Cinema Connection--Kim Kardashian Channels Elizabeth Taylor's Maggie the Cat

Ok, believe me when I say that no one is more shocked than me that Kim Kardashian is actually making an appearance on GlamAmor.  After all, this is a girl best known for wearing tight trendy outfits that are most often the opposite of the ladylike classics I love.  But one of the goals of GlamAmor is to show the impact of classic cinema on today's trends and here is an example of that very fact.  If you were ever in doubt of the ongoing influence of cinema on fashion, just take a look at Kim copying Elizabeth Taylor's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ensemble from 1958.  This is for her perfume's advertising campaign, no less, which means it's an outfit very carefully chosen for its appeal.  

And when I say copy, I mean copy...piece for piece from tip to toe.  Compare her homage with photos of the original outfit on Elizabeth.  It's all there--gold hoop earrings, diamond pendant necklace, white short sleeve blouse (with fabric covered buttons), orange belt, cream tweed skirt, gold bangle bracelets, and cream pumps.  My jaw absolutely dropped when I saw the photo in one of my magazines and no credit given to the source of the original style.  For those who don't know, this is yet another example of classic Helen Rose, the MGM costume designer whose design inspired Kate Middleton's wedding dress as well.  Coincidentally, I just happened to discuss both Helen and the wardrobe from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Turner Classic Movies on their July podcast.

Make no mistake...the best designers and stylists know their history and use classic cinema as a reference and resource all the time.  The next time something is a big hit in fashion, just remember that the best new outfits are most often old.

GlamAmor on TCM's July Podcast...Talking about Helen Rose

My podcast with Turner Classic Movies is all about the style of the great costume designer Helen Rose.  Of her 23 years at MGM--from 1943 to 1966--we discuss some of her best movie moments and wardrobes that are influential and personally significant for me.  Check out all the costumes in the companion blogs here on GlamAmor:

--Mogambo (1953, blog done before the broadcast)

--Cat on a Hot Tin Roof  (1958)

--Butterfield 8 (1960)

--The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1962)

All of these wardrobes are part of the same style story and great representations of what came to be Helen's classic style voice in clothing--colorful, clean lines, luxurious fabrications, and sophisticated yet sexy shapes.  They also show her tremendous range--from rugged safari to glamorous gowns and furs--yet all with a singular style.  These are qualities that I consider my own aesthetics and aspirations, and for these reasons Helen has become a role model to me over the years.  In doing GlamAmor, I continue to be surprised at how often people take costume design in film for granted, so I wanted to share a little more about this special talent in the history of cinema.

Helen lived an exciting life even from an early age and there's no question in my mind that she was a genius.  Her talent came by way of a mother who was a seamstress and Helen observed her making and modifying all of their clothes with great style and skill.  Helen's love for design was deep and she discovered even in grammar school that she wanted learn how to sketch in addition to simply being able to sew.  Thus, when school let out, she leveraged her good grades with her parents in order to start attending the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.  Here the city's club owners scouted the school for talent, and found Helen's sketches so strong that they earned her employment at some of the best shows in town.  Perhaps most intriguing is that this was 1920s Chicago, which meant the city (as well as much of the country) and its businesses were run by Al Capone and the mob.  These gentlemen became Helen's new bosses, and had actually hired her as a costume designer sight unseen.  Little did they know that she was only 16 years old.

1920s Chicago (above) and

inside one of its infamous nightclubs courtesy of LIFE magazine

In 1929, Helen moved to Los Angeles and married her sweet and supportive husband, Harry Rose.  The universe continued to keep her connected with costume design, starting in sunny Southern California sewing and sketching period pieces for a Hollywood costume company.  She then had the good fortune to go on to design for Fanchon and Marco, producers of national live stage shows that played in theaters before movie screenings.  These shows were important testing grounds for many talented people who went on to become stars in the movies themselves--Judy Garland, Mae West, Doris Day, and Ginger Rogers are just some of the performers who started with Fanchon and Marco.  Working with the company gave Helen a platform where she continued to get noticed.  An admiring assistant ultimately gave her sketches to the right people at 20th Century Fox, who hired her as a costume designer until she was stolen away by MGM.  Louis B. Mayer considered Fox Studios so much a competitor that he wanted to hurt them by giving Helen an offer she couldn't refuse.  Little did she know that she would be paid to do nothing for many months until the mismanaged costume department finally figured out a way to utilize her talent.  Ziegfeld Follies was her first credit at MGM.

By the late 1940s, Helen became the head of costume design for MGM and remained so until 1966.  She took over the lauded position from Irene and Adrian before her, costume designers who needed only one name in the credits because their talent was so established.  Adrian alone was a giant in the industry who only left when he wanted to start his own couture collection.  His over-the-top glamour was famous and a huge part of the creation of the overall MGM look and brand.  Think of his costume design in 1939's The Women, for example.  He became particularly known for dressing Joan Crawford.  He was responsible for her broad shoulders in clothing, a trick for making the petite Crawford look ten feet tall and a look so popular it became a 40s trend.  Joan became so associated with the look that she took it with her always, including when she left MGM for Warner Brothers and did Mildred Pierce.  Irene had far less of a unique artistic voice, but she was still intensely talented and created some absolutely beautiful costumes at MGM.  Some of my favorites are many of Ginger Rogers' wardrobes and Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice.

