Copacetic Clothes

Grace Kelly’s blue dress To Catch A Thief

One of my favorite dresses in a film I’ve seen so far is this ice blue chiffon number by the wonderful costume designer Edith Head.

If you haven’t fallen completely in love with the colour then I doubt you ever will, for me it’s one of those ‘love-at-first-sight’ dresses; you instantly know it’s the one.

I have come across some interesting information about the dress and Edith Head too, she adamantly steered clear from trends in her work however as the film was set around 147-49 she had to somehow nod to Dior’s New Look despite their being legislation laws protecting the collections.

‘Floor length ice blue chiffon evening dress. Fitted bodice into the waist with spaghetti straps, gathered from knot above left bust and left rear waist; natural blue block stripe below bust knot, draped into waist and running full length of the gathered skirt, also from left waist into skirt and above rear wrapover to knot on left waist then into skirt; worn with matching blue clutch bag, white open toe sandals and blue chiffon scarf.’

The dress is used to identify Kelly’s character in a single shot; wealthy, young, fashionable woman with an overall detached and icy persona. The colour helps tell us this despite being an unusual choice for an evening dress in that period. 

If I ever come across the perfect blue chiffon I would love to re-make this dress, but it HAS to be the right colour as that is the most important part.