Vintage Outfit Post-A 1940s Suit Inspired by Bringing up Baby

Last week in honor of Katherine Hepburn's birthday I did a cinema spotlight post on my favorite film of hers, 1938's screwball comedy classic Bringing Up Baby .  This film is particularly special to me since my husband and I named the first pet we got together, our now 15 year old cat Baby, after the film's titular leopard .

I also love the style in the film as exemplified by the sporty elegance of the great Katherine Hepburn.  

Now obviously if you read this blog you know that I have a LOT of clothes, but I'm  primarily a dress wearer and I really don't have many pants, and I don't have any suits.  So I decided a few months ago that a pant suit would be a good addition to my vintage wardrobe.  

I knew I wanted a 1940s pant suit, since I think that is the ultimate era for suits and pants in general,

 and I knew I wanted to take inspiration from Katherine Hepburn, the decades consumate  pants wearer.  She made the her signature look decades before most women wore them regularly.

I was particularly inspired by this gorgeous pant suit from 1940's The Philadelphia Story (another Hepburn/Grant film with flawless fashion).

I  love the wide collar and belt on this suit. 

  I started to talk to my friend Kim, a vintage repro clothing maker formerly of Time Machine Vintage on Etsy, and now selling her wares through the 1930s and 40s marketplace on facebook, about a suit based on this look.  I wanted it to reference my favorite Hepburn film, Brining Up Baby, so I asked her to make the wide collar in a leopard print, instead of stark white in Hepburn's version.  I think Hepburn's suit might have been a pale grey but  I asked for mine to be powder blue, since I thought that would be springy and compliment the leopard.

Now I have a completely different body type then Hepburn, to say the least.  She was long and lean, and I'm short and not lean, but Kim got the fit on the suit just right and the finished look is perfect.

I particularly love the collar, the leopard print is just right, and I adore the belt.

I decided to mix eras in my look and I  paired the 1940s style suit with a 1960s leopard tam hat, 1960s style gold tone hoop earrings,  a 1950s or 60s novelty purse,remix 1940s style sandals, and some bakelite bangles.

I don't have the sort of job that requires suits for work, thank goodness!, but I do think this would be a perfect work suit.  It's vintage without being too "out there."  It's a great outfit for any time you want to be a bit dressy but still wear pants. 

I'm very glad I added this piece to my wardrobe and decided to branch out from my usual dresses into the wide world of pants.  

Hepburn had it right!

Outfit Details

1940s Style Suit-Kim Clark the 1930s and 40s Market Place (you have to ask to join)

1960s Leopard Tam-The Little Grass Hut
Bakelite Bangles-Brighter Bakelite
1940s Style Sandals-Remix Vintage Shoes
1960s Style Gold Tone Hoops-Mrs. Polly's Lucite
1950s or 60s Novelty Purse-Vintessential Goods

Around Town-The Psycho Barn at The Met

I've always enjoyed Alfred Hitchcock's films (and his Sealyham terriers)

and since I love horror movies, Psycho is one of my favorites

anyone familiar with Hitchcock's work knows what a perfectionist he was and of course the film is filled with iconic images.  One of which is Norman's creepy haunted house on the hill 

Hitchcock based the house, which was actually just a mock up with three walls shot at an angle,

 on this famous Edward Hopper painting The House by The Railroad.

The painting has an eerily lonely feel, perfect for the creepy film.  The fact that the house in the painting is by a railroad also meshes with the plot of the film, since Norman Bates's home and hotel are right near the interstate highway.  

When I heard that artist Cornelia Parker was building a replica of the Psycho house in the Metropolitan Museum's rooftop garden for part of their transitional object series I had to see it.    Parker choose the image because she thought it would contrast nicely with the Metropolita sky line and the view of central park. It's fashioned from a deconstructed Dutch red barn and is title Psycho Barn.

We went to see the house on  Mother's Day, which was eerily appropriate considering Norman's relationship with his mother, and it really does look great, particularly with the skyline behind it.

The Psycho Barn will be on display through October 31, 2016.  Admission to the museum is suggested donation only and included access to the rooftop garden and all special exhibits.  

Cinema Spotlight-Bringing Up Baby

Today marks the 109th birthday of  a women who epitomized style, class and elegance-Katherine Hepburn.

