ICONIC MOVIE DRESSES: Cate Blanchett's red dress in "Button" starts list

When people see "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," they leave thinking about many things: love, aging, fate... and fashion? That's right, even if you, like me, are not even remotely interested in the subject, you can't help but take notice of a strikingly beautiful red dress that Daisy (Cate Blanchett) wears during a dream-like sequence in the film.

The frock in question was crafted by Jacqueline West, who was previously nominated for a best costume design Oscar for "Quills" (2000), and who is the early favorite to win one this year. She says its design was greatly influenced by the designs of Claire McCardell, one of America's top costume designers in the 1940s and 1950s, who is often credited as the creator of the "American look." She says its color was requested by Blanchett, who apparently said, "It must be red, let me show [director] David [Fincher]!," who "just loved it on her" and "could not resist." (He reportedly even used CGI to "amp up" its brightness.) And the decision to use it without accessories? Her own. "There was a discussion of whether or not she should wear jewelry, and I said, no, her skin is like pearls. She is luminescent. Let her skin be the jewelry."

The dress appears at a pivotal turning point in the film. After years away from New Orleans, our backward-aging protagonist Benjamin (Brad Pitt) has returned to New Orleans to find Daisy, who he last saw when she was a young girl and he was an old man, all grown-up. For the first time, their ages are close enough to make a date, for which they have both pined during their separation, acceptable. As they make their way home after dinner, Daisy -- resplendent in red, even amid the nighttime fog that enshrouds them -- dances on a gazebo and tries to attract Benjamin's affections. In that moment in time, she is a vivid vision of beauty, grace and youth -- indeed, everything Benjamin has ever hoped and dreamed of. But he is not ready, he gently says no, and the moment is gone.

OK. Now, you don't need to be a fashionista -- clearly -- to understand that dresses, like most things you see in a movie, are there for a reason. Just as a blinking green light from across a dock can represent a character's unreachable desires in a book, a fire engine-red dress can carry with it loads of meaning in a movie. In "Benjamin Button," it may represent the fiery passion of Daisy's feelings for Benjamin, or the sizzling heat that Benjamin worries might burn one of them, or the urgency of the fleeting moment. It's not explicit, but it's there, in a red dress.

Interestingly, the most famous red dress ever featured in a film set in New Orleans was actually worn 70 years ago -- and wasn't even red! In a wonderful film called "Jezebel" (1938), which is set during the years before the Civil War, a stubborn young woman (Bette Davis) asks her fiance (Henry Fonda) to help her pick out a dress to wear to the biggest society dance of the year. When he is unable to leave his work at her whim, she retaliates by purchasing a bright red dress, fully cognizant of the fact that wearing it will cause a great scandal, because unmarried women of the period wore only white dresses. When she arrives in it anyway, the other couples clear the dance floor, and she finally realizes that her actions have consequences, not least of all that she has humiliated the man she loves. He forces her to complete the dance anyway and then leaves her. There will be no happy ending, all because of a red dress. (Incidentally, the dress was actually black in order to create the appearance of red in a black-and-white film, but I digress.)

Since our focus on this site is the awards race, though, the obvious question is: Can one dress -- or any lone piece of clothing that is particularly beautiful and/or significant in a film -- lead to an Oscar for best costume design? The answer is, well, sometimes.

We'll never know what academy members would have made of the red dress in "Jezebel," since the category wasn't instituted until 1948, but I hoped to get a sense of what they might make of the red dress in "Button" by looking at other examples from the past. The results? Only a handful were nominated or won. Now, granted, this is the same category that once honored "Gandhi" (1982), a film in which the primary costume was a bed sheet, but still, what gives?

Well, let's look at an example -- a dress that caused quite a stir both inside and outside of fashion circles but still came up short at the Oscars just last year...

Throughout much of the 1930's period piece "Atonement," star Keira Knightley is adorned with a stunning emerald-green silk gown. The dress was the talk of the town, even winning a vote conducted by Sky Movies and In Style to determine the best movie costume of all-time. Not surprisingly, the majority of fans and pundits assumed that all the fuss over it surely meant that the film's costume designer Jacqueline Durran would win the Oscar. She did not. The actual winner? Alexandra Byrne, for costuming none other than Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," a film that may not have had one magnificent dress that captured moviegoers' imaginations, but instead had many!

So what should Jacqueline West expect for her "Button" costumes? Well, I think that she -- having tackled the attire of a period piece, which costume designers seem to love more than anything except the attire of a foreign-setting -- is a lock for a nomination, but a win? The truth is it's anyone's best dress!

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27 DRESSES MORE!

In preparation for this post, I conducted an exhaustive -- in every sense of the word -- survey of friends, professors, fashion experts and my own recollections of films from the silent era through the present to identify the most iconic movie dresses in cinema history.

With a tip of the hat (or whatever else your preferred accessory may be) to the critically panned but fairly popular 2008 film "27 Dresses," which won a People's Choice Award last night but will not be winning any Oscars, I've decided to share the list that we came up with.

It features 28 dresses, including Cate's. Working chronologically, we'll reveal the other 27 -- one a day, every day, for the next 27 days -- so that you can see the findings for yourself and chime in with your own thoughts.

By the end of this endeavor, we'll have assembled a closet full of dresses that will collectively make fashionistas gasp almost as loudly as they did upon seeing the empty one this year in "Sex and the City!"

Comments

[Chris]

You will obviously include the black dress from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (which is actually not "a little" black dress).

May I suggest another famous Givency creation from "Sabrina" - the black and white ball gown Sabrina returns from Paris with. Simply unforgettable.

[katie]

#1 has got to be the Gone with the wind curtain/dress.

[ClscFlm]

Mr. Feinberg,

You are in error; the "red" dress in Jezebel was *not* black, but rust brown. I have worked with William Wyler home movies which includes some behind-the-scenes footage -- in color -- and it is assuredly rust brown. Wyler himself, however, incorrectly states that the all-important dress was black in the last interview he gave in a documentary on his life. Memory doth fail us all! Several sources do note the rust color, however. Thanks for a lovely article.

[katie]

also, Anita's purple dress in West Side Story, both the "mambo" and "America" numbers featured that dress. will never forget it.

[John]

some ideas:

you MUST include the dress grace kelly wears in her first scene in REAR WINDOW! so beautiful and it still sticks in my mind so vividly! wow

the curtain dress from GONE WITH THE WIND is a given.

how about including maria von trapp's wedding dress from SOUND OF MUSIC!

[JOANNE E HERNANDEZ]

WHERE COULD I SEE THIS DRESS UPRIGHT I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE SOMETHING SIMILAR, THIS IS THE ONE I CAN FIND/

PLS HELP ME! :)

[Jamie M]

Hi Scott,

Was thrilled when i stumbled upon your terrific articles on iconic film costumes. what happened to the rest of them? Pls share the reamining treasure trove - you have many fans and film/fashion enthusiasts waiting with baited breath! Thanks!

cheers
Jamie