fictional style icons — part two of five

Laura was not a golddigger. She couldn’t help it if she was relentlessly pursued by wealthy men. Romance was an afterthought. She’d earned her own way. And it wasn’t as though she could trust anyone to give her a hand up to the top. She just wanted to head up her own advertising firm, run business meetings and corporate empires, keep condescending men on their toes, and look good doing it. In 1944. If she used her charms to get her way—well, she was charming. And then she was dead. Or was she—?

Laura’s style is proto-American classic, pre-New Look, and—like the film itself—set the template for what Film Noir would be all about. The labels above—Chanel, Burbury—were chosen to reflect the infancy of the American fashion industry midcentury. Laura’s style is tailored, polished, simple, professional and undeniably feminine.

When I was trying to learn how to dress like a grown-up immediately after college, movies like Laura—set in an era when women were trying to figure out how to dress and behave in the workplace—and stars like Kate Hepburn, Gene Tierney, Lauren Bacall, and Myrna Loy taught me how. It’s where I learned pencil skirts. And tweed pants. And non-90s-sweater-set cardigans. And fabulous shoes.

Other “Lauras” include: Nora Charles in The Thin Man, Irene Cassini in GATTACA, Amy Archer in The Hudsucker Proxy, Rachael in Blade Runner.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for an angsty 90s antifashionista!