Saturday, August 27, 2016

Tippi Hedren in the Green Suit

From Clothes on Film:
The green suit worn by Tippi Hedren as Melanie Daniels in The Birds (1963) has become increasingly symbolic in recent years as we delve ever deeper into the semiotics of film. In this case it is hardly surprising as Hedren only wears three costumes in total; the suit is so visible we cannot fail to draw meaning from its presence. But what was director Alfred Hitchcock trying to say with it, and more importantly, why?

If you visited the V&A’s Hollywood Costume exhibition (now closed in London but moved to Australia and the U.S.), seeing The Birds’ suit would likely have stuck in your mind. It was given prominent placing in room 2, an impressively constructed installation with video recollections from Hedren herself. Yet in real life the suit itself is very basic in style, darker and, dare we say, blander than in the movie. It craves context to bring it to life. (Read more.)
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2 comments:

Ray Sunshine said...

The Birds is not my favourite Hitchcock film and Tippi Hedren is very far from being my favourite Hitchcock actress. Even so I found this article interesting, because it gives a glimpse of the care and attention he gave to details that I would never have noticed if they hadn’t been pointed out to me.

elena maria vidal said...

So glad you enjoyed the article, Uncle Brian.