In Honor of Fashion Week: Fashion in Musicals

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/5/12 at 11:08pm

Fashion Week has arrived in NYC.

That has gotten me to thinking about shows about the fashion world (Roberta, I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Coco) and also, ruefully, I must say, how fashion has disappeared from our stages, at least the kind of fashion we used to encounter regularly in our musicals like My Fair Lady, Camelot, Hello, Dolly! --- the list is long, and, alas, long-ago. Now look-- if you dare-- at the grubby fare we face today in shows like Carrie, Once, Leap of Faith... Nothing there to occasion a song like Roberta's "Lovely to Look At." But then, you don't find many fashion plates on our streets, either.

In any event, I thought it might be fun to reference our favorite shows, songs, and lyrics dealing with fashion.

My favorite lyric is undoubtedly "my pet pailletted gown" from "Down in the Depths," as only the incomparable Cole Porter could write.

I also like the way Grover Dale airily enounces "I'd like to cable to Balenciaga to prepare your wedding gown," in "When You Want Me" (Sail Away).

As for songs, "A Brand New Dress" (Coco) is a charmer, and "Haute Couture" from Skyscraper always prompts a smile and a laugh.

[darquegk]

Posted: 9/5/12 at 11:54pm

Well, part of it has to do with the decline of a particular type of musical number- the "fashion parade," in which the song deals explicitly with nice clothes, fashion, or the like, and climaxes in an almost catwalk-like display of finery in a quasi-dance, quasi-fashion show.

"A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" and "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" can be seen as these. "Springtime For Hitler" parodies them with the "fashion girls" wearing Nazi iconography. "My Strongest Suit" in the original Broadway staging had Amneris and her maidens amuse Aida with an impromptu fashion show, but this staging was allegedly changed by the time of the tour.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 1:19am

PARIS ORIGINAL makes fun of the genre by having a parade of identical dresses.

[chewy5000]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 1:42am

I should've worn green...

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 2:05am

From "Isn't She Lovely" (New Faces of '56):

"In your hat by Lilly Daché
And your gown by Schiaparelli"

I guess that's when anyone who was anyone still wore a hat.

From Hello, Dolly!

"Get out your feathers, your patent leathers"

What ever happened to patent leather?

"I'll be wearing ribbons down my back this summer."

I haven't seen a beribboned hat in many a summer.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 8:15am

"So Christian Dior Me!"

[madbrian]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 8:18am

My Strongest Suit from Aida

[ClumsyDude15]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 8:23am

My Fancy Dress - The Drowsy Chaperone.
My Friday Night Dress - Rooms.

Updated On: 9/6/12 at 08:23 AM

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 8:46am

"Dressing Them Up" -- KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 9:13am

A woman is not a dress
Or if you see more or less
She isn't her coat or gloves
A woman is how she loves

A woman is how she loves
Don't count on Balenciaga
Helping you sell monogamy

Dior isn't shy
He would like all the skirts raised up high
How grand! So would I!
But who cares where the hems are when dismal the stems are!

Alan Jay Lerner, COCO

[HistoryBoy2]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 9:17am

Once my clothes were shabby
Tailors called me, "Cabbie"
Got so rough I TOOK a vow
Said this bum'll
Be Beau Brummel
Now I'm smooth and SNAPPY
Now my tailor's happy
I AM the cats meow
My wardrobe is a wow!
Paris silk! Harris tweed!
There's only one thing I need...

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 3:48pm

In honor of the upcoming revival--- and because madbrian took mine - YOU'RE NEVER FULLY DRESSED WITHOUT A SMILE--- ANNIE

[newintown]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 4:42pm

My Christian Dior I wore, then tore,
Got fitted for
A new Balenciaga.
Then to Jacques Fath
For just one hat
Got something that will drive you ga-ga!
Valentina’s where I’ve been,
I just adore Val -
Things with good lines...

Like things from Klein’s!

[bobs3]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 4:47pm

The Lerner song from COCO

Those must be some of the most misogynistic lyrics ever written.

[Kad]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 4:51pm

Come on and dress me! Dress me! Dress me in my peekaboo blouse,
With the lovely interlining made of Chesapeake mouse;
I want my polka-dotted dickie with the crinoline fringe;
For I'm going do-mi-do-ing on a do-mi-do binge!

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 4:54pm

The Lerner song from COCO

Those must be some of the most misogynistic lyrics ever written.

Or just some of the worst, period.

Updated On: 9/6/12 at 04:54 PM

[SNAFU]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 4:55pm

Revolutionary Costume- Grey Gardens

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 4:57pm

^^^ GREAT song, SNAFU.

I'm surprised A8 didn't choose this one:

"A new manner of fashion I'd found,
And the world seemed to smile all around.
'Til it wilted, I wore it,
I'll always adore it,
My sweet little Alice blue gown!"

Or at least this one:

"In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it
You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade...."


Updated On: 9/6/12 at 04:57 PM

[Jon]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 4:58pm

The leading lady in LADY IN THE DARK was the editor of a fashion magazine.

[sally1112]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 8:29pm

Fashions and costumes of Leigh Bowery in Taboo.

Mother wanted me to come out in a Kimono, we had quit a fight...

[wicked1492]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 8:38pm

Never wear mauve at a ball.

Or pink.

Or open your mouth.

[Kad]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 8:49pm

"A Little More Mascara", while not exactly about fashion per se, is all about dressing up.

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/6/12 at 9:00pm

A unique fashion combo from Wildcat:

A yaller (pronounced that way by Lucy) parasol and a pink mink shawl. ("That's What I Want for Janie.")

Could mink be dyed pink?

And on a like subject, from "The Lady Is a Tramp," "Won't go to Harlem in ermine and pearls."