Great Clothes on Film

Diana: "Don't people know when you're interested in them?"
Miles: "They know . . . sometimes."
Diana: "Well, then . . ."
Miles: "But they don't know . . . how interested."

"Darling", staring Julie Christie (Diana), Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Harvey of the Amazing Pompadour (Miles), is a solid 90 minutes of Great Clothes on film. It also has witty dialogue, social commentary and stunning performances, a bonus for those who want actual great film with their great clothes on film.

"Darling" was released in 1965, a golden age between the hobbling domestic fashions of the post-war era and the slob aesthetic ushered in by the hippies and now universally embraced. In other words, in the mid-sixties, a woman could, and would, wear hats, gloves, slips, and hose with her smart little dresses, and still look impossibly cool.

Pictured above is the empire gown Diane wore in the monkey business only boardroom scene. It's a look many designers are currently trying duplicate, however, the tiny bodices on many of the new empire dresses render them sadly out of proportion.

Other fab outfits: the totally mod shift dress Diana wears in the Paris party scene (with short white bowed Courreges boots. Courreges! Boots!) ; the coat and hat she wears in the "whores-in-taxis" scene (you have to see it), the little bell-sleeved cherry-print dress she wears on Capri; the low-cut cocktail dress in the nightclub-into-sex-party scene (you really, really have to see it), the coat, dress, slip combo she tears off in the the tantrum-in-the-palace scene.

Of course, it helped that these outfits were being worn by Julie Christie, one of the few actresses who can be earthy and drop-dead chic at the same time.

"Darling" won academy awards for Best Actress, Best Screenplay, and Best Costumes. For once I agree wholeheartedly with the Academy's choices.