Elfin Chic

Last week I had the pleasure of sipping coffee from a paper cup (through a straw, of course) and sharing a cinnamon raisin bagel with a fellow struggling actress, who is a little older than me - we all know "a little older" can mean anything from being the same age or old enough to be one's mother or grandmother. However, in this case it simply means old enough to have been on set with Mia Farrow in one of her first Woody Allen films - let alone as an unglamourous extra, making a couple of bucks in-between auditions and performances.

I loved listening to K's memories from the shoot, especially since mid-60s Mia is one of my favorite style icons! Hence and not surprisingly, the anecdote I enjoyed the most was indeed fashion-related. While the two ladies never got the chance to share a bagel between takes, they did share some wardrobe: being appalled with the baggy outfit the costume department had selected for K, Mia dragged her into her private trailer, exclaiming "you're tiny, you need to borrow something from me!", and promptly put her in one of her own sweater dresses!

Not being particularly starstruck - it was, after all, just another day at work - and realizing that the dress was just a dress, and that it would have to be returned and forgotten about at the end of the day, K was however in heaven over the elfin queen's compliment -- even decades later. "... And she said I was tiny!", she re-emphasized, smiling giddily at me. "I know!" I cried. "That was the best part!"

Yes, that's lame. Performer-me could not have given a flying F about the dress... all that matters is clearly being tiny enough to fit into it! However, "fashion-me" is sitting here now, finding it unbelievable how I could have failed to ask what that sweater dress looked like. Really!

Could it possibly have been as fabulous as the costumes Mia wore in Rosemary's Baby? I doubt it! Me and my boyfriend watched it for the billionth time on a ratty old videotape last night under a blanket, sipping skim cocoa, and I was smitten (again) with all these lovely outfits that Rosemary is donning throughout the movie. See below for some of my favorites. :)

Girly ensembles outside the Dakota:











That yellow dress (I prefer the ponytails over the sleek pageboy, although it's a tough choice!):
























All those adorable white Peter Pan collars....
































.... in particular the red dress she wore at the party for her "young friends - no one over 60" (thanks Doug for the screen shots - xoxoxox). On a sidenote, her girlfriends were pretty stylish too (see the fur coats below)!






















The red trouser suit she wore during the nightmare:











The delightful empire shifts....



















... even her nightgowns were to die for!












Now this is one production where I would happily have agreed to give up a big paycheck to instead work for scale and get to keep the wardrobe! Anyone who does not agree must be out of her mind. :)