Behind the Dress: Davis' Brown Cocktail Dress in "All About Eve"

Bette Davis is an icon of Golden Hollywood, the actress that young girls interested in the performing arts aspired to be. She appeared in classic film after classic film and stole each scene she was in. And those Bette Davis Eyes.. well, that's another post.

Even the biggest stars, however, can have their slumps, and in the late 1940s Bette was having hers. That all changed when she was cast as declining star, Margo Channing, in the instant classic All About Eve (1950).

The costumes for the film, except for Channing's wardrobe, had already been designed by Fox's Charles LeMaire. Edith Head, who was friends with Davis, greatly wanted to do the job, and as LeMaire was already working on several other films, he helped arrange it (very nice and unselfish of him, if you ask me!).

The cocktail dress was all the rage at the time, and so of course Margo Channing had to have one. However, the finished result, the brown, off-the-shoulder dress that we know so well was actually an accident. In Edith's words (Edith Head's Hollywood):

My original sketch had a square neckline and a tight bodice. I had extremely high hopes for this dress because the fabric, a brown gros de Londres (a heavy silk) photographs magnificently in black and white, and it was trimmed in rich brown sable.

Because we were working on such a tight deadline, the dress was made up the night before Bette was scheduled to wear it. I went in early the day of the filming to make sure the dress was pressed and camera-ready. There was Bette, already in the dress, looking quizzically at her own reflection in the mirror. I was horrified. The dress didn't fit at all. The top of the three-quarter-length sleeves had a fullness created by pleats, but someone miscalculated and the entire bodice and neckline were too big. There was no time to save anything, and a change would delay the shooting. I told Bette not to worry, that I would personally tell Joe Mankiewicz [wrote and directed the film] what had happened.

I had just about reached the door, my knees feeling as if they were going to give out, when Bette told me to turn around and look. She pulled the neckline off her shoulders, shook one shoulder sexily, and said, "Don't you like it better like this, anyway?" It looked wonderful and I could have hugged her. In fact, I think I did [kind of hard to picture...]. With a few simple stitches I secured the neckline in place so she could move comfortably, and she left for the set. Above all, I did not want to delay the shooting.

A look at all sides of the dress. 

Note how the sleeves are not attached to the actual bodice.

Not sure if this is the original or a replica.

Bette remembers that dress fondly in her Foreword to Edith Head's Hollywood: "My own momento to Edith's long career hangs on the wall of  my home: a sketch of that fabulous brown cocktail dress... I bought the dress and I treasure the sketch. It's simply signed To Bette, from Edith."

A revised sketch to show the finished gown.

Whoopi Goldberg at the 2016 Academy Awards in an All About Eve inspired gown.

Behind the Dress: Audrey Hepburn's "Princess in Disguise" outfit in "Roman Holiday"

Roman Holiday (1953) is one of my favorite movies. It has everything going for it: a great script, fantastic actors, gorgeous on-location shooting, and some of the best costumes in Hollywood history. In fact, not only did Roman Holiday garner a Best Actress Oscar for newcomer Audrey Hepburn, but it also won a Best Writing Award for the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo and the (still relatively young) Best Costume Award for Edith Head.

Multiple Award-Winning costume designer Edith Head was the first Hollywood designer to dress Audrey Hepburn, who was about to become a legendary icon. In the book Edith Head's Hollywood by Paddy Calistro with excerpts by Edith Head, Hepburn is described as the antigoddess, the "antithesis of anything that fit the sexy 1950s stereotype (Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor). She was skinny in an era of voluptuousness, flat when everyone else was round. Her neck was too long, her face too innocent.  By 1950s standards she was all wrong, yet she was about to enchant the world" (101).

Here are Head's words about meeting Audrey:

I was completely enchanted by her. She was intelligent and had a strong sense about fashion, but what impressed me most was her body. I knew she would be the perfect mannequin for anything I would make... when clothes are designed for art's sake you need a shapeless body to display them (102).

Here is a video of Edith Head talking about the process Hollywood designers go through when beginning to costume a film, including a personality test and wardrobe tests for Roman Holiday.

My favorite outfit from the film is the simple blouse and skirt Audrey wears to explore the city of Rome. But there's more behind the dress then you might think. Let's see how Edith went about designing it:

To create the contrast (from Her Royal Highness Princess Anne to Anya), I put her in funny little flat shoes, a gathered cotton skirt, and a plain blouse with the sleeves rolled up... Suddenly she is the kind of girl you wouldn't look at twice. It sounds easy to do, but it wasn't. Trying to make someone like Audrey, who has so much hauteur, look anything but chic is very difficult.

As you saw in the video above, she had to create an outfit that could be transformed on screen. Audrey goes from a buttoned-up proper girl to a carefree girl having a holiday.

Fun Fact: Simoa of Define Dancing told me that this dress was used as inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's dress in the Disney film.

Let's take a closer look at the costume itself.

       

Before and After

Another "before" shot with low pumps.

A good look at the sandals.

 

      

 The skirt is usually shown as light blue or tan when colorized.

I think it was tan, though I prefer light blue.

 

      

Scarf and blouse detail. The scarf is usually pictured as red and white.

