Marlene Dietrich and Audrey Hepburn. Few Hollywood legends are more associated with style than these leading ladies. So many of the iconic images that shade their legacies are intrinsically connected to their wardrobes.
In Morocco (1930), Dietrich’s top hat and tails makes an indelible impression, helping to transform the actress into a dominant presence that bends the gender norms of the time.
No one can forget the “little black dress” that Hepburn dons in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), much less the continued impact that outfit has made on the fashion world. Moreover, it could be argued that Hepburn’s casual attitude within the dress redefined glamor.
Both women understood the importance of clothing in illustrating character and story, and while many stars have had significant input on their costuming, few have been more keenly involved in the process than Dietrich and Hepburn. For Follow the Thread, TCM highlights two movies where the stars’ insistence on a particular look molded the films in which they appeared.
Alfred Hitchcock, too, had a well-documented penchant for obsessing over the wardrobe of his actors, particularly his female leads. Edith Head is the designer most closely connected with Hitchcock, working on nearly all of his films after the director began working with Paramount. Head even followed Hitchcock to Universal after the director switched studios. But Stage Fright (1950) came before Hitchcock first teamed with Head. Milo Anderson took on costume duty for this movie.
A Warner Bros. staple, Anderson had worked on a number of classic films, including Mildred Pierce (1945) and Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).
For Stage Fright, Anderson outfitted the movie’s co-lead, Jane Wyman, who plays an aspiring theatrical actress whose friend Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd) is accused of the murder of the glamorous Charlotte Inwood’s (Dietrich) husband. In a now-infamous flashback that opens the film, Cooper alleges that Inwood committed the crime.
Wyman’s character contrasts Dietrich’s. Wyman is mousey and less assured, whereas Dietrich is a glamorous diva. Anderson highlights this difference by adorning Wyman in conservative wear with Peter Pan collars. Wyman is clearly shown to be the “innocent” one in the story.
But Anderson did not design the clothing worn by Dietrich. Dietrich insisted on bringing Christian Dior on to the film just to handle her styling.
After working with fashion designers Robert Piguet and Lucien Lelong in the 1930s and 1940s, Dior struck out on his own in 1947, establishing his fashion house in Paris. His “New Look” women’s clothing line revolutionized style and for the next decade, Dior was one of the most prominent figures in the industry. Early in his career, Dior had also designed costumes for film, which he contended in his autobiography was a decidedly different assignment.
“I designed costumes for several films or ballets,” Dior wrote, “but never with any particular pleasure. Designing for the theatre needs a quality of improvisation, or sacrifice of craftsmanship to the effect, which is alien to my temperament.”
No matter his hesitation, Dior lent his talents to several films after his fashion house established its dominance, including The Ambassador’s Daughter (1956) and Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953), for which his designs scored him an Academy Award nomination.
In Stage Fright, Dior is most in his element, emphasizing the untouchable quality of Dietrich’s character with a series of magnificent gowns. Dietrich had insisted on Dior’s involvement, to the point where she said she would not do the picture without him.
“No Dior, no Dietrich,” she famously said. The fittings for Dietrich’s costumes became a story in and of themselves, with newsreel cameras capturing the star’s visit to France for her fittings. Her choices were sent to London for Hitchcock and the production team’s approval.
Among the stunning outfits is the feathered jacket worn when Dietrich performs “The Laziest Gal in Town,” a garden party dress with a floral design, as well as sophisticated, tailored suits and stunning, sensual gowns for her character’s other stage performances.
Hitchcock had returned to his native England to film Stage Fright, one of only a handful of films he made in his birth country after immigrating to the United States. It was produced under the banner of his short-lived production company Transatlantic Pictures, though it was ultimately distributed by Warner Bros. Only two other films used the Transatlantic name, Rope (1948) and Under Capricorn (1949).
Hitchcock rarely relented much creative control to anyone on his production team, most especially the performers. Dietrich, however, was not only allowed to supervise her own wardrobe, but also her lighting and camera angles.
