DS Fashion Envy

[Mysterious Benefactor]

dhartshorn1981 Danielle Hartshorn
Is it wrong of me to want Mrs. Stoddard's groovy green 70's dress? #darkshadows
2 hours ago

She's watching the eps when[spoiler]David is terrified of Barnabas:

dhartshorn1981 Danielle Hartshorn
Victoria and Mrs. Stoddard are worried about David; only a few suspect Barnabas. #darkshadows
3 hours ago[/spoiler]

so I presume she actually means this 1967 green dress:

It's the only green dress Liz wears from the point[spoiler]David becomes afraid of Barn until Vicki travels to 1795.[/spoiler]

And if there's envy of that dress (which is frequently derided in fandom), it just goes to show that there's probably someone to envy everything that was ever worn on DS - as hard as some of us may find that to believe.  

[michael c]

and vicki's little mustard-colored suit( a personal favorite)...it certainly met an unjust demise.

i recently purchased the catherine deneuve 1967 classic belle de jour. miss deneuve's wardrobe here is so chic it's actually given it's own credit("catherine deneuve est habillee par yves saint laurent"). the denueve/saint laurent collaboration is the stuff of fashion legend.

guess what? her ensembles were very DS. every dress:sleeveless. every coat:boxy. every shoe:a squat heeled/squared toe affair(sound familiar?). in 1967 it was all tres chic.

i think our show gets a bum wrap in the fashion department. i don't think the costumers tried to make the stars of the show look bad. the characters...particularly characters like julia and liz...were supposed to look expensively dressed and chic.

[Midnite]

michael c, I love hearing you talk fashion.

The shoes in Belle de Jour-- oh my goodness-- they are indeed legendary!  Vivier shoes were elegant and pricey and so well-made.

I hear what you're saying about the style of pumps worn by DS ingenues, but I think they were commercial to the point of being plain and cheap looking, no to mention (in the beginning) often repetitious.  Some of the women's clothing on DS are eye candy to many fans, but the show saved money on the shoe wardrobe.

[michael c]

you're right about the DS shoes midnite...vivier they ain't. them's some cheap shoes!

i think belle could actually make some reassess vicki's much-maligned wardrobe. on one of the DVD collections alexandra herself remarks on how ugly it was.

but again i don't think mostoller and company tried to make their heroine look bad. actually given the elaborateness of vicki's hairdo and the heaviness of her eye makeup(sometimes it looked like loscalzo used a trowel applying it)i think they were trying to make her...if not exactly chic... then fashionable and pretty. she's very belle.

b.t.w. i'm on the creative team at one of new york's toniest department stores(no, not ohrbachs!)and that's how people talk all day, midnite. to give you a little sampling(getting a bit OT)of what we're working on now my boss and i were put creatively in charge of some socialite's surprise birthday party that's being thrown for her in our store's fur salon. our theme for decor(china,linens,placesettings,etc.)is...get ready...leopard print, lavender, fur and dragonflies. there's informal modelling. somehow the waiters ties need to coordinate with the theme. and we have a budget of $15,000 to spend for a two hour luncheon for twelve women.

that's what i do all day.

[michaelhacketttodd]

For all its faults, there has never been a show like Dark Shadows and probably never will be.  These were (and are for many of us) our heroes.  The tacky sets, the flubbed lines, the makeup, (in some cases applied with a paint roller) and the bizzare fashions made the show all the more endearing.  Although I eagerly await the new movie, nothing will come close to the fun of the original series for me. 

[Midnite]

Wow, what fun!  I got a kick out of your story, and don't be surprised if I hit you up for more at the Fest.

but again i don't think mostoller and company tried to make their heroine look bad.

