Splendor in the Grass

No I'm not talking about the music festival or even the Wordsworth poem that this phrase was taken from, but rather the 1961 Elia Kazan film. I re watched it the other night after an absence of many years and while the heavy handedness of its message does date the film, it is still totally watchable, not least because of Natalie Wood's lovely performance as the heartbroken Deanie Loomis. Splendor in the Grass was also Warren Beatty's first film and while he does look very handsome, Natalie is positively luminous. Here are a few publicity shots from around that era - West Side Story was released in that same year - for you to enjoy.

The film has a great ending, where Deanie and Bud meet up again. Set in the late 1920s and early 30s, around the time of the stock market crash, I love Natalie in this white dress and hat. The perfect outfit to see that first love that dumped you again.

Orry Kelly: Gypsy Love

While I was coughing and generally feeling sorry for myself on the weekend, I watched Gypsy starring Rosalind Russell and Natalie Wood. Ostensibly a bio-pic of famous burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee, it is really more a character study of her unsympathetic showbiz mother, played to perfection by Rosalind Russell.
Rosalind's 30s era costumes, including amazing head wear and lush looking coats and blouses, were all designed by legendary Hollywood costume designer (and Aussie!) Orry Kelly. Once Natalie transforms into Gypsy Rose Lee, world famous stripper, she sports some simply stunning gowns that wouldn't look out of place at a red-carpet event today.
You can see some of them in the clip I've embedded.
Orry Kelly was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on this film and although he missed out, he had already won three: for Some Like It Hot, Les Girls and An American in Paris. Natalie actually sang in this film because, unlike in West Side Story where her voice was dubbed, she could get away with it in Gypsy as it fit the character. Gypsy Rose Lee was known for her glamour, her wit and her performance rather than her voice.



I'm about to head down to Melbourne for a few days and will be in sales conference lock-down. I'll be back blogging on Saturday.

Pictures to make you go WOW

I love it when Vogue pulls out all the stops and constructs a lavish narrative driven fashion editorial. A good one will have you longing to immerse yourself in it's visually rewarding world, even if - in this particular case - that world is a crumbling marriage and a wife's affair.

The Prada and Louis Vuitton A/W collections were among my favourites of the season; both luxe but wearable and heavily influenced by the classic silhouettes of yesteryear.

It is nice to see them get a run in these gorgeous shots and don't Ewan and Natalia make a gorgeous faux couple? Natalia looks so at home in these retro styles as her face recalls revered beauties from the 50s and 60s like Jean Patchett, Jean Shrimpton, Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Natalie Wood.

I LOVE the blue Vera Wang cocktail dress in the third pic.

Peter Lindbergh's gorgeous shots can be found in the July issue of US Vogue, or you can also check them here.

New Holly Golightly

As well as being a book junkie I also love, love magazines. Pretty much I love words in any form, and when they are packaged together with lavish fashion spreads, I find them pretty hard to resist. It is a pity then that because I reside in the depths of the Southern Hemisphere, I tend to get the o/seas mags a little late, and then I might hold off on purchasing them until the price goes down. This is why I only just found out that Anna Friel has been starring as Holly Golightly in a West End musical production of Breakfast at Tiffany's (there was an interview with her in the October issue of UK Harper's Bazaar).

Even though Audrey's portrayal of Holly in the film version is iconic (and magnificent), when I read Capote's novel I imagined an entirely different Holly. For one, the book is set in the 1940's, not the 1960's. Secondly it doesn't have the Hollywood happy ending. And thirdly, the Holly described in the book little resembles the lovely Audrey. Capote was said to have wanted Marilyn Monroe to play Holly in the film, but I actually imagined someone not unlike a blonde Natalie Wood.
Preternaturally youthful and with a cute prettiness that doesn't quite mask her sexuality.

I think that Anna Friel resembles Natalie somewhat, so I think the casting is quite inspired. This latest stage version is true to the book in both plot and setting and Anna - whom I've admired since her appearance as Bella Wilfer in Our Mutual Friend (I love period dramas) - dons a blonde wig for the roll.

Many of my favourite bloggers have been gushing about Anna's off-duty style lately, as she is known as a big fan of vintage. Here are just some of the ensembles she has been papped in while leaving the theatre after her performances.

She is too cute for words. And oh how I wish I could get my hair to curl like that and not end up like a hot mess within five minutes of walking out the front door.

You can read an interview with Anna here where she talks about her love of vintage clothing. And can you believe that until this moment I had never heard of her recent TV show Pushing Daisies, in which her role apparently required her to wear all kinds of vintage loveliness such as this amazing dress below? This must be a result of not having cable TV anymore. Or perhaps from living under a rock. Can anyone recommend the show?

P.S. Loving the backdrop that resembles a beehive.

P.P.S. Thanks to Splash photos for the candid pics.