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The Fashion of Grey Gardens
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View our gallery of original sketches for the shabby-chic costumes in HBO’s Grey Gardens starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore—plus a look at eccentric style of the real Beale women.
Costume designer Cat Thomas has been the brain behind several recent, memorable looks—Uma Thurman’s neon yellow fight suit in Kill Bill, Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin’s folksy frocks in A Prairie Home Companion, and Katherine Heigl’s endless slew of bridesmaid gowns in 27 Dresses. But the young designer recently had to take on her biggest challenge—recreating the signature style of Big and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, the mother and daughter pair (and aunt and first cousin of Jackie O.) who lived in squalor in an East Hampton, New York, house for years and became the notoriously kooky subjects of one of the 1970s most iconic documentaries, Grey Gardens. Both Little Edie and Big Edie loved clothes—Little Edie especially—but in their slightly senile states, turned fashion on its head. Little Edie wears cardigans as kerchiefs and skirts upside down, always sporting a signature brooch or pop of color. Her ideas were impeccable, even if executed peculiarly, and she started with the best garments (a relic of the Beales’ happier days as Hamptons socialites and well-heeled Manhattan shoppers). Thomas faithfully recreated the look of the Beales’ wardrobe for the upcoming HBO adaptation of the documentary, starring Jessica Lange as Big Edie and Drew Barrymore as Little Edie.
View our gallery of Thomas’ original sketches for Lange and Barrymore, along with looks from the finished film, and the women who inspired the story.
Click Image Below to View Gallery
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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I can see this is going to be a white wash. This movie is supposed to be about Edie Beale and her mother Edie, Sr.? The same two people in famous documentary, Grey Gardens? Drew and Jessica look like part of a fashion spread as shown above.
Yes, "little" Edie was into fashion, but by the time the Mayles brothers caught up with her, her style her grown warped by way of mental illness. And that's what was so touching about her - she'd been adjusting the most ridiculous of outfits, always taking care to look good for the camera.
It's obvious to me that they're not paying attention to the source material here.
already with the whining about this movie--can we see it before we trash it and the skill of its experienced costume designer? I've been following this a bit and I suspect it will be faithful. A costume designer doesn't get to this level by being clueless.
I find the phrase "warped by mental illness" extremely offensive especially as I am assuming that the poster never even met Edie Beale. I was a good friend of Edies, and she was far from mentally ill. "Out there" without a doubt, but one of smartest, coolest, and funniest people I have every known. You can check out a more in depth discussion of this topic at my web site www.MyGreyGardens.com... Thanks for the forum to respond... Robb Brawn
I'm tired of documentaries being turned into dramatic features.
I guess Dogtown did well, and execs now have to dig for old material to re-heat.
Thank you.
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