Hello Dolly by Victoria Vallis Costume 445 December 9, 2013 Barbara Streisand plays Dolly Levi a widowed matchmaker with many side jobs. Dolly is a conniving social climber and busy body, she stirs up quite a plot of misunderstandings and comedic slapstick set in Yonkers. This Jackie of all trades dresses the part, wearing many a gorgeous creation. All are very colorful, ruffled and flouncey, typical of the bustle era. Her bright red hair is often pulled back into a bun held under hats of equal innovation. Scene one finds Dolly wearing a straw hat decorated in feathers and flowers, in tight Gibson Girl, at the turn of the century, 1890’s, attire with bows and high collar, small belted waist with long skirted bustle, large purse, gloves and a locket at her neck. In another scene Dolly arrives in Yonkers, New York, costumed in an adorable purple outfit with rustling petticoats, matching boots and stockings. Walter Matthau, as Horace Vandergelder, in his typically tightwad, grumpy style pays 15cents for a shave and a haircut as he prepares to head to New York City to locate his intended bride, Irene Malloy. He sports a derby bowler hat, cane, pocket watch with chain tucked into a jacket pocket, over a vest with crisp white shirt, and dark suit slacks. Other men don similar suits in blacks, browns, tans and grays, unless they are working and wearing aprons, or uniforms. A song the men sing describes the qualities a woman must have to marry and include: she must be a mistress, sweetheart, dainty woman who can also clean the stables, shovel snow, trap mice, clean the house, fix leaky faucets or broken plumbing, work until infinity and bring sweet things to his life! Horace pats a horses rump, as an indication of a woman’s place in his heart. Dolly decides to marry Horace herself. Her motto, “ Tampering with a woman’s affections is a crime, he needs to marry soon.” The Gibson Girl look is carried throughout this movie, especially original is the song and dance number with women adorned with multiple parasols, straw hats with flowers, bustles, ribbons, while men with straw hats, derbies, or caps and three piece suits carried out the effect of turn of the century innocence. Irene Malloy is looking to be rescued from the millinery business. She hates hats and the women who buy them because they suspect her of being a wicked woman. Her creations include hats with feathers, ribbons, flowers, and long veils to wrap around the neck. She wears a long red plaid skirt with bustle, a gigot sleeve white blouse with ruffles. Her assistant, Minnie Fae, is also attired in a baby blue Gibson Girl outfit. Fear of Fashion; or, How the Coquette Got Her Bad Name Victorian culture perfected a fashion double bind that is still with us today: women are required to invest themselves deeply in their appearance and then derided for this obsession. 1 Dressing well is women’s “duty,” their contribution to the pleasures of society (Walker, Woman Physiologically Considered xi; Oliphant 81). Yet at the same time, a woman who takes this duty too seriously, or discharges it too successfully, is charged with vani- ty—or “VANITY,” a Summer 2002, Vol. 15, No. 3 15 displayed for admiring strangers who visit the Dedlock estate like reverent museum-goers and described as “the best work of the master” by a helpful housemaid-docent, it reaches to a wider audience in the fictitious Galaxy of Beauties , modeled on a host of real-life fashion magazines (138). In her witty juxtaposition of Blake engravings and contemporary illustrations of women’s clothing, which she calls “biblical fashion plates,” Anne Hollan- der asserts a continuity between high art and fashion: the images are almost identical despite the difference in purpose, suggesting the ease with which high art could be appropriated and recontextualized (316). 7 It is interesting to note that Charles Frederick Worth, the father of haute couture ,devel- oped his storehouse of ideas by wandering London’s National Portrait Gallery in the 1840s. In short, fashion bled dangerously into more respectable and less femi- nine forms of knowledge, suggesting that women possessed an expertise that was not only sexually dangerous to men but that bespoke a sophisti- cated sense of line, form, and color that could only be termed artistic. Walker’s strategy of re-appropriation was not uncommon fashion also confounded gender categories by creating a confusing new array of social actors. “Window-dressers”—young women who modeled the wares of clothing stores—and the shopgirls who sold the merchandise displayed themselves, earned money, and developed a notoriously flirta- tious boldness through their work. 9 Female customers dressed and undressed in the commercial space of the shop, sometimes assisted by maleking an appearances at a ball, the clothing salon appears as a parallel uni- verse to the world of courtship, complete with its own nearly identical delights. Elegant women arrive at the shop in their carriages, partake of a delicious buffet that is laid out for them, display their finery—in short, do everything they will do at a ball except dance with men casion (“Perfect!”) and ponder the depth of his wife’s adoration. For the skillful woman, fashion may be, as Anne Hollander suggests, a legitimate “visual art” and the narcissistic mirror-gazing a form of self-portrait OMEGA, Vol. 57(1) 35-52, 2008 THEDEATHOFMOURNING:FROMVICTORIAN CREPETOTHELITTLEBLACKDRESS SONIA A. BEDIKIAN New York University ABSTRACT Mourning is a natural response to loss. In the late eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth century, in England and France, the bereaved was expected to follow a complex set of rules, particularly among the upper classes, with women more bound to adhere to these customs than men. Such customs involved wearing heavy, concealing, black costume and the use of black crepe veils. Special black caps and bonnets were worn with these ensembles. Widows were expected to wear these clothes up to four years after their loss to show their grief. Jewelry often made of dark black jet Hello, Dolly! is filled with over-the-top costumes, eye-popping choreography, Film adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical. Concerns itself with Dolly Levi, a New York-based matchmaker who merrily arranges things... like furniture and daffodils and lives. A widow, she has found herself in love with a "half-a-millionaire" Yonkers merchant named Horace Vandergelder. So she proceeds to weave a web of romantic complications involving him, his two clerks, a pretty milliner and her assistant. Eventually, of course, all is sorted out, and everyone ends up with the right person. Dolly returns to the Harmonia Gardens and the staff sings and dances for her. Louis Armstrong belts out a rendition of the title number, Hello, Dolly! Red vest with black tuxedo, red carnation and white bow tie all look fantastic on Louis Armstrong. The famously gorgeous gold beaded gown that Dolly Levi wore upon her return to the Harmonia Gardens restaurant is supposedly the costliest item of clothing in the entire film. It's completely embroidered in gold bullion and very expensive. The gold gown is accented over its entire surface by gemstones, creating a shimmering rainbow effect. It’s also functional to dance in, and moves better than regular costumes. On her head are feathers, a beaded choker on her neck and long gold gloves add to the overall glamorous effect. She sits in the now-empty seat at Horace's table and proceeds to tell him that no matter what he says, she will not marry him. Horace declares that he wouldn't marry Dolly if she were the last woman in the world. Dolly angrily bids him farewell; while he's bored and lonely, she'll be living the high life.Dolly uses reverse psychology by announcing she has no intention of marrying Horace. Ultimately, they both come around and get on the same page. Dolly declares, "Money is like manure. It's not worth a thing unless it's spread about, encouraging young things to grow." While Horace tells Dolly life would be dull without her, and she promises in return that she'll "never go away again". The Finale takes place in the Hudson River area of New York state, with their final wedding scene in front of the church. This idyllic setting, complete with grassy knoll, boats, blue sky, hats, ruffles, bows, and parasols is the perfect backdrop for the marriage.