Category: 20th century

Starring Meg Tilly, Jodi Balfour, and Charlotte Hegele.  Costumes designed by Joanne Hansen.

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This is a Canadian TV series (set in Toronto, I believe?) about various women who work at a munitions factory during World War II… and it is complete soap opera, and I love it!  The lead character is Gladys, daughter of a wealthy family who wants to get involved in the war effort and rebel against her parents, so she gets a job at the factory.  There she meets many working class women, from Lorna (the older supervisor with a difficult home life, played by Meg Tilly) to Vera (the flightly girl who faces a big challenge) to Betty — the strong independent woman, who falls for sheltered Kate, running away from an abusive family.  The stories follow them into the factory and out as the war complicates their lives, does a beautiful job showing the many opportunities and challenges that the war caused for women, and has some excellently soap opera-esque storylines to keep you hooked.

Best of all, the costume designer did a BRILLIANT job.  Everything from the factory outfits to the street and dress-up wear, hair, makeup, etc. is appropriate to the period.  In particular, they either have a stock of vintage rayon prints or a source for making stunning reproductions, because the women wear dress after dress that makes you go, “WHOA, that is SUCH a 1940’s print!”

My review:  5 (out of 5)

Starring Emma Stone and Viola Davis.  Costumes designed by Sharen Davis.

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Okay, so no doubt you read/heard about this movie when it came out.  Strong performances from many of the cast members, a good quality film but definitely made for Oscars, some issues around the fact that it celebrates a fictional strong young white woman for telling the story of African Americans rather than celebrating real historical strong African-American women.

What I want to talk about is hair.  Specifically, lead character Skeeter’s hair.  Apparently in the book I have not read, Skeeter has curly, frizzy hair that is the bane of her existence (as it is so NOT the mid-1960s beauty ideal).  An article quotes Hair Department Head Camille Friend who says, “In the book, she has unruly hair, and it’s a pivotal story point, so we decided on a blonde, curly hair texture for her lace-front wig” (American Salon, July 2011).

Okay kids.  In the mid-60s, you did NOT want curly hair.

This was an era when they didn’t know how to deal with natural curl.  Artificial, styled curl?  Yes.  Natural curl?  Find ways to smooth it out via brushing, cutting, large rollers, you name it.  I can’t even find any images of women with naturally curly hair in this era.  If I could, it would look more like this:

Or this:

Or this:

It would NOT look like this:

That is all.

My review:  3 (out of 5)

If you like this era, you might also want to check my 20th C. Costume Movie Reviews.  If you’re in the mood for better done mid-century, check out An Education (2009), Far From Heaven (2002), and Revolutionary Road (2008).