Happy 4th Birthday, GlamAmor!

February has been such a busy month, but it's time to do a little celebrating.  GlamAmor has just turned four!

Though four years is a relatively long time online--for perspective, Twitter was formed only eight years ago--it hardly seems long enough to capture all that has happened with GlamAmor.  This is especially true of the past year.  GlamAmor just passed its one millionth unique visitor on the site and has social media that extends from its own YouTube Channel to pages on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google+, and Instagram.

Offline, I've continued to be a guest speaker for presentations on THE STYLE ESSENTIALS: HISTORY OF FASHION IN FILM 1920s-1970s and share pieces from the carefully curated GlamAmor vintage study collection to show the impact of costume design on fashion.  These presentations expanded into a full blown college course on the subject at Woodbury University (now in the midst of its second semester!) as well as a successful webinar series that's been embraced by film and fashion fans alike.

Over the past year, I was also honored to be a part of some amazing events, including becoming a published expert for Christie's Inc. (for their auction of Elizabeth Taylor's first wedding gown) and a host for Turner Classic Movies at their 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival.  There's so much more ahead, including now working on the book for THE STYLE ESSENTIALS and being both a presenter and jury member at the International Fashion Film Awards in La Jolla this summer.

Since I just celebrated Ava Gardner's great style in The Killers (1946), I thought it would be fun to have her and then husband Frank Sinatra help blow out the candles of GlamAmor's birthday cake.  A huge THANK YOU to all who continue to support me and GlamAmor.  It thrills me that so many love the style of classic cinema and understand the importance of preserving its history.

I'm looking forward to the next year.  As Frank sings so well, the best is yet to come!

Thanks to Corbis for the images

You're invited! GlamAmor's Webinar on HISTORY OF FASHION IN FILM 1950s this Sunday 2/23

UPDATE:  Due to technical issues with the platform during the scheduled live webinar on the 16th, I will be doing a reprise this coming Sunday the 23rd.  All are welcome!

If you love style in the movies, you are invited to a special 6-part webinar series to learn all about THE STYLE ESSENTIALS: HISTORY OF FASHION IN FILM.  The Style Essentials represent iconic costume design from film that immediately impacted fashion and continues to influence the industry today.  This is an online version of the HISTORY OF FASHION IN FILM course I teach at Woodbury University and in presentations around Southern California.  There is one webinar per decade from the 1920s to 1970s. 

Our next live webinar focuses on the style icons from the 1950s and the Golden Age of Hollywood--including Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, and Marilyn Monroe.  You can see the other decades' stars we discuss in the collage above.  Each presentation includes stills from the movies and images from today's fashion that are accompanied by a conversation about film history, costumes and their legendary designers, and many fascinating backstories of the stars.  

Cost is $20 per live webinar, which also includes sessions of Q&A. Each runs 10:30 am to 12:30 pm PT.  

But if you miss the live classes, fear not.  You can view the video recordings at any time for only $10.  Links to register for every one of the webinars--whether live or recorded--are below.  Hope to see you there!

The 1920s--The Jazz Age

Sunday, November 17th

CLICK TO REGISTER to see 11/17 RECORDING of the 1920s webinar

The 1930s--Art Deco Elegance

Sunday, December 15th

CLICK TO REGISTER to see 12/15 RECORDING of the 1930s webinar

The 1940s--Film Noir Style

Sunday, January 19th

CLICK TO REGISTER to see 1/19 RECORDING of the 1940s webinar

The 1950s--Opposites Attract

Sunday, February 23rd

CLICK TO REGISTER for the LIVE 1950s webinar

The 1960s--Revolution

Sunday, March 16th

CLICK TO REGISTER for the LIVE 1960s webinar

The 1970s--Everybody's All American

Sunday, April 20th

CLICK TO REGISTER for the LIVE 1970s webinar

Style Essentials--Ava Gardner is Dressed to Kill in Vera West for 1946's THE KILLERS

We're now in the thick of awards season here in Los Angeles with this month leading up to the Oscars.  Turner Classic Movies (TCM) always celebrates this time with their 31 Days of Oscar and has divided this year's schedule in interesting ways, including a toast to the 75th anniversary of the iconic films from 1939.  Though 1939 is heralded as the Greatest Year in Film History--and with good reason, as you'll see if you look at the long list--I often point to 1946 as a very close runner up.  This is especially true when it comes to film noir.  The genre is largely defined by the films that premiered in 1946 and featured many of the most famous femmes fatales and intrigantes.  This includes Rita Hayworth in Gilda, Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice, Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep, Veronica Lake in The Blue Dahlia, Ingrid Bergman in Notorious, and of course, Ava Gardner in The Killers.