The early days at MGM Studios (above) and 

Helen's first movie for MGM, Ziegfeld Follies (1943)

When Helen took the helm as head costume designer at MGM, she exercised tremendous range due to her extensive experience and was completely capable of doing it all.  Though I worship her later more minimalist style, she was equally talented in the out-and-out glamour that Adrian established and MGM was known for.  After all, that was her background starting in Chicago and it remained close to her heart.  With the talented teams at MGM, she was able in indulge in glamour like never before.  But Helen recognized that the midcentury was bringing about cleaner and more classic lines and eventually she took costume design in her own direction.  As I mention in the podcast, Helen became a bridge between costume design that was purely fantasy (e.g., Adrian) and costume design that became purely practical (e.g. many of the movies and television shows today).  She established a timeless classic style, something that the average woman could really aspire to with its everyday elegance.

The ways that Helen achieved her style were her clever use of color, luxurious fabrics, and absolute attention to fit.  Working with dancers through the years gave her an incredible education in the functionality of a garment and the associated importance of fit.  Glamour was important, yes, but clothes had to move well on and with a woman.  She learned about a garment's "recovery," or how a garment looks when a woman's motions are completed.  What really set Helen apart from other costume designers is that she applied that knowledge throughout her career on actresses whether they were dancers or not.  Not only did a costume have to look great while an actress was standing still, but Helen could make it fit just as well on an actress' moving body and recover beautifully even when she was just walking across a room.

Helen's Oscar-winning wardrobes from 

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952, above) and I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955)

Because she was known for always achieving Louis B. Mayer's one standing order to "just make them look beautiful" and treated everyone with great respect, Helen worked wonderfully well with all of her colleagues and clients.  Many of the biggest were also personal friends--Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Lana Turner, Lena Horne, Lauren Bacall, and Esther Williams were all considered like sisters.  She was so close, in fact, that she frequently designed wedding gowns for MGM's actresses offscreen as well as on.  She famously designed a wedding gown for Grace and Elizabeth as well as countless others.  She did it so well that Zsa Zsa Gabor once said, "A beautiful Helen Rose chiffon dress, a little Dom Perignon, some caviar, and dammit, you're married again!"

Wedding by Helen Rose--Elizabeth Taylor and Nicky Hilton (above) and

  Grace Kelly, whose dress design was borrowed by Kate Middleton

I often think how challenging Helen's job must have been when her artistry demanded that so many be involved--all of her costume sketches required signatures from the producer, director, art director, cinematographer, and so on in order to be approved.  It really speaks to the quality of her designs that so many made it through the process with such integrity.  I believe that a large part of this has to do with the timeless and classic nature of her style.  Stories abound of the actresses who kept Helen Rose costumes for their personal wardrobes.  For instance, Elizabeth Taylor's mother once borrowed one of her daughter's 1940s dresses to wear to a party decades later.  Not only was she still in style in Helen Rose, but Elizabeth's mom found she was also the most fashionable person in the room.

Not surprisingly, Helen started her own couture collection once she departed the studio system like many other costume designers before her. Buyers described her work as "beautiful, elegant, simple and wearable" and this clearly applies to her costume work as well.  As Joan Crawford once wrote to her in those later days, "The women today are sadly in need of great designers like you who refuse to go along with the layer upon layer upon layer, and still design the classic look.  The classicly groomed woman is a rarity today--but, oh, what a glorious sight she is when you do see her!" 

How true those words are and they still apply today...I couldn't have said it better myself.  Three cheers to the ultimate designing woman and my hero, Helen Rose!

The Style Essentials--Elizabeth Taylor Steams it Up as Maggie...the CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

The timing is perfect to share a film that has made a huge impact on me in matters of style, Richard Brooks' 1958 classic Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Not only is it based on a steamy Southern play that seems just right for this hot holiday weekend, but the movie's costumes are designed by my hero Helen Rose.  I just finished filming an interview with Turner Classic Movies' Scott McGee on Monday where we discussed three of Helen's best that are showing in July--Mogambo (1953), Butterfield 8 (1960), and The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1962).  Though not included in this month's schedule, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is very much a part of the same style story and I wanted to show it here to lay a little foundation for Helen's aesthetic before my podcast airs.  This film makes a strong statement of her style and even acts as the backbone for many other costumes, such as those in Butterfield 8.  I think you'll see why it's a wardrobe that I have found hugely influential in my own personal style.  

