Orry Kelly - Master Of Form

Originally published on the Coletterie blog.

Orry Kelly (1897-1964) Australian

Ava Gardner in One Touch of Venus, 1948.

Orry-Kelly was considered one of the top three costume designers in the 1930s alongside Travis Banton and Adrian. Before being hired by Warner Brothers in 1932, he had designed costumes for Broadway actresses. During his career in films, he dressed numerous studio stars such as Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Kay Francis, Ingrid Bergman, and Rosalind Russell.

Actress Kay Francis wearing in Orry-Kelly.

Born John Orry Kelly, he grew up in Australia with his Irish parents. In 1923, he immigrated to New York hoping to be a Broadway star. He worked a variety of jobs, including a successful stint as a mural painter. He also designed for vaudeville as well and more highbrow theater. Originally hired to design theater sets, he was offered a job at Fox in their New York studio art department.

Actress Dolores Del Rio.

Once in Hollywood, he was hired by First National Films (later owned by Warner Brothers) and soon changed his name to Orry-Kelly. On his first film there, The Rich Are Always With Us (1932) he began his long and successful working relationship with Bette Davis. Orry-Kelly was known as the one designer who could satisfy and flatter her figure and personality. He specially designed corsets and brassieres to mold Davis’ figure for period film roles. However, for modern-set films, she refused to wear these types of supportive garments. Instead, Orry-Kelly relied on cleverly cut, well made garments and when dressed by him, Davis seemed elegant and at ease.

Actress Glenda Farrell, 1933.

Orry-Kelly also took historical accuracy more seriously than most of his peers in the shape and scale of the decorative trimmings he used on his costumes. He bridged the gap between realism and the exaggeration needed in movies.

Bette Davis in Jezebel, 1938.

Before color film, black and white films had to suggest colors by using various shades of gray. In reality, the costumes would sometimes be constructed in bizarre color combinations such as lavender and orange or magenta and lemon yellow in order to represent what was desired on screen. In Jezebel, the famous red dress that Bette Davis wears; when created out of bright red satin actually looked dull on film. The final dress ended up being rust-brown in color to appear “red” when rendered in black and white. Orry-Kelly was known to have said that his color range consisted of “varying shades of muck.”

Bette Davis in Dark Victory, 1939.

He was known for being temperamental and argumentative as a result of his alcoholism. He had been discharged from the Army in 1942 for his drinking. During his time at Warner Brothers he was notorious for arguing with his boss Jack Warner and walking out, returning after a few days. In 1944, he was finally fired from Warner Brothers and worked for 20^th Century Fox until 1947 and from 1950-1964 he freelanced for Fox, Metro-Goldman-Mayer, and United Artists.

Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot, 1959.

His films: Jezebel (1938), Dark Victory (1939), The Little Foxes (1941), Casablanca (1942), Now Voyager (1942), Some Like it Hot (1959), Baby Face (1933), Auntie Mame (1958), Irma La Douce (1963), and An American in Paris (1950), and Oklahoma (1955).

His style, innovations, and influence on fashion:

• Former roommate (and rumored lover) Cary Grant presented his design portfolio to First National Films and won Orry-Kelly the introduction that led to a job offer.

Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, 1951.

• Orry Kelly won three Academy Awards for Les Girls (1957), Some Like It Hot (1959) and for An American In Paris (1951) he shared the award with Walter Plunkett and Irene Sharaff.

Mame, 1958.

• He designed Rosalind Russell’s fabulous, ever-changing wardrobe for the 1958 screen version of Auntie Mame.
• Orry-Kelly covered his salon reception room with expensive silver leaf and requested a portable bar on wheels for himself and his guests.

Sources: In a Glamorous Fashion: The Fabulous Years of Hollywood Costume Design (1980) W. Robert La Vine; Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label (2008) Christian Esquevin.

Some Pretty For Today: Alabama Chanin

A close-up detail of Alabama Chanin's "Maggie" dress and it's amazing applique technique. See more of the dress here.

Jean Louis - Nude Illusionist

Originally published on the Coletterie blog.

Jean Louis (1907- 1997) French

Marlene Dietrich.

Jean Louis Berthault attended the design school, Ecole Decoratifs, in France and worked for the fashion house of Agnes-Drecoll. While visiting New York, a friend suggested that he present his sketches to New York City designers. He was eventually hired by Hattie Carnegie and worked with her until the early 1940s when he was hired away by Columbia Pictures in 1944 as assistant to chief designer Travis Banton. After Banton left Columbia for rival studio Universal Studios, Jean Louis became chief designer in his place. Interestingly, his assistant was James Galanos, who in the future would be known as the favored designer for First Lady Nancy Reagan in the 1980s.

Metallic dress, 1960.

Jean Louis (he eventually shortened his name) was known for his sleek, simple, and elegant designs that were free of extraneous details. His clothes had a modern uncluttered silhouette that achieved an undated look and many of these gowns could be easily worn today.

Rita Hayworth.

In 1958, like Travis Banton before him, Jean Louis left Colombia Pictures and defected to Universal Studios for a few years and then worked freelance. During his time at Universal he worked with Rita Hayworth on ten films, among them Gilda (1946), The Lady From Shanghai (1948), and Pal Joey (1957).

Marlene Dietrich in stage costume.

