Spotted: Vertigo's Gray Suit in Ralph Lauren's Fall 2014 RTW Collection

Jul 11

Jul 11 Spotted: Vertigo's Gray Suit in Ralph Lauren's Fall 2014 RTW Collection

Color often played an important part in Alfred Hitchcock's films. He was famous for making the clothes in his films an integral part to the characters portrayed on screen, and the color of the clothes were directed on the scripts themselves. For his film Vertigo (1958), the script specifically called for Madeleine, played by Kim Novak, to wear a gray tailored suit, which was reproduced from The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), worn by Doris Day, much like the famous eau de nil suit Grace Kelly wears in Rear Window (1954) which was worn again by Tippi Hedren in The Birds (1964). Hitchcock explained to the film's costume designer Edith Head that he wanted the character to appear mysterious, as if she had just come out of the San Francisco fog, and that gray was absolutely essential (Edith Head, the Fifty Year Career of Hollywood's Greatest Costume Designer, by Jay Jorgensen). Actress Tippi Hedren is quoted as saying that she "had never had a director who was so particular about the costumes, the way they were designed, the specific colors" (Ibid.). 24 of the 38 looks from Ralph Lauren's Fall 2014 Ready-to-Wear Collection featured the color gray. A lot of white and purple were also present in his collection, which were also featured in Vertigo.