Costume design in the Hollywood musical, Funny Face (1956).

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DR71037A Case Study

Lecturer: Robert Gordon

MA Musical Theatre

22133489

I-Chun Chen

Essay Topic

The case study of costume design in the Hollywood musical, Funny Face (1956).

‘If clothes make man, then costumes certainly make actors and actresses. I have much for which to thank the talented men and women on whom I have always been able to rely’. (Audrey Hepburn)

The images of Audrey Hepburn as Jo Stockton in the fashion show musical, Funny Face, are still remembered by many movie and musical fans. Her elegant style and the spectacular costumes made by Hubert de Givenchy started a fashion trend in the Hollywood glamour age; and even now, her particular fashion style of black tight-fitting sweater and pant with white socks and black loafers in the scene of ‘Empathicalist’s Dance’ still inspired many fashion designers and stylish women.

It is impossible to estimate how a film star through the use of costumes and accessories can provoke millions imitations and create a trend. However, there is no question that with the medium of cinema, fashion becomes more influential; and with the cooperative works of a couturier, Givenchy, a costume designer, Edith Head, and a star with her own image, Audrey Hepburn, the fashion show musical, Funny Face, is so impressive in fashion and artistically integrated.

I conclude Funny Face as a fashion show musical, because the fashion shows that exhibit Hepburn’s Paris couture and the particular fifties style of women’s dresses are essential to the storyline. However, in several musical numbers, such as ‘Empathicalist’s Dance’, fashion is used just to support the song and dance. Thus, in this essay, I will argue there is a difference between using song and dance as accessory to the film that mainly celebrates the exhibition of women’s fashion, and using fashion as a backdrop for song and dance numbers. I will look at the visual style of the fashion show and musical numbers in Funny Face, and its relation to fashion style in the fifties, Hepburn’s self image, French couturier and the role of costumes within the musical. Also, I will examine how the costumes in Funny Face affect audience and women’s fashion desire from the sociological perspective.

Visual style

The story of Funny Face was inspired by Richard Avedon, one of America’s most famous fashion photographers who had trained one of his models and married her. In the movie, the fashion editor of Quality magazine, Maggie, looks for a new and different face to promote as Quality woman, and to model in the new collection of a famous French designer. Her reliable photographer played by Fred Astaire persuades her to use Jo Stockton who works as a clerk in a musty secondhand bookshop. They finally go to Paris and have the fashion show and fashion photograph done. In the end, Jo and photographer fall in love with each other, and all the problems are resolved for a happy ending.

It is very clear that the main theme of this movie is fashion. The contemporary costumes in the fifties are featured in the movie, and the fashionable women’s costumes are presented as the main subject in some musical numbers. The main title, the musical number of ‘Think Pink’, the scenes of Take The Picture and Paul Duval’s Collection are all vehicles for the fifties fashion and spectacular costumes.

In the main title, the subject of the movie, fashion, is conveyed to the audience through a series images of petite and well-figured female models with contemporary costumes of the fifties. There are fashion accessories, such as a diamonds necklace, a pair of pump high heel shoes with ribbons, a white lady’s hat with huge brim, and lady’s fan made by black feathers. There are well made-up models who wear white gowns, grey time-clock tweeds, furs, minks, orange and white picnic costumes, dark red jumbo T-shirts with white spots, and red and white striped casual wears in the formats of films and glossy magazine papers. Those images are significant in the opening scene, and lead the audience to the following scene of Quality magazine’s office where the ideal fashion style is created.

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Fashion as the main issue of the movie is also vividly shown in the musical number of ‘Think Pink’, and the costumes totally stand out from the song and dance, and celebrate women’s fashion by showing pink clothes ranging from children’s dresses to women’s gowns. This suggests that this musical number is created to celebrate pink costumes that are set as a fashion trend by Quality magazine; we can thus assume that song and dance add an aspect of entertainment to this scene.

However, in the musical numbers of ‘Empathicalist’s Dance’ and ‘Let’s kiss and Make Up’, costumes ...

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