Next is Colbert’s charming evening dress for the country. The sleeves play a part all on their own. They frame and lift, a delightful choice for the dance. These sleeves always maintain their lighter-than-air loft and like Colbert herself, never appear crushed nor deflated.

After the ball, one needs to face the day with a crisp breakfast dress, neatly belted and smartly cuffed. Take note of the way she accessorizes by tucking her sunglasses into the belt of the dress. No one here is hefting their designer bags to dine.

A sad, but very Hollywood annotation: The designer responsible for all these amazing costumes was Irene Lentz. On November 15, 1962, three weeks short of her sixty-second birthday, Lentz took a room at the Knickerbocker Hotel, checking in under an assumed name. She cut her wrists but when this did not prove to be immediately fatal, she jumped to her death from her bathroom window at about 3 p.m., landing on the extended roof of the lobby, where she was discovered later that same night. She had left caring notes for friends and family, for her ailing husband, and for the hotel residents, apologizing for any inconvenience her death might cause. As per her wishes, she was interred next to her first husband, F. Richard Jones, in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

In 2005, Irene Lentz was inducted into the Costume Designers Guild’s Anne Cole Hall of Fame.

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Simone, played by Elaine Barry is the great facilitator of Midnight. Without Simone there would be no hats to buy, advice follow, nor party guests. Her brooch is the  most dauntless and bold of all brooches (see slide 6). This simple centipede seems to infect her like an assassin out of a 007 film. She is formidable and as such delivers one of the finest lines in Midnight:

“It always rains when Stephanie gives one of her dull parties; even Nature weeps.”

Please follow the highlights, commentary on a slide by slide basis when you launch the slideshow.

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