Some of my favorite classic movies are “All About Eve”, “Gone with the Wind” and “Rear Window.” The stars of these three films – Vivien Leigh, Grace Kelly and Bette Davis – are all enduring, timeless fashion icons. I took inspiration from each of these queens of the silver screen to create a one-of-a-kind design for my prom dress.
Vivien Leigh! There’s such a fiery personality under that glamorous face. She takes command of any room she enters and that confidence is reflected in her fashion. I want my dress to be bold and make a statement just like Vivien Leigh.
Grace Kelly is everything her name says she is. Her look is angelic and she carries herself with such elegance. She made the perfect real-life princess! I want my dress to be feminine and have a gathered front like Grace Kelly’s.
Bette Davis’s dresses make a statement just like her eyes do. The plunging back and jewel accents in her dress really jazz it up. I decided to make the straps of my dress out of vintage jewelry. Jewels add glamour to any dress. And we all know that girls love sparkles !!!
My mom, Jane Samson, hosts a sewing show for teens on TV. She went to design school in Switzerland in the 70’s and bought up all the vintage patterns she could get her hands on. I am going to dig through those patterns like buried treasure to find pattern elements I can use to construct my unique prom dress design.
You can start your own fashion treasure hunt using these links:
- Coco Chanel
- Going Vintage
- Edith Head
- Gowns Inspired by Grace Kelly
- So Vintage Patterns
More recently, a film that showed the kind of 1930’s glamour I want in my prom dress was “Atonement”. Keira Knightly is so lucky that she gets to wear all of these beautiful dresses in the films she’s in. She and Anne Hathaway have become some of my generation’s super classy Hollywood style icons. My dress will be green silk like Keira’s. I love how silk hugs the body – it’s easy to strike a pose and look like a movie star, and I want my entrance into prom to be memorable!
-Grace
May 26, 2009, 12.07 PMby gracesamson
I love the idea of a fashion rating system for movies! Has someone done that yet? We should totally do it! Oh, and I also love “The Women” – the original, that is!
May 22, 2009, 07.53 PMby ChazzyStarr
Well I just saw you off to your prom and I have to say you did such a great job on your dress!!! You looked and are so beautiful! The green you picked was perfect and the pink lining was great “added feature” ;-)
I hope you have a great time tonight, which I know you will…
It’ll be most ~ to say the least ~ p&l
May 19, 2009, 07.08 PMby claireokc
I just love Hollywood fashion and you picked three greats. Another great movie is The Women – this is the “old” version, but great fashion. What it shows is that all women have different shapes and it took a different look for each woman in the film – designs that fit and looked great on each individual woman. This is so much fun!
May 18, 2009, 02.15 PMby schickchick
i read somewhere that the green dress kiera knightly wore in atonment was so thin that they had like… 10 back up dresses to use then it ripped!
but i agree, beautiful!
May 16, 2009, 07.10 AMby gedwoods
I must admit that since I’ve become so passionate about fashion I’ve started rating films for their fashion sense! So a film like “The Duchess”, that I did enjoy but not as much as other films (maybe a 7.7/10), gets a super fashion rating from me (something like a 9/10) – that Kiera Knightly phenomenon again. I saw “Confessions of a Shopaholic” which was a fun but somewhat shallow film, but also gets a super fashion rating from me (a 9.3…?)!
I always get these crazy ideas – maybe we could develop a communal fashion rating barometer for different films and share these – if a film got a high “fashions” rating, even if it wasn’t the type of film I usually go and see, I’d see it for its fashions!
May 15, 2009, 05.48 PMby fufusuzy
Here’s another modern take on that classy, elegant 30’s silhouette. The fabric looks like liquid gold on her!
May 15, 2009, 03.25 PMby sewingwithtrudy
I love all of the vintage dresses as well. Good luck on making your prom dress. I hope we get to see it. Since it’s vintage, you can also post it at www.sewretro.blogspot.com . It’s a vintage/retro sewing community. I have pictures of vintage dresses on my blog and will be putting more on there. I also found a video on You Tube of Fashions from the 1940s through the 1960s I believe it is. It is very beautifully done and put to music. I found two other videos from the 1940s on how to sew. Very fun to watch as well as informative. I’ll be finding more of these types of things for my blog. I also post sewing tips and sewing history.
www.sewingwithtrudy.blogspot.com