Movie March: Stylish Films Make Me Yearn for a More Stylish Life

March weather might offer the hypothetical promise of sunny and warm afternoons, but more often, March delivers the leftover bitter cold of February. For some, this is a problem. For me it means more time to wear my favorite winter coats, thick tights, and warm scarves. It also offers a few more weeks to nest and take in some movies.

Films are often a fantastic source of style inspiration. The streamlined sheath dresses and slick updos of Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock's classic, The Birds makes me long for platinum blonde hair, the perfect frame shaped handbag, and a mint green dress suit. I often gravitate toward pieces that allow me to recreate or at least pay homage to some of my favorite iconic looks from classic films. But these looks don't always come from the most critically acclaimed, intellectual films. Often they come from the films I adored as a child.

When I was very young, my favorite of the Disney films was Alice in Wonderland. I adored Alice's timeless outfit of the blue fit and flare, peter-pan collared dress with a crisp white apron, tights, and black mary janes. The search for the perfect fit and flare, peter pan collared dress still consumes me, but in the meanwhile, I found this blue A.P.C. pleated number.

In the late 1980s, I became obsessed with the movie, Troop Beverly Hills. In a pivotal scene, Jenny Lewis and her troop gal pals staged a fashion show where they modernized their uniform to great effect. This was only after Shelly Long's character (the troop leader) had her uniform completely redesigned as you can see in the screen cap sequence below:

I think part of why I became consumed by this Marc by Marc Jacobs Geo Gems Shantung dress was that it reminded me of a modernized girl scout uniform.

In the 90s my favorite films also included some of my favorite stylish looks. Specifically: Cameron Crowe's movie, Singles, about twenty-somethings and the grunge scene in Seattle and Amy Heckerling's modernization of the Shakespearean classic, Emma, with Clueless. Those will be tackled in my next Movie March update! Thank you for reading!