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It was almost 15 years ago when I was a freshman as a fashion major student in China, I first watched movie Bathing Beauty (出水芙蓉) and madly fell in love with the beautiful clothes owned by the leading character Caroline Brooks. In a degree that I adored the white shawl she wore to the poolside so much, I watched the movie three times and made a similar shawl for myself. It is also from then and this movie, fuchsia has been my favorite color, till today.
My choice of Fashion major was purely a childhood intuition. Fashion just started in China back then and there was no much inspiration we could get. Hollywood movies were a source but they were rare in China. Language was another barrier for us to understand the movies well because English listening comprehension skills even for college students were largely poor, needless to say culture or dressing etiquette.
During the next ten years, I didn’t follow the original institution to become a fashion designer, but I did manage a career revolving around ready-to-wear business. Like everybody born in mid 70’s in China, I went through college graduation, changing jobs, studying English, applying graduate schools overseas and realizing the dream of crossing Pacific. In spite of these distractions, a passion for fashion has always been there for me just like an old friend from now and then reminds who I am: no matter it was the temptation to get that glorious $100K+ consulting or investment banking job as an MBA student or struggle to define myself while going through culture shock in another country.
One day I woke up and found myself armed with abundant resources and capabilities to get around to the language and culture, I discovered my passion for fashion again - I want to interpret the fashion from classic movies in a way that is easy to understand and get inspiration from for those who haven’t been able to do so. And thus my blog http://whenfashionmeetsmovies.blogspot.com/ was born.
“You've got to find what you love,” Steve Jobs told us three stories in his graduation speech for us. One of them was about connecting the dots. He said: “you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
When I look my life backwards according to Jobs’ suggestion, I did find some dots were connected in some way! Find a passion, stick to it and connect dots. Life sometimes brings me nowhere and I’ll always believe the passion is the guidance and all the dots will be connected in the future.
"Jane Hudson, the middle-aged American spinster Katharine Hepburn(凯瑟琳.赫本) portrays, comes to Venice to fulfill a life-long dream. She meets and falls in love with a charming, married antique dealer (Rossano Brazzi). The affair is brief and one of great delicacy, but when Jane leaves Venice less than two weeks later, she carries with her a memory to light up her lonely future ..."
In spite of a bittersweet romance happened in Venice with 50's charming, I also enjoyed some other things that touched my nerve.
My favorite lines
(During their first date)
RB - “You are a surprising person.”KH - “Surprising?”
RB - “Every woman should surprise a man at least once.”
KH - “How many times have I surprised you?”
RB - “I think you surprised me all the time.”
KH - “Sometimes, you surprised me.”RB - “Pleasantly?”
KH - “Well, hah…Hah…”
RB - “Here it is – to many pleasant surprises!”
Gardenia
I was immediately connected and felt nostalgic when the antique dealer bought Jane a gardenia (well, actually she picked it from many other flowers) in their first date. Gardenia has been one of my fondest childhood memories. Almost every house in my hometown had gardenia in the front and/or back garden. During late spring early summer, booming gardenias would scent the air with its unique, sweet, and lasting fragrance. Little girls put them on as hair accessories; ladies use gardenia petals as fragrances in pockets; housewives kept fresh gardenia and buds in vases which can last weeks. It was heavenly especially at night when the breezes brought the gardenia scents to every corner of the town…
Dresses:
Given the nature of the character as a spinster, KH didn't have a lot of fancy dresses in this film. Most of the dresses she wore were plain, fully covered and in understated color tones - khaki, white, pale green/blue and burnt orange. Still, they looked great in KH's tall and slender figure accessorized with elegant pearl chokers and earings. As the romance between Jane and the antique dealer unfolded, KH was spotted in several beautiful dresses. She looked luminous in the lavender silk polka dot summer dress during their first date in the Piazza San Marco. For the second date, she wisely picked a little black dress (LBD), which she was stunning in. Here once again, I have to speak highly of the magic an LBD can bring to women. It is always there for you as an elegant and comfort companion in every important moment of your life.
Several beautiful dresses donned by the other ladies in the film are worthwhile to mention: the owner of the boarding house on the canal was elegant, mature in a navy blue full skirt with three rows of white lace decorated around the hemline. The delicate gold necklace and bracelet revealed her sophisticated taste and well-heeled lifestyle; the artists' wife who stayed in the same house also had several nice dresses. One of them was a full skirt in linen with denim patched stripes (as pictured)
And last but not least, the leading male character, the antique dealer was very well dressed too! He had impeccable suits, no matter the light gray suit he donned the afternoon they first encountered in Piazza San Marco, or the camel suit for their first date, or the blue suit at the second date. All of them were well tailored and fit and matched with white dress shirts and a hint of color touch by selected ties, very gentlemen and Italian. I guess guys without a clue about clothes can get some inspirations from the movie as well.
More pictures from the movie:
