Frockporn Friday: Charlotte Gray, dressed to kill
Introducing Frockporn Friday, a semi-regular feature where film is mostly about clothes with also some scenery and talking!
I may have been a little unfair to Charlotte Gray in an earlier post. It’s a visually beautiful film with some moving moments and talented performances. Plus I could watch Cate Blanchett for hours. But it does have significant flaws, mostly involving the usual Hollywood tinkering with the novel and the kind of niggling implausibilities that do more to sabotage my suspension of disbelief than gaping, obvious plot holes. For instance, having recruited, trained and deployed a valuable foreign agent, would SOE actually be that relaxed about letting her waft off to a cushy admin job after just one mission? Why does Charlotte’s lipstick never smudge, even after vigorous pashing? Why are the French speaking English but the Germans speaking German? And is any man, let alone two in a row, really dumb enough to believe that women in the midst of armed crises are likely to succumb to sudden transports of lust?
Since this is Frockporn Friday, however, the most pressing question is the one involving costumes. If Charlotte was parachuted into France with only the clothes she stood up in, where did she get the exquisitely tailored series of outfits she wears throughout the film?
But Charlotte has austerity-proof superpowers. Anything she puts on is crisp, new, perfectly fitted and instantly fantastic. Whether she’s hobnobbing with posh spies and handsome airmen in London…
…charging around in khakis…
…or sashaying out to a rendezvous with a French contact…
…she always looks stunning. She even looks stunning in 1945, when the war had ended but clothing rationing was still in force and austerity was at its most austere. The hat! The HAT!!
There are some wonderful color combinations in this film. Here we have sort of burgundy and… what would you call this shade of blue? Anyway, it’s nice.
But this has got to be my favorite outfit: bottle-green suit and rust red blouse and beret.
The cut of this skirt is beautiful… a little too beautiful. Just look at those double pleats. Don’t you know there’s a war on?
Here’s the blouse I love.
I’m tempted to have a stab at altering good old Simplicity 4817 to clone this blouse outright, because it’s so simple even I could manage it. Basic tie-collar blouse with bodice gathered to yoke, four waist darts, self-fabric buttons, pleats at the sleeve cap so there’s no setting in to worry about… easy-peasy.
It’s interesting to watch period period films and modern period films side by side to observe how different costumiers interpret an era’s styles to suit the sensibilities of their time. Women’s hair and makeup in Charlotte Gray, for instance, is relatively natural compared with the impossibly “done” look favored in films from the 1940s. The wardrobe, by contrast, is very slick — there’s nary a pinny or rayon floral print in sight. Perhaps the costumiers felt that audiences would associate flowery dresses and tightly curled crops with old ladies — ironically, the very people who lived through the war for real. I guess that’s fashion lapping itself. Nevertheless, Charlotte Gray‘s “modern vintage” is a nice source of ideas for those who enjoy a 1940s look but aren’t too hung up on authenticity.
Suggestions for further Frockporn Friday films most gladly welcomed!
I love that movie! I must admit that watching it I hoped that Charlotte would stay with Peter:) I like him more than Julien;)
I love Charlotte Gray for its great costumes too and I have another suggestion although I don’t think it counts as “Frockporn”!! I’ve recently been watching the Family at War series, it was made in the 70s I think by Granada, I remembering watching at home with my parents in my teens and loving it then. After reading your blog I have been a bit more attentive to the authenticity of fashion as it was then here in Britain rather than the more glam look we recognise from the States. I think they have caught it reasonably well, lots of lovely blouses and tailored skirts with some great hand knits – short sleeve jumpers, rarely all in one colour, I guess cos they were made from unpicked leftovers!!
The hair seems to be short more often than long though as the war goes on there are some great up does! These must have needed a bit longer hair. Anyway if you enjoy a family saga its worth a watch, although there are 4 series so a bit of an epic!!
I do enjoy reading your blog, I often asked my parents about life in the 40s as they were living in London at the time but sadly they have both died now so your research often answers some of the questions I have. So thanks for your hard work.
