FASHION IN FILM

Easy Virtue
”It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty
and how few by deceit.” (Noel Coward)

In Easy Virtue (2008), the adaptation sports, which gains her no favors with
of Noel Coward’s play, John Whittaker the fox hunting uptight English gentry
(Ben Barnes) is a young Englishman and insists upon knowing the name of
who impetuously marries Larita (Jessica the cook.
Biel) a glamorous American woman
after meeting her in Monte Carlo at Biel delivers the witty and fast paced
the end of the 1920s. dialogue with elegance and poise in
When the newly married couple visits what could be a carrier-making role.
the husband’s upper-crust English fam- The music score is particularly cheeky
ily at their estate, the bride is expected with modern songs like Car Wash and
with shock, excitement Sex Bomb interpreted in the style of
and above all frosti- the Thirties and with actors Biel, Barnes
ness. and Colin Firth performing some of the
score’s songs.
The mother in law
(Kristin Scott Thomas) The Whittaker family does not under-
has many reasons to re- stand nor likes Larita much, with the
sent the new bride, as sole exception of her father in law—
the hopes that her son played by Colin Firth—an ex soldier
will remain at the es- traumatized by the First World War.
tate to help manage it
go against the couple’s To prepare for her role, Jessica Biel
wish to live in London. drew inspiration from the golden age
“Jessica was the alien arriving in the English coun-
tryside from America and Europe. I decided her
palette would be black and white, silver, cream and
grey - straight angles and no frills or fuss like the
art deco of the time.” says award winning costume
designer Charlotte Walter.
He was also supposed to marry child- of cinema: “I looked at a lot of old
hood friend Sarah from the castle next Katharine Hepburn movies like ‘Phila-
door thus uniting the two domains and delphia Story’, ‘Bringing Up Baby’, for
restoring the estate’s former glory. that kill-’em-with-a-smile, fantastic,
witty, dry delivery,” . She also studied
Larita is a feminist, avant-garde char- Jean Harlow for her “sex appeal, diva
acter, she is an American, when Amer- quality.”
ica was considered freshly different
from the old world, she dyes her hair According to award-winning costume
platinum blonde, wears trousers, drives designer Charlotte Walter, dressing
a race car, is slightly older than her the characters in Easy Virtue was “gift”.
new husband and she is at her second “Jessica was the alien arriving in the
marriage. She is also against blood English countryside from America and
Europe. I decided her palette would
be black and white, silver, cream and
grey - straight angles and no frills or
fuss like the art deco of the time - a
complete contrast to the greens and
browns of the English countryside. She
looked so elegant in the clothes and
embraced the period feel by bravely
wearing 1930s underwear every day
even when it was freezing, to get the
correct feel and shape or her clothes,”
adds Charlotte.
Jessica Biel was delighted with the
designs: “My wardrobe on this film has
just been amazing. I literally wanted to
walk away with every piece! Because
Larita is such a modern woman, she is
almost ahead of her time. Everything is
very streamlined but all of her outfits
have a little cheek to them somehow,
so for me, wearing the clothes every
day really brought her alive.”
Neil Coward’s description of Larita in
the first act of the play is similar to her
depiction in the film: “She is tall, ex-
quisitely made-up and very beautiful.
Her clothes, because of their simplic-
ity, are obviously violently expensive.”
The high-waisted, wide-legged tai-
lored trousers are in the collections of
many designers for fall-winter 2011.
The jackets, cute hats, vests, mini-
mal jewellery and monochromes that
Larita wears in the film are particularly
actual.
Colin Firth’s character is “shabby chic”
while Kristin Scott Thomas is a tradi-
tional old-fashioned English woman.
John’s older sister Marion is a religious
zealot on the road to becoming a Miss
Havisham character and her costumes
reflect her obliviousness to her clothes
and her mother’s influence. The trou-
ble making little sister Hilda starts to
imitate Larita as she is both jealous and
in awe with the American.
The interiors also played an important
part to emphasize the differences be-
tween Larita and the dying old world.
The house had to look frayed and the
director went to great lengths to elimi-
nate any bright colours from around
Jessica Biel to preserve the alien qual-
ity of her character.
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