Hepburn's career spanned decades and she played spirited strong willed women in 43 films as well as on stage and on the television, but by far my favorite of her films is the 1938 screwball classic Bringing Up Baby.

In the film Hepburn plays Susan a free spirited, scatterbrained, accident prone heiress with an  unbelievable wardrobe.  Susan runs into egg head paleontologist David, on a golf course, 

I love the big round buttons with black trim, black trimmed colar and loose sleeves on Hepburn's simple and elegant golfing frock.

and winds up interuppting his game, stealing his car, and thrawting his attempt to get a million dollars for his museum.

The two meet later that same evening at dinner.   In a scene where Susan wears the most amazing gold lame robe dress, and a matching veil hat.   

In my opinion this is one of most beautiful dresses in cinema history, and perfectly suited for Hepburn lanky physique, which is why its so sad when it gets ripped

even if it furthers the screwball plot.    


Susan winds up being the niece of the women who may donate a million dollars to David's museum, she also receives a leopard from her brother Mark, who is on safari.  Susan convinces David, on the eve of his wedding, to Connecticut where they plan to find a zoo to take the leopard and to ask Susan's Aunt to donate to the museum.   Hijinks ensue and there is fabulous clothing through out.

Like this simple striped day dress with a high neck and rectangular buttons worn with strappy shoes

Or this marvelous peaked cap:

Kathrine Hepburn was known for wearing pants and one of my favorite costumes in the film is the simple tunic and wide legged pants she pairs with loafers and a coolie hat while helping David locate the priceless dinosaur bone that George the dog has buried.  

George is pretty darn cute.  He's played by the same Wire Fox Terrier who played Asta in the Thin Man films, and he steals every scene he's in.

Another stand out outfit is this ruffled dress with black bow:

Bringing Up Baby is also one of those 1930s films with amazing lounge wear (as I mentioned in this post). 

The full sleeves and sheer dotted fabric on this robe are beyond words.   Cary Grant's character David even gets to wear a feathered robe in this famous scene 

I also adore Aunt Elizabeth's outfit here.  The lined cape, tweedy fabric, and frog closure buttons are so sporty and chic.  It's nice to see a stylish lady of more advanced years in a 1930s film.  

Today Bringing Up Baby is one of the most well known films of 1930s as is number 88 on the American Film Institutes List of Greatest  America Films of All Time , but when it premiered in 1938 it wasn't particularly successful and contributed to Hepburn's reputation as "box office poison."

Bringing Up Baby remains a favorite film at our house (Fry in particular seemed to enjoy recent screening)

 and it is also very special to us for another important reason

John and I named our first pet, our little cat Baby, after the film.  We got her a few months before we where married and 15 years later she is still with us and as sweet as ever.

If you haven't seen Bringing Up Baby you owe it to yourself to check it  out.

Vintage Style Icon-Theda Bara The Original Vamp

Today marks the 130th birthday of one of early cinema's most enduring figures, Theda Bara the original vamp. 

While her name is largely forgotten today, her iconic image all dark hair, piercing eyes, and poisonous lips remains.   During the teens and early 20s she was one of films biggest stars and earliest sex symbols, earning 4,000 dollars a week and appearing on the covers of numerous film mags.

Throughout her career Bara usually played a definite type, the vamp.   The opposite of sweet, girlish Mary Pickford, the vamp was conniving, sexual, and used her charms to enslave men, draining them of their power as a vampire drains blood.   

In A Fool There Was, 1915, Bara cemented her image as the vamp when she played the "vampire women." A beautiful creature who meets a business and family man on a ship and seduces him. The vampire women degrades and enslaves men, causing them to abandon their moral codes and become devoted only to her.

The film is the origin of the famous line "kiss me, you fool" though the actual title card reads: "kiss me, my fool."

Eager to capitalize on Bara's exotic image in the film the studio created a glamorous false history for her.  Though in actuality she was born in Ohio to Polish and Swiss immigrant parents, Fox Studios claimed she was the Egyptian born  daughter of a French actress and had grown up in the Saharan desert under the Shadow of the Shinx.  Her new image fit perfectly with her biggest role in 1917's Cleopatra, no copies of which survive.

Many of Bara's films where filmed at Fox Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey before  cinema made the move to Hollywood.  A street in the town is now named after her

Sadly all but 6 of Bara's films are lost.  Most were destroyed in 1937 in a storage vault fire.  She left behind few films, but an enduring legacy.