came from the private collection of Brisbane lawyer Nicholas Inglis. {You can watch him talking about it here.} A theatre and film buff, he has been amassing gems over the past 20 years like the one I've illustrated today, worn by Mitzi Gaynor in Golden Girl {1951}. It's my personal favourite, though many were only a swoon behind. When the pressure was on, the ruffles had it !
This fluffy confection is a work of art within the underskirt that only revealed itself when Mitzi Gaynor twirled enough to reveal glimpses of fuchsia, white and cobalt. The actual costume is more ivory than white, so I gather the costume colour was adjusted as they often did. I love it even more because the ruffles are a surprise. Flirtatious. A playful wink rather than putting all the goods on display. Much more enticing. And on that note ...
Happy Fashionable Fluffiness to you !
TWIRL OVER TO MY PETITE BOUTIQUE
You've outdone yourself, ma belle. If only I'd had something fabulously frilly like this to wear to the Met ball! Oh, wait . . . Anna forgot to invite me (again). :~{ Sometimes I'm sorry we don't dress up the way people once did—then I pull on a pair of comfy yoga pants and count my 21st-century blessings.
ReplyDeleteThank you, dear Alexa !! I suspect Anna thought you would take too much spotlight away from others. I was wondering that very thing the other day about the old-school glam way of dressing up ~ it's beautiful in theory !
DeleteMy grandmother always wore a string of pearls, girdle and black and white pumps. Despite being a large woman, she never let that stop her from having style. I also think she came from a time when department stores had tea rooms.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather be shot then wear a girdle. But maybe if I had Mitzi's figure, it wouldn't be necessary.
I think some department stores here still have tea rooms, PA ~ and I'm guessing there are plenty of Spanx, if not girdles, out in force ! Looking at the costumes in this exhibit, it really hit home how tiny most of the actresses were ~ amazing !
Deletespeaking of Hollywood glamor -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.estatesales.net/estate-sales/CA/North-Hills/91343/863850
I went to a talk given by one of the co-curators and Edith Head was one of her favourite eight chosen to talk about ~ not surprisingly ! This estate sale will be a treasure trove for someone.
DeleteThe costume show sounds fabulous! There were some keen designers in Hollywood back in the day. Some of the old "dance" movies featured such lovely gowns that were made for dancing, like some of those Ginger Rogers wore while tapping a few with Fred Astaire.
ReplyDeleteAnd put your ilo with a dance music soundtrack...Fun!
Ms M, they had the costume Fred wore in Royal Wedding in the 'dancing on the ceiling' scene. They displayed it sideways up near the ceiling of the room and had a monitor rolling that footage alongside it. Really was fabulous !
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