 |
| Studying/making PBJ sandwiches: Red |
I watched
Love Story today, the 1970 film starring Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw, and while the story is a little over the top, the fashion is great! Ryan and Ali play Oliver Barrett IV and his wife, Jennifer Cavalleri-Barret, a young, modern couple, working their way through those tough early years of marriage. Jenny is working as a teacher to support them both, as Oliver is a Harvard law student, learning to deal with life after being disowned by his millionaire daddy because he rushed into marrying his Catholic middle-class girlfriend. Later, Oliver is a law success, but Jenny contracts some kind of unnamed, cancer-like, blood-related disease, and dies in just a few weeks, without every looking or feeling ill. The COD was referred to by one critic as an "Elizabeth Arden disease," the symptoms of which Roger Ebert described as
a "movie illness in which the only symptom is that the sufferer grows more beautiful as death approaches." This is perfect for my uses here, a blog in which I talk about pretty people and their outfits.
 |
| Cheering: Red |
The costuming in this film is super. And by costuming, I mean Jenny, because Oliver pretty much just wears sweaters and collared shirts, the occasional shearling-lined coat, and finishes off in very lawerly suits. Jenny progresses from a camp counselor in very Massachusetts fashion, sailor-y pants and t-shirts to a well-dressed teacher, to a classy New York wife, all in simple patterns and fabrics. There's a lot of plaid, of classic lines; trenches and peacoats. It's all very Ivy League, but with a twist.
My favorite part of the costuming is the running thread of white and red, either on Jenny, or echoed in the Harvard colors, which runs through. Jenny wears a lot of color, and the only big scenes in which she isn't wearing a little something are their wedding, where she is, as expected, in white, and her on her deathbed, where she's also angelic in outfit. I think the white choices here are obvious, but the red less so. She is clearly the heroine, and there is no Scarlett O'Hara red dress agenda here, I think it's just a way to set her apart. She's a beautiful woman, she loves her husband, and she stands out in a room. She isn't like any of the girls Oliver's father wanted him to marry, girls who would conform, and fade into the background. Jenny stands out, she catches your attention, and she doesn't have to say she's sorry.
 |
| Graduation: Ollie's red |
 |
| Meeting the parents: Red |
 |
| Winter/dying: White |
 |
| Wedding: White |
 |
| Carrying over the threshold: Red (This one's my favorite!) |
I watched Love Story today, the 1970 film starring Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw, and while the story is a little over the top, the fashion is great! Ryan and Ali play Oliver Barrett IV and his wife, Jennifer Cavalleri-Barret, a young, modern couple, working their way through those tough early years of marriage. Jenny is working as a teacher to support them both, as Oliver is a Harvard law student, learning to deal with life after being disowned by his millionaire daddy because he rushed into marrying his Catholic middle-class girlfriend. Later, Oliver is a law success, but Jenny contracts some kind of unnamed, cancer-like, blood-related disease, and dies in just a few weeks, without every looking or feeling ill. The COD was referred to by one critic as an "Elizabeth Arden disease," the symptoms of which Roger Ebert described as a "movie illness in which the only symptom is that the sufferer grows more beautiful as death approaches." This is perfect for my uses here, a blog in which I talk about pretty people and their outfits. 
No comments:
Post a Comment