Hitchcock seemingly respected Dietrich’s long career, particularly her frequent collaborations with director Josef von Sternberg, and the actress had gained an expert eye for framing her famous looks.
Hitchcock later said, “Miss Dietrich is a professional — a professional actress, a professional dress designer, a professional cameraman.”
Wyman, meanwhile, reportedly did not gel with Dietrich, and was apparently upset at how dowdy her designs were in comparison to Dietrich’s. Regardless, Dietrich in Dior is a feast for the eyes.
After making a splash and winning an Oscar for Roman Holiday (1953), Audrey Hepburn was the ingenue of the moment in mid-1950s Hollywood. Edith Head had handled Hepburn’s wardrobe for that film, made at Paramount, and was once again assigned to design the costumes for Sabrina (1954), an exciting challenge considering that, as the film’s lead, Hepburn goes from an unassuming chauffeur’s daughter to a regal sophisticate after her character studies abroad in Paris.
The ultimate romantic comedy love triangle, Sabrina finds Hepburn choosing between two rich brothers, a playboy portrayed by William Holden and the more serious Humphrey Bogart.
But Head was not solely responsible for the wardrobe Hepburn wore in the movie, and there has been some debate on the extent to which Head was actually involved. Hepburn had told the movie’s director, Billy Wilder, that she wanted to wear authentic Parisian clothing. He sent her to Balenciaga in Paris, but he was so busy he passed her off to another couturier, Hubert de Givenchy, launching a decades-long association that would give film some of its most important style moments.
“When the door of my studio opened,” de Givenchy later recalled, “there stood a young woman, very slim, very tall, with doe eyes and short hair and wearing a pair of narrow pants, a little T-shirt, slippers and a gondolier’s hat with red ribbon that read ‘Venezia.’”
De Givenchy said that he was short-staffed, and he would be unable to make Hepburn new clothes.
“She persuaded me. How lucky I was to have accepted,” de Givenchy later said.
Hepburn asked to see his collection, and she chose her character’s wardrobe from those designs.
Head would later claim that her costume department produced clothes merely inspired by de Givenchy designs, and that sketches by Head helped to evidence this. A sketch of the black cocktail dress with its distinctive shoulder bows, perhaps the most recognizable outfit in the film, was sent out as publicity material for the movie. Head’s signature was featured prominently on the sketch, implying that she did, in fact, design the dress.
After Head’s death in 1980, de Givenchy confirmed that it had been, in fact, his design from which Head had produced the costume, which was apparently the case for Hepburn’s entire post-Paris wardrobe.
Other ensembles had a distinct influence on popular fashion, including the collared, button-up shirt tied at the waist coupled with a pair of short white shorts. There are also the black, tight pants with a black, long-sleeved shirt that has a surprising, open-back. Hepburn makes a particular impression in the white organdy gown with flourishes of floral patterns at the film’s Larrabee Ball. This dress lends itself to a memorable scene in an indoor tennis court, with the outfit somehow making an even greater mark when its placed out of its intended context.
Edith Head took home an Academy Award for Sabrina. She did not mention de Givenchy in her acceptance speech. In fact, Head didn’t even give an acceptance speech at all. She waltzed onto the stage in a fabulous gown of her own, grabbed the Oscar from presenter Jane Wyman and went on her way. Bob Hope, also at the podium, gestured for her to step up for a speech, but she only mouthed, “Thank you,” to Hope as she walked away. After winning five previous Oscars for her work, perhaps Head was out of people to thank. Head would go on to win two more Academy Awards, totaling eight, a record for a costume designer.
Meanwhile, de Givenchy would continue to work with Hepburn throughout her career, including in Funny Face (1957), Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Paris When it Sizzles (1964).
“His are the only clothes in which I am myself,” Hepburn said. “He is far more than a couturier. He is a creator of personality.”
The two forged a lifelong friendship. When Hepburn passed away in 1993, de Givenchy said he was heartbroken and continued to revere her memory until his own death in 2018.
De Givenchy later spoke of Hepburn’s legacy.
“She was an enchantress, inspiring love and beauty” de Givenchy said, “and fairies never quite disappear altogether.”
