Dressing the Part of a Man
THE MOVIE: “Impromptu”
THE SETUP: Nineteenth-Century novelist George Sand (Judy Davis, pictured) and composer Frederic Chopin (Hugh Grant) fall in love before the eyes of Europe’s most acclaimed artists.
THE LOOK: Baroness Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin adopted the pseudonym George Sand, flaunted social traditions and scandalized Paris with her fashion bravura: She liked to dress as a man. Oscar-winning costume designer Jenny Beavan (“Room With a View”) based the novelist’s wardrobe--frock coats, cutaways, brocade vests, silk cravats and slim trousers worn with boots--on paintings and engravings of the novelist. The film is set in 1837, when a restrained romanticism reigned in fashion. Women wore corsets and full skirts. Chopin and poet Alfred de Musset dressed in full, ankle-length overcoats.
THE SOURCES: Almost all of the men’s wardrobe is from London costume houses: Cosprop, Bermans and Angels. Conveniently, the petite Davis fit right into antique men’s jackets.
THE PAYOFF: Seeing a woman swagger in men’s trousers at a time when no proper woman would do so.
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