Fashion features in December mainly revolve around festive clothes with sparkling elements, but the best way to get inspired by the Christmas celebrations is maybe by dreaming about festive gowns as seen in Hollywood films.
If you don't have time to go through several films, watch at least Holiday Inn (1942) directed by Mark Sandrich. The plot focuses on a successful trio of New York performers - Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby), Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire) and Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale).
Jim dreams of retiring from the stage and move with Lila to a farm in Connecticut, but his plans change when he discovers she has fallen in love with Ted and has decided to remain his dancing partner.
Jim moves alone to Connecticut, but his idyllic life as a farmer soon turns into a nightmare and he decides to turn the place into an entertainment venue, a "Holiday Inn" that only works 15 days a year, marking in an extravagant and crazy way different celebrations.
His improbably idea becomes rather successful when he meets young singer Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds), but it will prove difficult to protect her from Ted's search for a new partner after Lila abandons him to run away with a millionaire.
Featuring music by Irving Berlin and choreographies by Danny Dare, the film features twelve songs (including "Abraham", staged at the Inn for Lincoln's Birthday, accompanied by a rather unfortunate blackface performance, now an outdated type of routine that is often cut from current screenings as it is considered by some as politically incorrect and racially offensive) and also received a 1943 Academy Award for Best Original Song for "White Christmas". This track topped the charts in October 1942 and stayed there for eleven weeks becoming one of the best selling singles of all-time.
Edith Head designed the costumes for this film, sprinkling her magic from the first to the last gown. When the film starts we mainly follow Lila performing with Ted and Jim, and then just with Ted.
For the first performance she wears a dark dress with a sequinned embroidered motif (very Schiaparelli) matched with a veiled hat and an oversized fur hand warmer; in the second number she dances with Ted in a dress covered in sparkling sequins. In both the outfits the hemline falls just below the knee to allow her to effortlessly perform even the most elaborate dance routines.
Things change when Linda becomes the main star at the Holiday Inn. Her character seems to favour long and elegant gowns. For her New Year's Eve debut she is dressed indeed in a long sequinned gown, though it is the St Valentine's dress that is usually unanimously considered as the best one by many fashionistas and fans of this film.
For Valentine's Day Linda wears a long dark gown with see-through sleeves. The bodice of the dress features a rather original motif: the bodies of two swans form the arch of the breasts, and the birds hold in their beaks a sequinned heart pierced by an arrow.
Washington's Birthday is an excuse for elaborate 18th century period costumes; Easter is a romantic moment, ideal for a classic and simple dress with flowery prints inspired by Spring, matched with a bonnet.
The Fourth of July holiday opens instead with a patriotic number with dancers in star spangled outfits, and a celebration of the U.S. Military and of American ideals (the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii occurred while they were filming, so this number became even more patriotic than it was originally planned).
There is another chance to listen to "White Christmas" towards the end of the film when the story of the Holiday Inn is turned into a movie starring Ted and Linda. For the occasion Linda wears a luxurious mink coat with a matching turban and a lame gown.
The happy ending arrives with the final New Year's Eve number, with Jim reunited with Linda and Ted with Lila. Both the female performers are wearing classic and timeless long gowns for this performance, even though Linda's seems softer with delicate sequinned and embroidered elements while Lila's mainly plays on solid fabrics and contrasting shades and textures (shiny/matte).
Head loved to create tailored suits for men's characterised by clean lines, something that she preferred in her designs for women as well and this is clear also in this film (the swan gown may feature a rather original motif, but it's still characterised by a very simple and basic silhouette).
Though this film was originally conceived as a holiday entertainment for audiences, it unfortunately reflects here and there the racist attitudes that were part of the mentality of the times. Fashion-wise, thanks to Head's designs, Holiday Inn remains a festive runway of glamorous gowns and dresses characterised by key trends from the 1940s, and that's probably the best way to enjoy it.
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