Thanks for the tip! I still have yet to watch Foyle’s War, which another reader recommended to me — apparently the series is notable for its accuracy of detail. I’ll add The Family at War to my list.
Yes Foyle’s War is another of my favourites, its the men in that that are the frockporn though, Michael Kitchener in a trilby with a long swinging overcoat. He even wears a collar and tie when he is fishing!! Sam, his driver wears uniform and flat lace ups in most of the shots so not quite so enviable!! However her real name of Honeysuckle Weeks makes up for it!!
Ha, I like Frockporn Friday! Absolutely swoonworthy costume design; I have to see that movie.
Great points about re-interpretations of particular eras’ styles. I think about that a lot- all those little cues in design/fashion/etc. that necessarily mean something different to me because of the decades I have lived in. All of our tourist snapshot-like individual exposures to an unvisitable past, the personal experiences that lead to associations for us, that cause us to like one style or pattern over another, to perceive messages in a cut of fabric, hair style, color palette. How vintage styles still have meanings to us, even though we can’t ever have the ability to fully read & interpret them the way they were read in their day, at least in the same way that we are able to interpret styles from eras where we have had a direct experience of contemporary culture. (Although, I must say, this blog has helped me have a wider window into 40s style culture generally- really appreciate your research!)
I’m not saying that all this matters much: knowing what a narrow versus wide peplum, a flowery dress, or a tight perm evoked to my grandmother versus to me, when making, wearing or otherwise styling something that you love- the larger part of taste is personal anyway, but still fun to think about.
funny, i just watched this film the other night. the green & rust combo with her auburn hair was my favorite too, but i agree…the realistic availability of such fashion was a bit distracting. the character & her wardrobe seemed to stick out like a “beautiful,” sore thumb. maybe her luxurious clothing fell from the sky in a parachute dragging capsule?? or better yet, maybe she had a relationship with a steamy italian tailor who fitted her with divine garments during their secret rendezvous and those scenes just didn’t make the final edit?? hmm…i wonder if there would be enough material in those deleted scenes to make an entirely new movie
IMHO i would say the blueish-purple hue of those to-die-for suede gloves is akin to english lavender (more violet-blue than purple). costumes are a definite must see for this film!
I like your theory. Now am imagining Charlotte Gray skulking away to a disused farmhouse where Marcello meets her for a session of heavy breathing with pins and tailor’s chalk.
I have a very similar looking skirt, vintage 40s…and I’ve been wearing it backwards! The pleats go in the back? Thanks for posting this and setting me straight! (How embarrassing!)
Love the idea for a Friday feature, hate the name.
LOVE THE HAT! Oh, and the purple and red color combo…..I need to see this film.
Apparently I live under a rock, because I had never even heard of this film. Now I MUST see it, if just to drool. The clothes are one thing, but the hair! When I saw the reflection in the mirror in the khaki picture I almost knocked my laptop onto the floor. I wish I had hair like that.
Rebekka, you’re in luck! The roll Charlotte is wearing is very, very easy to replicate — in fact, one reason why it was favored was that it was quick and simple to style and didn’t require a set, which made it ideal for busy working women. I can’t remember where I read it, but one former factory worker recalled that on bad hair days, she and her friends would just tie a bit of old stocking around their heads and roll and tuck the hair into it to get much the same effect.
Leni’s vintage hair tutorial over at the BDM History blog is a clearly written, nicely illustrated guide on how to reproduce the style at home:
http://blog.bdmhistory.com/uploaded_images/hair.png
Wow, thank you for the fantastic link! I’m definitely going to give it a try, although I’m not sure my hair is long enough. (I’m working on that, though.)
ooh ooh! Can I suggest the Dutch WWII film “Black Book” for the next one? The blonde lead actress has THE best clothes in it – secretarial dresses, elegant gowns, AND even a wide legged trouser suit near the end. It’s a great film, too.
Duly noted!