The Killers is a film filled with breakthroughs.  It was Burt Lancaster's first movie (at the ripe old age of 32), but in many ways it seemed like Ava Gardner's, too.  Both of them became big stars overnight.  Though Ava had been with MGM since 1941, it was her loan to Universal to make The Killers that led to her breakthrough performance.  MGM had hired Ava for her obvious beauty--photographs of her segued to a screen test that resulted in Louis B. Mayer famously pronouncing, "She can't sing, she can't act, she can't talk. She's terrific!" Yes, she was stunning, but it was her magnetism while simply standing onscreen that really evoked Mayer's enthusiasm.  You couldn't take your eyes off her.  Yet MGM couldn't seem to put her in substantive roles that capitalized on all Ava had to offer.  It took the great independent producer Mark Hellinger (High Sierra, The Naked City) to recognize she could go beyond being simply a sexpot (though she certainly was that, too) and had much more simmering beneath the surface.  He fought to borrow the worldly 23-year-old siren from MGM, and the role of femme fatale Kitty Collins made her the icon she is today.  Ava knew it; it was Hellinger she credited for the success of her career.

The Killers was a hit with the public and critics alike, and justifiably nominated for four Academy Awards.  Among those nominations, one was for Best Adapted Screenplay and that, too, can be traced to a contribution from Hellinger.  It was he who got the film rights from friend Ernest Hemingway for one of his short stories.  That said, though the opening 20 minutes of the film are true to Hemingway's original story, the remaining plot comes from screenwriter Anthony Veiller and, significantly, uncredited contributions from writer/directors John Huston (The Maltese Falcon) and Richard Brooks (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof).  The characters and plot that these men created would inspire many more to come, such as Quentin Tarantino for Pulp Fiction (1994).  Another Oscar nomination went to The Killers' director Robert Siodmak, well-deserved for the deep focus photography and extraordinary expressionist lighting that he and cinematographer Woody Bredell used to compose the film's impressive images.  Not surprisingly, Siodmak was born in Germany and started his career at UFA, the studio which gave birth to German expressionism in films such as Metropolis (1927) and Pandora's Box (1929).

Part of The Killers' visual style of course also comes from its incredible wardrobe, and the film should be considered a breakthrough for costume designer Vera West as well.  She is lesser known in the pages of film history, always surprising considering her immense talent and extensive career.  She began in fashion at the prestigious Lucile couturier--along with other costume design giants Howard Greer, Travis Banton, and Robert Kalloch--and then had a salon on New York City's 5th Avenue.  She then became head of costume design at Universal from 1928 to 1947, which means Vera's career in film lasted longer than legendary contemporaries Adrian at MGM and Banton at Paramount.

In contrast to the fashion forward films that both MGM and Paramount were known for, Universal focused more on monster movies like Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931).  Though these would become iconic in their own right, this often cast Vera as the queen of "Horror Couture."  One should remember her great elegance in doing so, though--for example, Elsa Lanchester never looked so striking than in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935).  But Universal was also known for noir, and with The Killers Vera's fashion side could really shine.  We see some of the style that made her so sought-after, which only continued when she quit film to design couture for celebrity clients at the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills.  It's no wonder--Ava Gardner's wardrobe for The Killers featured an evening gown that has become so iconic it still influences fashion designers today such as Dior, Donna Karan, and Ben de Lisi.

That said, sadly one Oscar that The Killers was NOT nominated for was costume design.  This was not any oversight of the voters that year, but rather an oversight of the Academy itself; as I have oft discussed, the award for costume design was not even created until 1948.  This means that the nearly two decades of costume design since the beginning of the Oscars in 1929--much of it now iconic, as shown through The Style Essentials--was completely ignored by the Academy.  Thus, my way of righting some of this wrong is to celebrate it here on GlamAmor.  With regard to The Killers, let me just say that there are many black dresses from film that have made an impact on fashion, but the one from this movie is among the greats.  And so, during this Oscar season, for your consideration: Vera West's costume design for Ava Gardner in 1946's The Killers.

The opening shows some of Woody Bredell's cinematography and 

director Robert Siodmak's composition that has made The Killers so great

The two killers enter a room at the beginning of the film

that means the end for The Swede (Burt Lancaster)

Back to the beginning--flashbacks begin to tell the tale of how The Swede

meets and falls for femme fatale Kitty Collins (Ava Gardner)

The Swede can't take his eyes off Kitty and even his date doesn't blame him...

after all, she's wearing a one-shouldered gown so iconic it continues to influence fashion

Cinema Connection to fashion--Christian Dior for Mila Kunis at the 2012 Golden Globes (above)

and Donna Karan for Sofia Vergara on the 2013 SAG awards red carpet

Even in a seemingly innocent skirt and sweater, Kitty is trouble

as the rest of the guys plot their own

The sweater and skirt was first made popular on stars like Clara Bow in It (1927),

but came on strong in the 1940s with "Sweater Girls" like Ava and Lana Turner

Function and fit were the order of the day in the fabric-rationed 1940s,

so that helped make simple pencil skirts and blouses like this in fashion

The sweetheart neckline was extremely popular in the 1940s

and no one did it better than Ava who led men to their doom in dresses like this

Though the trench coat was first made popular for women by Greta Garbo in Woman of Affairs (1928),

film noir made it popular again through femmes fatales like Kitty Collins

If you're interested in learning more about The Killers and the best of 1940s costume design,

take a look at my past webinar from my HISTORY OF FASHION IN FILM series!

This article is also featured in Week Two of the great 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon