subscribeLittle Black Dresses
by Nancy Cantwell
The Little Black Dress is a Coco Chanel invention. First produced in 1926 Vogue claimed it to be the ” Ford” of fashion, “The frock that all the world will wear.” The long-sleeved black dress, which was initially made for day in wool, and for evening in crepe, satin or velvet, shook up the world of fashion. It became instantly synonymous as an essential chic component of any stylish woman’s wardrobe. One of the early adapters of the LBD was Betty Boop who, in the classic 1932 Minnie the Moocher, sexed it up with sashay and a little black garter. And that is the beauty of the LBD, it’s simplicity and elegance make it the perfect backdrop for accessory, whether it be copious strands of pearls, daring diamond drops or a cultivated Hoochie coochie stroll.
Last Year at Marienbad is filled with LBD’s. In fact the LBD seems to have a character of its own. Alain Resnais styled much of A’s look (played by Delphine Seyrig) after the Louise Brooks’s character Lulu in the 1929 Georg Wilhelm Pabst film Pandora’s Box (Die Büchse der Pandora). Lulu was lurid and sensationally modern. Seyrig’s look mirrors that sensibility, but Resnais adds a formal, deliberate and poised styling to meet his ends. The hair and maquillage are Gothic, enigmatic and decadent. But behind or below it all is the Chanel Little Black Dress.
There are four distinct LBD’s that A wears and if you follow them closely you can also unwind some of the time shifts that take place throughout Marienbad. Because there is no continuity in time or place, the script girl, Sylvette Baudrot, with whom Resnais continues to work with to this day, had a graph made that resembled an algorithm to track present, past and imaginary time. Costume continuity, while not driven by plot narrative needed to be meticulously recorded as ensemble changes in many scenes were shot months apart. One must remember that Alain Robbe-Grillet has obfuscation built into the screenplay of Marienbad. It is disorienting by design.