He went into ready-to-wear with his company, Jean-Louis, Inc. around the time that he started to design and construct stage wear for Marlene Dietrich and her nightclub act. These dresses were feats of engineering, as he, like Christian Dior before him, would create a foundation within the dress so fitted that Ms. Dietrich seemingly defied gravity for many years. He also designed her dresses so that they appeared as if she were only wearing sequins and beads on her bare skin. He achieved this by dying the fabrics to match her skin tone. This was also how he created the famous dress that Marilyn Monroe wore to seductively serenade President Kennedy with “Happy Birthday” in 1962.

Monroe's "Happy Birthday Mr. President" dress.

He eventually designed for television most notably for The Loretta Young Show which was famous for showcasing Ms. Young in one fabulous gown after another every week for a total of 52 gowns a year. After the death of his first wife, Maggy Fisher, Jean Louis eventually married his long-time friend Loretta Young in 1993, with whom he lived until his death in 1997.

The Loretta Young Show.

His Films: Pillow Talk (1959) and Midnight Lace (1960) with Doris Day; Gilda (1946) with Rita Hayworth; Bell, Book and Candle (1959) with Kim Novak; Gambit (1966) with Shirley MacLaine; Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) with Mary Tyler Moore, Julie Andrews, and Carol Channing; and The Monte Carlo Story (1957) with Marlene Dietrich.

Doris Day, Midnight Lace, 1960.

Julie Andrews, Thoroughly Modern Millie, 1967.

His style, innovations, and influence on fashion:

Thoroughly Modern Millie sketch.

• Though he was nominated for an Academy Award fifteen times, he only won once for 1956’s The Solid Gold Cadillac.

United Airlines air hostess.

• In 1968, he would design the “skimmer” uniform wardrobe for the female flight attendants of United Airlines

Sources: Contemporary Fashion (1995) Therese Duzinkiewicz Baker; In a Glamorous Fashion: The Fabulous Years of Hollywood Costume Design (1980) W. Robert La Vine.

What I'm Up To Now

Sorry, I don't have time to write any meaty posts (it's the last two weeks of the semester and I have two papers and two exams to do) so instead you're going to get a list of what I'm currently doing and what I'm gearing up to do.

• Received some vintage patterns from a friend's late mothers' stash and they are almost my size. They include 1950s Simplicity, Advance, and several mail order patterns still factory folded and in their mailers (Marian Martin, Anne Adams, etc.) Of course, I'll do some posts on them after I get the rest of them scanned. The ones above are my favorites. Here's another that I received, Simplicity 4697, and I've seen it being sold for $30 and up.




• Bought supplies to make some necklaces similar to the Kristina Klarin ones that I wrote about. I now have wooden beads and blocks and just need to paint them. Hopefully I can come up with luscious color formulas and combinations like she did.




• Working on another tester dress pattern that I'm really looking forward to wearing before it gets too hot. The fabric is so nice but it is more suitable to a mild spring or mid-fall. I already pictured how I'm going to style it and that will involve a lavender enameled flower brooch. So, now I have to find that brooch because it only exists in my imagination right now. If you have any ideas, let me know, ok?




• Writing more fashion history posts for the Colette Patterns blog (soon to be re-launched as The Coletterie). I am currently researching 1960s style and miniskirts!




• I now have a good collection of projects already matched with fabric for at least five articles of clothing to make over this summer...hopefully to be worn this summer. I better get on it!




• Oh, and taking a summer semester class on Richmond Architecture, but luckily, I have a few weeks rest before it starts.
  

Fashion In Film: South Riding (2011)

Director: Diarmuid Lawrence
Anna Maxwell Martin, David Morrissey
Costume Design: Stephanie Collie

After the sumptuousness of Upstairs and the practicality of the Downstairs costumes, BBC One and Masterpiece Theater Classics is now sharing with us a wardrobe somewhere in between; that of a school headmistress in fictional South Riding, Yorkshire in 1935. Which just happens to be my favorite period in clothing! I'll not only be watching it for the clothes but also because the drama, based on the novel South Riding by Winifred Holtby, has been adapted by the wonderful Andrew Davies (Sense & Sensibility, Little Dorrit, Bleak House.)

The costumes are by Stephanie Collie and include a lot of lovely details from the 1920-30s.

See this link for a video on the costumes.

I absolutely adore this delicate blouse (also seen later in teal) I love the barely-attached split sleeves and the diagonal tucks taken in the bodice front. I assume the top is closed by buttons in the back but I'll have to wait to see the film to be sure.

Check out the pieced fabric detail with chevron bars at the end of the lapels.

This dress could be in either a textured velvet or a silk faille, again, I'll have to see it in action to determine which. I love what looks like diamante clips at the shoulders.

Here's another view of that lovely blouse!

Here is the same blouse in a teal or aquamarine blue. You can see the details more clearly. I would love to have multiples of this blouse in my wardrobe. The blouse is technically a raglan cap-sleeve shell but the sleeves are not fully sewn and are only stitched halfway down, as split sleeves. The neckline is finished with self bias binding and a small self-faced rectangle is twisted and tacked to the center neck to form a faux-bow.

New York 2766

Amazingly, on the first page of results for Google search "1930s blouse" I found a vintage pattern, New York 2766 that would closely approximate this blouse. How you can find a copy is another thing, but the sketch does help to see what details you are looking for.

The series started May 1 and will run the next two Sundays, the 8th and 15th of May. Enjoy! First episode can be seen here!!

Images: BBC, screen caps from The Butterfly Balcony