1930s Hollywood costumes - in real life!

TinTrunk

TinTrunk

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I mentioned viewing some Hollywood costumes at a museum in another thread, so here are a few photographs of them. Because I haven't asked for permission to show these, I'm not sure if its ok so I will probably delete them after a short while. I don't want to get into trouble!

This is a jacket from Marlene Dietrich's personal wardrobe. It has a label crediting both Travis Banton and Howard Greer:

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Another of Marlene's jackets, designed by Travis Banton. I'm getting a real Schiaparelli flavour from both of these jackets!:

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One of Marlene's gowns, possibly designed by Travis Banton:

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An inside shot because I always find it interesting to see the construction:

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This is a genuine film costume, worn by Jean Harlow in "Bombshell," designed by Adrian, and too precious to get out of the box. I asked about the fact that Jean Harlow was said to have been sewn into her gowns, but the curator said that was a myth. It was said about Marilyn Monroe too, when in fact all the costumes he had seen of theirs had extensive fastenings. However it was true that Harlow didn't wear underwear!:

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Carole Lombard wore this Travis Banton creation in "No Man of Her Own." Again it couldn't be taken out of the box, but at least I got to see how it was constructed. Its a floor length pink silk crepe gown completely encrusted in bugle beads:

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Apparently Mexican women were particularly skilled at beading, and whole teams of them would have worked for months on a costume like this.

Sarah :christmas3:
 
Your most welcome everyone! Thanks for all the lovely comments!

It was a genuine privilege to see these garments up close, and I got a bit shaky and overwhelmed at the time! I've been a total Hollywood nut since I was a small child so you can imagine what a thrill this was. :fainting:

I'd love to find pictures of Jean Harlow and Carole Lombard wearing those fabulous gowns. I've got both films (Bombshell and No Man of Her Own) on my DVD shopping list, but if anyone has them perhaps they could check if they can spot them in the movie?!

Sarah
 
Thank you for sharing those pictures! That must have been terribly exciting. I love seeing Marlene Dietrich's pieces; especially that dress! What a stunner. The ornate decorations on the jackets remind me of her costuming for Kismet - I watched it on TCM a couple weeks ago and have been on a bit of a Dietrich kick ever since.

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GREAT costumes in that film!
 
I couldn't get that particular blog post to show up, Joules, but ended up bookmarking the blog. Thanks for posting it! And love the photos of these gorgeous costumes.
 
how beautiful - thank you so much for sharing.

I did get to help dress an Edith Head fashion show many years ago - the beaded dresses were amazing

Hollis
 
Mary Jane and queen0ftheang3ls - I love the Dietrich stuff too! She had such great taste, and I went through a major obsession with her in my teenage years.

Linn - research can be such fun, don't you think?!

Joules - let me know if you view those films, and thank you for that great link about the collection that shows those two Dietrich jackets!

Amber - they have such a great collection there, and its lovely to know that people have been carefully collecting some of the iconic costumes of Hollywood's golden age. I had no idea what to expect and was genuinely suprised by the standard of workmanship on them - no skimping because it would be only shown on screen!

Cheers Maggie! :USETHUMBUP:

Hollis - Wow, you were involved in an Edith Head fashion show?! That must have been amazing.

Sarah
 
Edith Head used to go around and do fashion shows in the 80s? when she was pretty much retired - I have no idea what she charged! A local group my mother was involved with had her come in and do one as a fundraiser. My mother got tickets, but thoughtfully signed me up to dress the show - it was great!

It was my first contact with actual costumes from film's golden age. Wonderful things, and not all Miss Head's designs. I remember the gold costume ball dress from It Takes A Thief, a red beaded gown Joan Crawford wore, a velvet circle cape and doublet Errol Flynn wore? , and more. Miss Head was quite elderly and became too ill to do the show, so an assistant came. Sadly, she died soon after. We had a training session with the models, and I remember the main instruction was: " Do NOT hang the beaded dresses up - EVER!"

Film costumes were beautifully made, especially for the close-ups. They had to be impressive, hold up to a to of takes, although duplicates were made for many, and bear a lot of scrutiny on a large screen. And you couldn't put top stars in shoddy clothing then any more than now. A star getting millions for a picture wants to look perfect . Plus many costumes were reused as the years went by for smaller budget films and publicity shots.
Then many went on to a second life at Western Costume as rental costumes.

I am surprised though at how much better some modern cotumes look on screen than in life. I saw an exhibit in LA with some pieces from Titanic, Amistad and Wings of the Dove and while they were all very nice costumes, the embroidery and beadwork all looked much better on screen than in life.

Hollis
 
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