Helen Rose absolutely loved Elizabeth Taylor and this really shines through in Cat's wardrobe.  It was a case of costume designer and star working together in perfect harmony; Elizabeth even fought to include Helen's white chiffon dress in the movie when a more plain shirtdress was preferred by the studio.  Then their relationship grew even stronger when Elizabeth's husband, producer Mike Todd, suddenly died in a plane crash during filming.  The news was devastating...the couple shared a young daughter and there had been no one in Elizabeth's life who loved her like Mike.  She almost couldn't make it back.  Yet somehow there were parallels in Tennessee Williams' character of Maggie the Cat that Elizabeth could relate to.  Playing that part and having Helen by her side really saved her life during that tragic time.  Incredibly, I'm hard-pressed to think of another movie where Elizabeth looked more beautiful...clearly a comment on both her staggering strength and the wardrobe that her dear friend Helen wrapped lovingly around her.

That wardrobe for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof succinctly sums up Helen Rose's style and it has taught me some valuable lessons in design.  In only three outfits, you are able to experience Helen's talented range...from lingerie to a practical blouse and skirt to a glamorous gown.  You see her passion for color, revealed in the smart and simple accent of an orange belt.  You see her adherence to clean lines and astute use of fabric; though most of the wardrobe is in shades of white, you don't really register its monchromatic nature due to carefully chosen fabrics that make each piece special.  And of course they all show a sophistication and sexiness that is communicated through her commitment to perfect fit.  Helen Rose's wardrobe in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is classic and timeless elegance at its best.  This movie is over 50-years-old, yet absolutely everything could be worn today and still be completely stunning.  I'd love to take it as my own.

Elizabeth's perfect opening outfit was a great inspiration for my personal style.  White silk shortsleeve blouse (with covered buttons), orange belt, cream heather wool skirt, striped handbag, kitten heels, diamond pendant necklace, gold bangle bracelets, and gold hoop earrings.

In describing Big Daddy's eyes still appreciating her figure, 

Maggie has a moment that seems an inspiration for 1960's The Graduate

"What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof, Maggie?"

"Just staying on it, I guess...as long as she can."

Brick leaves Maggie to head to Big Daddy's party alone, 

which gets her entangled with her nightmarish "no-neck" nieces and nephews

Maggie the Cat's white slip is an essential costume whenever performing this play, 

but only Elizabeth is lucky enough to have Helen Rose design and tailor it perfectly to her.  

The result?  Stunning from every angle.

This white chiffon dress was later labeled "The Cat" and copies were sold to women across the country, 

including and especially through Helen Rose's own couture collection

A somewhat simpler silk version of "The Cat" that I found years ago made by J. Crew

Even when playing an alcoholic, Paul is gorgeous and classic in his white button-down and camel cords

Learning about Big Daddy's mortality brings real change to members of the family 

and Maggie and Brick reunite in a kiss

Modern Muse

For nearly 20 years, I have loved classic cinema and learned so much from it. Costume design is probably at the top of that list. Adrian, Banton, Orry-Kelly, Travilla...the list is long and distinguished. But my favorite designers are two women--Edith Head and Helen Rose.

At a time when costume design was dominated by men, Edith headed the costume department at Paramount and Helen was at the helm at MGM. Both dressed the biggest stars in the world. MGM, for one, was known for having "more stars than there are in the heavens."

Since Edith and Helen worked during the same period of time and were both so capable at capturing simple elegance for women's clothing, there does seem to have been a bit of a rivalry. This was unquestionably fueled by Grace Kelly asking Helen--not Edith--to design her wedding gown to Prince Albert of Monaco. Grace's slight of a designer like Edith Head, someone who was so instrumental to Grace's career, speaks volumes of Helen Rose's talent.  

Elizabeth Taylor was another big fan. And why not? One of Helen's most inspired designs (and most copied) is her breezy white cocktail dress from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  You can see it in the photo above.  There is also the famous form-fitting Maggie the Cat white silk slip.  I'm also a huge fan of the blouse, pencil skirt, pumps, and handbag Liz sports early in the film.  Loved the hint of orange in the belt.

Believe me, when I first saw the movie, I wanted take each outfit into my own wardrobe. Should I only be lucky enough to find the pieces... 

...and then look what I found.

Though I absolutely adore vintage, occasionally I cannot resist a modern dress that is perfectly designed. This one from J. Crew comes pretty darn close. Classic. Simple. Elegant.

As I do with many of my clothes, I had the waist taken in and the hem brought up a bit to fit me better. Yes, this one's too dressy for work, but it's still very versatile and has worked for me on many different occasions.  

On this particular occassion, I was enjoying a warm spring evening and heading up to Geoffrey's in Malibu for dinner.  I was actually asked that night if the dress was vintage, and it was one of the rare times I said no!  But I did accessorize it with vintage turquoise earrings and matching bracelet, a gold leather clutch, and strappy gold stilettos. 

This is but one example of the ways that vintage inspires the design of today.  You might be buying something you think is completely new, but the designer of your dress is probably using vintage as its modern muse.