I suppose they deliberately didn't dress her as... well, as Alexandra would dress, meaning not anything too classic and in no way expensive-looking, especially straight from her job at the Hammond Home.  BTW, I don't hate Vicki's wardrobe-- not all of it, anyway.  (Just her shoes, lol)

actually given the elaborateness of vicki's hairdo and the heaviness of her eye makeup(sometimes it looked like loscalzo used a trowel applying it)i think they were trying to make her...if not exactly chic... then fashionable and pretty. she's very belle.

Wonderful point.  I find it amazing how pretty she looks now with so little makeup on her face.

I'm guessing you know that some 70 years ago, Alexandra's mother was a window designer for Bergdorf Goodman?

[michael c]

yeah most of the actors were in heavy pancake(highly visible on the DVDs)but alexandra seemed to wear little or no foundation.

sometimes she had very elaborate eye makeup but she never wore lipstick either. always a nude lip.

[DarkLady]

sometimes she had very elaborate eye makeup but she never wore lipstick either. always a nude lip.

If it had been a few years earlier, she would have worn white lipstick! 

[Gothick]

Lara Parker has told stories of Alex refusing to wear makeup on the show.  It certainly gave Vicki a very special look, very virginal.

I think the person talking about Liz's groovy green 70s dress must surely mean the roll-neck chartreuse "horror" that so many have fainted over.  That dress actually dated to 1966 or 67, of course.  And it's the one that Joan wore on her legendary Gov. and JJ appearance.

Michael, I swoon over your tales of glamorous luncheons for pampered hothouse socialites.  If only the conversations could be worthy of such decor, and if only at least one model walked through the room wearing Cassandra's legendary purple butterfly peignoir.  Ah, we can dream.

But the days of Jackie Susann and ladies who discussed nembutal suppositories and Mary Quant over liquid lunches have gone, never to return.

btw Michael have you been to the Alexander MacQueen installation at the Met yet?  A friend was just regaling me with breathlessly detailed descriptions of the tableaux. He said it is a glam haunted house for gay men and chic aware women.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I think the person talking about Liz's groovy green 70s dress must surely mean the roll-neck chartreuse "horror" that so many have fainted over

Besides tweeting about Vicki's and Liz' worry over David, she's also been tweeting about Willie being shot and in the hospital and Julia attempting to hypnotize David, which places the eps she's currently watching around Ep #322 and Ep #326, which is why I honestly suspect the dress in question is the one I posted because, besides being green, it appears in Ep #324. The chartreuse dress doesn't show up until Ep #364. 

[Willie Loomis]

Didn't Liz wear a yellowish maxi-moo-moo version of the green dress in the House of Dark Shadows movie and in the tv show as well?

[DarkLady]

Yes, Willie, it was screamingly yellow and just awful. But beloved anyway, am I right? 

The wardrobe in Belle du Jour puts me in mind of Audrey Hepburn's then-cutting-edge threads in Charade (1963), which were designed by Hubert de Givenchy.

The Alexander McQueen show closed a couple of months ago. I did see it and found it to be a fascinating glimpse into a rarefied, hermetically sealed world--well worth battling the hordes.

[tragic bat]

What I really love are some of Nancy Barret's outfits during the 1968/adam storyline.  Particularly, there's one gorgeous brown/orange ensemble that she wears during the episodes when Barnabas is [spoiler] buried alive[/spoiler] , and very shimmery blue number around the time when [spoiler] Carolyn does the experiment[/spoiler] .  She really looked amazing in them.

[Willie Loomis]

They did not dress Grayson Hall very well.    I think there's only one suit i liked her in and it was around the Vicki returns from 1795 story line -- brown with lines -- nice and tailored (where Julia is trying to get her to go to sleep).  other than that, she was awfully dressed.

[DarkLady]

I liked Julia's electric blue dress, and her pins.

Of course, honorable mention has to go to the serpent brooch that Elizabeth wears during the Leviathan episodes.

I loved NB's Carolyn Stoddard Loomis outfits during 1970 PT.

Some of Naomi Collins's gowns were absolutely stunning, like the pearl-gray silk one with the sort of persimmon-colored velvet overdress thing.