Friday, 12 October 2007
Ladies With The Look: The Ten Best Female Movie Outfits
posted @1:43 p.m. by Richard Kelly
Christopher Bray makes himself the glass of fashion with a much-admired TBD list entitled Get The Look! The Ten Best Male Movie Outfits. ‘But what about the ladies?!’ asks today's guest listmaker BOMI ODUFUNADE - and quite rightly too. After all, the book also benefits from Ryan Gilbey’s top ten of best actors in drag (‘I Feel Pretty’). But perhaps you remember the exchange in Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid between Steve Martin and Rachel Ward, after he’s dolled himself up like Barbara Stanwyck: ‘Do I look like a dame?’/‘Not as much as I do...’ Bomi’s list offers some primo females showing how couture should be carried off.
Here we go then.
#10. Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina (US 1954)
I choose Sabrina as my favourite Audrey moment but, really, many others would do just as well (Funny Face, Roman Holiday, My Fair Lady, Breakfast at Tiffany's). There isn't that much to add: Hepburn was always flawless, and costume design is credited to legendary Paramount head of department Edith Head, though the outfits were in fact created by Hubert de Givenchy.
9. Dinner at Eight (US 1933, dir. George Cukor) & The Women (US 1939, dir. Cukor)
I’ve picked two movies here, not just for the actresses but for the masterstrokes of Cukor and costume designer Adrian (Adolph Greenberg). When Cukor made his so-called ‘girlie flicks’, boy did he know how to dress his leading ladies! I would have died and gone to heaven for Jean Harlow's wardrobe in Dinner at Eight – she is a vision. (She also gets the best lines in the movie.) Then there is the entire cast of The Women: the ultimate women's picture, with the best-dressed cast. No-one puts a foot wrong, from Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and Rosalind Russell, to Paulette Goddard and Joan Fontaine. A 2008 re-make is now in the pipe-line – please, NO!
8. Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman (US 1990, dir. Garry Marshall)
I truly wrestled with myself over whether to add this one... After all, it was the end of the 1980s and we were still recovering from a badly-dressed decade. But Julia Roberts sealed the deal: from hooker to princess, her transformation is awesome to watch and the outfits are a delight. The dress she wore to the opera is classic red-carpet, in the days before the red carpet became a celebrity itself.
7. Monica Vitti in La Notte (Italy 1962, dir. Michelangelo Antonioni)
Vitti upstages Jeanne Moreau and even the gorgeous Marcello Mastroianni with a simple black laced dress. Did I mention it's a Valentino?
6. Liza Minnelli in Cabaret (US 1972, dir. Bob Fosse)
The man who made musicals sexy! Bob Fosse's film of the Broadway smash is a triumph in all departments, not least for turning Liza Minnelli into a goddess: never has she looked so good before or after. Lycra, silk stockings and crepe brassieres – need I say more? It's all there.
5. Jean Seberg in A bout de soufflé (France 1960, dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
What can one say about Jean Seberg? Unique, anarchic, liberating, and hugely stylish.
4. Maggie Cheung in In the mood for love (US 2000, dir. Wong Kar-Wai)
I am always in the mood for Wong Kar-Wai... A perfect movie in all of its parts: the actors, Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, the story, the cinematography, the score, the title. And as for the wardrobe, WOW. Set in 1946 colonial Hong Kong, this sees Cheung looking divine from start to finish in costume designer's William Chang's astonishing dresses.
3. Mia Farrow in The Great Gatsby (US 1974, dir. Jack Clayton)
This second Hollywood film of Fitzgerald’s novel always divides the critics, but when it came to the wardrobe, there’s no doubt it's a winner. Mia Farrow never looked so sexy. And guess the costume designer? None other than Mr Ralph Lauren.
2. Faye Dunaway & Rene Russo in The Thomas Crown Affair (US 1968, dir. Norman Jewison; US 1999, dir. John McTiernan)
Both the original and the remake are to be commended, both actresses flawless in their respective garbs. Dunaway always gets a lot of credit for Bonnie and Clyde but Thomas Crown is the real gem. She pulls out all the stops to seduce Steve McQueen, and the airport scene where you first see her arrive on-screen as Vicki Anderson is what I like to call ‘catwalk dynamite’... Russo is also a delight and doesn't let Dunaway down: mind you, she did have designer Michael Kors on her side.
1. Katharine Hepburn in Women of the Year (US 1942, dir. George Stevens)
Like Audrey Hepburn, Kate could do no wrong when it came to the costume department, but this Stevens classic is simply my favourite Kate moment. Add the pairing with Spencer Tracy plus Adrian working his magic in the costume department, and you just have to say ‘What a film!’
Comments
Nice selection, particularly Faye Dunaway in TTCA, but there's one i'd have to add: Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight. She may have had a stinker of an acting career generally, but in this superbly stylish, and often overlooked film, she's a revelation. Her first scene, in which she tries to stop Jack Foley's (George Clooney) escape from prison, is a wardrobe masterclass - heels, skirt and a pump action shotgun. Well, it worked for me, as of course it does for Jack too...
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