The wardrobe department is often the unsung hero of a film; like the set designers, they work to create a look and an atmosphere that allows viewers to suspend their disbelief and be transported into a fictional world. As a result, one might expect the most expensive movie costume ever made to come from alavish fantasy film likeThe Lord of the Ringstrilogy, or perhaps an extravagant period piece such as 1963’sCleopatra.The reality is actually more fitting:the wardrobe piece that holds theGuinness World Record for the most costly movie costumeappears in a film that revolves entirely around fashion:1944’sLady in the Dark, starringGinger Rogersand directed byMitchell Leisen.
Lady in the Dark
Liza Elliott, “Allure” magazine editor-in-chief, suffers from headaches and continuous daydreams and undergoes psychoanalysis to determine why.
What Is ‘Lady in the Dark’ About?
Based on the 1941 Broadway musical of the same name,Lady in the Darkfollows Liza Elliott (Rogers), editor-in-chief ofAlluremagazine, which was based onVogue.Despite pre-dating them by several decades, Liza strongly evokesThe Devil Wears Prada’s Miranda Priestly(Meryl Streep) orVogue’s real-life current editor-in-chief,Anna Wintour— complete with an obscene number of fur coats. At the start of the film, Liza is experiencing severe depression and anxiety, to the point that it interferes with her demanding, deadline-heavy job. She’s begun having recurring dreams in which she wears extravagant gowns and hairstyles, though her real-life style is buttoned-up, featuring masculine tailored suits and a tight up-do. She insists to her psychoanalyst (Barry Sullivan) that she doesn’t want to look feminine and glamorous, but he doesn’t believe her. (There’s a recurring motif throughout the film in which Liza tells men explicitly what she thinks and what she wants, and they brush her off and tell her what shereallythinks and wants … and of course, they turn out to be right.)
At the magazine offices, Liza has an antagonistic relationship with ad man Charley Johnson (Ray Milland), who needles her at every opportunity — any woman who’s held a position of authority over a man who resents it will be extremely familiar with Charley’s attitude and behavior. Charley has been trying to convince Liza to approve a circus theme for the upcoming Easter issue, and her inability to make up her mind on this and other things becomes a central plot point. Just over halfway through the film, Liza accepts a date with Hollywood heartthrob Randy Curtis (Jon Hall), whom she’s not really interested in. Randy has mentioned that he doesn’t like “glamor girls” and prefers Liza’s buttoned-up look, so to turn him off, she decides to wear a bold new dress just sent to the magazine from “Hollywood.” The dress in question islegendary designerEdith Head’sfamous mink dress,which would claim the Guinness World Record. Later, Liza has a vision of herself as a circus performer, during which she wears the mink dress while she sings and dances.
The ending of the film is a disappointment to any viewers who were enjoying its seemingly feminist themes andBechdel test-smashing dialogue:the psychoanalyst convinces Liza that she’s tried all her life to “dominate” men, to prove that she’s superior to them and that what she really needs is a man to “dominate” her. She ends up with Charley.
Thanks to Liza’s dream sequences — which feature elaborate set pieces and dozens of extras — and the fact thatLady in the Darktakes place primarily in a magazine office filled with fashion models,the production required an incredible700 individual costumes,including 15 different outfits just for Rogers. As Lisa Colpaert writes in “The Material Film Costume: Encountering the Mink Dress ofLady in the Dark,” Head was brought on as one of the film’s costume designers, but not to work with Rogers. Leisen and producerB. G. Desylvareportedly weren’t fans ofEdith Head’s work— which was known for unconventional and bold uses of color and other eccentricities — so they instead brought in Russian couture designerValentina, who had worked on Broadway and styled several top-billed actresses, to create Rogers’ costumes. At the same time, Head was tasked with designing dresses for the mannequins and models who would be seen around theAllureoffices.
Ginger Rogers, however, didn’t like Valentina’s designs.As Colpaert reports, she and Head already had a friendly relationship — Head was brought onto the picture at Rogers' request — and eventually, Head was asked to revamp the gowns that appear in the dream sequences. It’s unclear how much of the final designs are Head’s work and how much are Valentina’s, but only Head’s name appears in the film’s credits, withMadame Karinskacredited for the pieces' execution.
The iconic dress consists of a form-fitting V-necked bodice with long sleeves and matching gloves, entirely covered in red and gold glass gems and fake rubiesarranged in an intricate swirling pattern. The floor-length skirt is made of real mink, and Liza wears the dress with a matching mink bolero and a muff of mink tails. (One can only imagine how many minks died for this fashion statement.) Because the glass gems made the dress incredibly heavy — far too heavy for Rogers to dance or move freely in it — according to Colpaert, a second version of the dress was created for the circus scene using sequins rather than gems. The mink skirt of this version opens in the front up to Rogers' hips, revealing a gorgeous interior covered in the same complex pattern of sequins. Both pieces were entirely hand-stitched, of course. The circus version of the dress — along with Rogers' shapely legs — was featured heavily in the film’s marketing, including in a 75-foot tall cutout of Rogers that was placed in Times Square.
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The circus sequence is by far the most entertaining part of the film, for several reasons. First, it’s the only time Rogers really gets to sing and dance. Second, the song she sings, “The Saga of Jenny” is the best and funniest song in both the movie and the stage musical — in its 1943 reporting on the ongoing production,The New York Timeswent out of its wayto reassure viewers that this song would indeed be performed in the motion picture. Finally,the dress really is spectacular.The sequins catch the bright stage lights, making the dress sparkle with every movement, and Rogers looks to be having the time of her life in it.
What Did the Mink Dress in ‘Lady in the Dark’ Cost?
In her memoir,Edith Head’s Hollywood,Head herself claimed that the dress cost $35,000 to create, with the fur alone accounting for $15,000.In today’s money, that’s close to $620,000 for a piece that’s on screen for about 15 minutes. However, although Guinness accepts that figure for its record, others dispute it. Colpaert writes thatParamount’s budget documents list the dress cost as only $4,450(still close to $80,000 today), and the publicity department claimed that the mink was a rental that would later be returned to the furrier. That might be true of the bolero and the muff, but one version of the dress, complete with the full-length mink skirt, is currentlyon display in the Victoria and Albert Museumin London — and remember that the production made two of them.
Thefilm was widely criticized for itsextravagant budgetat a time when World War II rationing had many people barely scraping by.The New York Timesreported in March 1943 that Paramount had already blown through the picture’s original budget of $2.3 million, with the production costs by that point ballooning to $2.6 million, and it would cost another $400,000 to print and distribute the movie. Reporter Fred Stanley made it a point to mention thatLady in the Darkwould be a “last fling” for this “brand of lavishness” that Hollywood wouldn’t be allowed to repeat as long as the war continued.
Ultimately, despite its being very much a product of its time,Lady in the Darkis well worth a watch for cinephiles, fashion gurus, or anyone who loves a spectacle.Rogers' character is highly relatable, the dialogue is smart and snappy, and the costumes truly are breathtaking.
Lady in the Darkis available for purchase on Amazon in the U.S.
