Judy's outfits in the beginning of the film were fantastic and spot on for the turn of the century.
But as the movie progressed, it looked like her fashions were going forward in decades: no hats, extremely flat hair(vs. the bouffant Gibson Girl look of 1900), her red dress with a sweetheart neckline, sleeveless, etc.
I wonder if Garland insisted on not looking like a fuddy duddy as she was a huge star already.
I agree. Still, I preferred Judy's more "contemporary" look. I thoought she looked much more attractive with what you referred to as her "extremely flat hair" (as in the scene when they're taking inventory) than in the early scenes with the "bouffant" styles.
Those big balloon style bouffant hairdos didn't flatter her, to put it mildly.
If Judy insisted on a more attractive more "natural" coiffure, I think she may have had a point.
That's YOUR opinon. I think Garland looked lovely with all her hairstyles
in this, especially singing "Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland."
Her flat hair was a harbinger of things to come: her not so attractive days during the 1950s.
shareYes, the dresses were most definitely NOT period correct! I even saw a zipper in the back of the red off the shoulder (40s) dress! And Judy should have worn her hair in a Gibson Girl hairdo throughout the film. But I wouldn't blame Judy for this. It was probably the studio - they frequently got period costuming wrong in Hollywood during this time.
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Does it really matter, Toots? Its a delightful film - something we would
never see produced today.
No, not really. I enjoyed watching it (again) last night. It's just fun seeing how Hollywood treated period films back then.
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They didn't just do it with films set in 1900 or before. In the '50's
and '60's, if a film was set in the '20's, 30's or even the '40's, they
would go to little effort to make the characters, especially women, look
real. For instance, in the 1946 film "The Harvey Girls" Judy and all the
women have FORTIES makeup and hairdos. In the Westerns produced in the
'60's, saloon girls have big teased hairdos and blue eye shadow!
As much as I far prefer classic films to today's movies, filmmakers today
no longer do that. This is why the cable TV show "Deadwood" really
made men and women look like they did in the Old West. And it wasn't
glamourous.
See, I think Judy looked more beautiful with the Gibson hair. When Van knocks her hat off in the beginning, her hair looks wild and sexy. I did not care for the more severe hairstyle she wore in the rest of the film, which was very 40's. Agree with the observation that Hollywood never kept real with period fashion...the biggest chuckle I got was in the beginning narration...."When girls wore nothing on their faces", then we see the 1940's crimson smear on all the actresses lips!
shareI have always liked period films. This one is OK. I like Judy's costumes.