^ i think we may be talking 'cross purposes' here Yuca,  with his personal wardrobe versus his movie wardrobe.
They are a bit different, with elements popping up in each.

A good bit of info on FA is he had a walk-in shoe closet of 50 pairs of professional dancing shoes (all lace up) and more than 20 pairs of his own loafers/slip ons, all bespoke and made in London ( it's reported that each movie netted him a few pair of new shoes as part of his contract, and then flown over at the studios expense).
A few pairs of the loafers were slightly large for his feet and he wore two pairs of wool socks with them for between takes when filming dance numbers.

/\  Heloise, Ripley's wife, who is tres chic, comes later (or not at all) and is a fixture in the series.... both she and Tom are thoroughly materialistic and that's why they get along

Ripley is always a loner but he's never "lonely," ultimately a sociopath who really has only one psychotic break, his first killing, of Dickie, in the boat off San Remo, when Dickie's insults get too close to those of Tom's bete noire, his Aunt Dottie, who raised him coldly in Boston .....

but Heloise and her family's money are perfect for him

Fred Ass-stare

Last edited by stanshall (2015-12-02 13:50:42)

^ Yuca  the story of Fred and dance theatre/film is something that has fascinated me for years. A shelf of books, movies and recordings ( yep I'm sad enough to even have recordings of tap routines minus the music )  attest to this.

The main reason he has maintained his 'style icon' status is he found a look that suited his frame and chosen occupation and then stuck with it right through his life.
His personal style is very much in place from the 30s, it's why it can be so difficult to date photos of him away from any reference to his current project (Boyers book has a number of mis-dated photos, some were corrected by the third edition but some glaring mistakes remain).
The references and chronology of what he wore and why he wore it are mentioned in a number of sources, his exposure to the black dancers in NY in the 20s gave him a silhouette , his time in pre-ww2 London exposed him to craftsman that could produce exactly what he wanted.
His American made clothes were copies of his London made tailoring, not always successfully, while at home in Hollywood he had cotton trousers cut to the same pattern as his flannels which didn't work so well, he then had to get the cuffs weighted at the hem to make them drape like his flannels.

The BD shirts he wears in most of Funny Face don't have a box pleat , only in the opening sequence is one visible and that disappears by the end of the scene along with his belt ( possible continuity errors ?).
There's a number of references to Dario Piazza for the men's wardrobe on the movie ( tho' uncredited in the original movie titles as Givenchy had an exclusivity clause for their provision of AH's wardrobe ),
he was known for scratch making outfits for the movies and TV he worked on ( possibly a product of the biblical epics he apprenticed on, where 'off the peg' robes weren't an option), as an example of his attention to detail he had  the entire male wardrobe for the original series of Bonanza in 59/60 made from vintage patterns almost bringing the wardrobe department at NBC to a standstill for 3 months.
So my guess would be they were custom made shirts for the movie.
There is a good comparison to be made with the wardrobe of the other cast  Robert Flemyng as Paul Duvall is edging into classic Ivy ( odd really as his is an English character), whereas FA's photographer character is wearing something very different with elements of a few styles but no specific 'look'.


The Esquire and Photoplay are available in Google as scanned pages, you'll have to have a dig for yourself as they are not ordered by issue but by year ( start in 1956 for Esquire and 57 for Photoplay and work through them, there's not that many pages to search as most of the ads have been omitted from Esquire by whoever uploaded them and Photoplay wasn't exactly a filled with content).

Yuca if you want decent copies (ripped from the Criterion blu-rays) I can 'dropbox' them for you.
I've also got the 'botched' stereo version of Funny Face from the 80s dvd reissue,
perfect for demonstrating how you don't turn a mono recording into stereo recording.

Last edited by Acton_Baby (2015-12-03 04:13:51)

Btw I've got a friend who had the opportunity to meet him back in the 50s (friend of a friend) and somehow never got around to it (despite being a big fan).

I have thrown a new sport coat against a wall to get that newness out of it but I'm almost certain that method does not work as well as simply wearing it a few times.