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Post by Shaun on Aug 14, 2005 10:19:05 GMT -5
I was browsing msn.com earlier and found this article. You-know-who came in at #2. 2. Katharine Hepburn -- 'Bringing Up Baby' (1938) When it comes to Katharine Hepburn's style, it's almost hard to pinpoint a specific movie -- she was so defiantly individual. So revolutionary was Kate that as the story goes, when RKO heads forced her to wear a skirt, she strolled around the studio lot in her underwear until they returned her beloved slacks ("Stockings are the invention of the devil," Hepburn once stated). As the dizzy, madcap rich girl ensnaring Cary Grant in the classic screwball "Bringing Up Baby," Kate is introduced wearing pants. It was perhaps "safer" for her to flaunt more masculine togs while playing golf, but the image is one indelibly linked to the screen legend and an early look at her then scandalous affinity for menswear. As Calvin Klein said of Kate in 1986, she "prompted generations of fashion designers to capture her vitality and spirit." We can't give her anything but love, baby. For the entire article: movies.msn.com/movies/filmfashionAm I wrong, or was Kate introduced in 'Bringing Up Baby' wearing a skirt?
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Post by Richard on Aug 14, 2005 19:40:55 GMT -5
Haha. She was introduced wearing a skirt. I'm almost certain... ... and yay for Audrey. *Richard's mailbox floods with hate mail* ;D
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Post by Cate on Aug 15, 2005 17:26:20 GMT -5
Yeah... she was introduced on the golf course right? I'm pretty sure she was wearing a skirt. Surely someone knows by now lol
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Post by Cate on Aug 15, 2005 17:28:28 GMT -5
PS Does anyone know what happened to all of her dresses? Were they auctioned... lost... stolen... Most of them were by Adrian, I think.
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Post by smith on Aug 16, 2005 4:07:54 GMT -5
What happened to Katharine's clothes
Various things happened . I am sure that a lot of them fell apart through old age and I assume many of them were auctioned when the material from MGM was sold in the 1970's . A couple of years ago the University of Hartford found a dress from Dragon Seed in the attic - I believe they have it on display - the University of Hartford owns the house that the Hepburn family lived in .
Adrian did design for Katharine but she also had other designers - the guy who did the clothes for Christopher Strong - anybody who can fit into the moth costume deserves a medal - Greer was his name
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Post by smith on Aug 16, 2005 4:21:08 GMT -5
One of the more annoying things about a certain biography which will be released later this year is that every second page seems to mention that Katharine shock horror wore trousers and we all know what that means .
However the biographer misses the point - Katharine's clothing was a wonderful mix of both the masculine and the feminine - she wore clothes in a wonderful way . Yes when we first see her in Bringing up Baby she is wearing a skirt and playing golf and she looks wonderful - she had a unique sense of style and flair .
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Post by Judy on Aug 16, 2005 13:13:38 GMT -5
Hi all:
I have heard an interview in which KH talked a bit about her costumes and clothes.
Greer did do the costumes for CHRISTOPHER STRONG. But the moth costume was a creation of Walter Plunkett, the designer who worked the most frequently with Kate. He's ucredited in the movie - probably because he just built the one costume. But whatta costume! She was asked if it was uncomfortable to wear and she said it wasn't because it was lined (the chainlike material was the same as in her Warrior's Husband costume, she said), but it was quite heavy.
And remember, Plunkett's the designer whom she knew she could get to design her costumes for Gone with the Wind on just a few day's notice - should Selznick have come up short in his search for Scarlett.
He, of course, DID do the GWTW costumes, too. He was known, I think, for being a bit odd and prickly - but then so was Kate :-)
So they got along fine.
Plunkett did the clothes for Morning Glory, Little Women, Spitfire, The Little Minister, Alice Adams (he's credited with this but in this interview Kate said that she purchased many of those dresses in New York and that he probably "reshuffled" them), Mary of Scotland, A Woman Rebels, Quality Street, Sea of Grass (she loved these costumes; called them "devastating!"), Song of Love and Adam's Rib (she mentioned that originally Mainbocher was to do the costumes for AR, but she thought he was too expensive - and, more importantly, so did the studio - so she got Plunkett to do them and she was very impressed with him again because he'd never done modern clothes for her. She loved the clothes in AR.)
Other designers with whom she worked were, of course, Adrian - who did the stunning gowns for The Philadephia Story and Woman of the Year - not sure he did the other clothes, but bet he did. And there was also Irene, whom she felt was not as talented as the rest; more workmanlike.
Onstage, she loved Valentina - who did both The Philadelphia Story and Without Love. Thought she was a genius. Valentina made her clothes offstage, too. She DID have them and DID wear dresses occasioinally when, she said, the situation called for it - like an opening or a funeral :-)
She said she did not buy many of the movie costumes. Occasionally she was given some, but she kept many more of her theatre clothes. For instance, she still had the long red coat she wore onstage in The Philadelphia Story. And the wedding gown - which she wore again in the TV version of The Glass Menagerie ("let out quite considerably," she laughs in this interview).
The thing about her is she was Style personified - whatever she was wearing. A designer like Adrian could put her in that stunning gown in The Philadelphia Story - and on her way to the trailer she could be wearing torn jeans. I think the thing about Style is that it's less about what you have on and more about the confidence with which you wear it.
Look at those photos of her on the set of Summertime in shirtsleeves and that large straw hat. Pretty spectacular.
Judy
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Post by Cate on Aug 16, 2005 17:17:40 GMT -5
Judy: Thanks for all the information! ;D I was going to ask who did her Summertime wardrobe but I guess I could just look all of that up (I'm sure it's on imdb -- they list everything including the guy who brought the intern his coffee). My favorite is probably . . . Bringing Up Baby. I loved that weird head thing she wore at the party and the Chinese-inspired attire she wore when they were digging holes in the backyard AND the dress when they were searching for Baby... oh yeah and the dress she was wearing when pretending to be mauled by the leopard (great fall by the way). Of course The Philadelphia Story... eh, I can't decide. Anyway, thanks again.
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