 

This outfit is so iconic it was immortalized as a Barbie doll a few years ago. The Barbie has a new face mold and skinny body. I bought one - the face isn't quite as pretty as pictured here.

 

Actress Lily Collins channeled Hepburn in a photo shoot for Talter Magazine.

 

Hope you enjoyed this latest edition of Behind the Dress!

 

Behind the Dress: Glinda in "The Wizard of Oz" (1939)

The 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz contains the most iconic costumes in the entire history of film. There isn't a person out there who doesn't recognize Dorothy's ruby slippers, her gingham dress or Glinda's sparkling pink gown, the Tin Man's funnel hat or the Cowardly Lion's curly mane, or any of the other costumes from the movie. The man who created these iconic costumes that are still beloved over 75 years later is an icon himself - Adrian.

 

 

Gilbert Adrian was simply the best to be had in 1930s Hollywood. He dressed the biggest stars of the era, from Garbo to Crawford to Harlow. So it was only fitting that he be the one to costume one of the most beloved stories of all time, Frank L. Baum's The Wizard of Oz.

 

Adrian said that The Wizard of Oz had been one of his favorite childhood stories, and he had already started to design what he thought Oz looked like back then. So when he was brought on to create the costumes, he already had notebooks full of ideas. He would end up creating 3,210 costumes (with the help of 178 staff) for the picture.

 

At least one costume, however, was not an original. It had been designed by Adrian, but for a different picture. The dress: Glinda's magical pink gown. The star who wore it first: Jeanette MacDonald. The film: San Francisco (1936).

 

 

In The Wizard of Oz 75th Anniversary Companion by Jay Scarfone & William Stillman, they describe Glinda's gown as follows: "layers of delicate pink tulle sprinkled with northern stars and frosty snow crystals. Adrian added a butterfly motif and gave Glinda wings in homage to the script's description of Glinda's gift of flight."

 

 

The original dress was a little different. To turn it into the iconic dress it is today, the sleeves were puffed up and sheer material added to make them end at the wrist. More glitter and stars were added and the majority of the sparkling decorations from the neckline removed. Other than these minor changes however, the dress is virtually the same. It is possible the dress was dyed pink, but I have no evidence of this.

 

 

Below is a colorized clip from the film of MacDonald performing La Traviata wearing the dress. It has been tinted pale blue.

 

Additional Photos:

  

 

Sources:
Recycled Movie Costumes
The Wizard of Oz 75th Anniversary Companion. Jay Scarfone & William Stillman. 2013.
Reader's digest The Wizard of Oz: 75 Years of America's Family Classic. Collectible Magazine. 2014.

Behind the Dress: Jean Harlow & the Bias-Cut

Today's Behind the Dress post doesn't actually cover just one dress, but all the white satin, bias-cut gowns that Jean Harlow wore. Yes, she wore them, they never wore her.

In Edith Head's Hollywood by Edith Head and Paddy Calistro, Head claims that it was she who put Jean Harlow in bias-cut satin for the first time. The film was Saturday Night Kid (1929) starring Clara Bow in her second talkie. In Head's own words:

She was Jean Harlow, a second-stringer in those days, but once Howard Hughes convinced her to bleach her hair [it was a honey-blonde color at the time] she became a star within a year. Of course, when I worked with her I just thought of her as another actress, but I was impressed with her sensuous body and I made the most of it with white satin, cut on the bias. I was afraid of how Clara would react, since Jean really upstaged her in that slinky white gown. Most stars would have resented sharing a big scene with such a sizzling, voluptuous creature as Harlow. Not Clara. She was simply fascinated by her. I won't take credit for Harlow's screen image, but I think I'm entitled to say that what she wore in those scenes inspired others to take a second look and realize her knockout potential.

Calistro adds a little more backstory: "The dress that Edith made for Harlow was actually an adaptation of French couturiere Madeleine Vionnet's latest design. No one had used the sexy bias cut in an entire gown before Vionnet, but it took Hollywood to turn the look into a classic - the slip dress. Harlow wore it, Lombard popularized Banton's version, and Dietrich slinked around in on. It became the uniform of the sex symbols. The gown, with its bodice styled exactly like the top of an underslip, complete with thin little straps, was especially alluring because it was worn with no undergarments. Since fabric cut on the bias - diagonally across the weave - has a gentle, inherent stretch quality, the slip dress clung to every curve and crevice of a woman's body" (16).

That was the only time Head costumed Jean but it set the tone for her following film roles. A Jean Harlow film just isn't complete without a clinging satin gown of some kind.

A fictionalized account of Edith and Harlow's meeting is included in the recently published book Platinum Doll by Anne Girard (which I will be reviewing later this month). It mentions that the dress is grey. This is probably so it would photograph white. A white dress would have too much glare under the strong lights on the set.

To end, here are some photos of Jean throughout her career wearing her signature slinky gown. Just click on the photos to enlarge. Enjoy!

      

  

           

         

                 

Behind the Dress: A New Series

Every dress has a story to tell - especially if it's worn by a Movie Star or from a Hollywood film. And the stories are even better when that dress is from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

This series will look at two dresses a month, on the second and fourth Saturdays. Our first dress will be one worn by Jean Harlow and will be posted March 12 during our Jean Harlow Month. I hope you will join me.