22 thoughts on “TBT: My Fair Lady (1964)

      1. Absolutely gorgeous recreation. Thanks for including the website link to view it.

        Forget Eliza’s Hungarian Princess, go for Queen Maud of Norway, nee Maud of Wales.

  1. I have pictures of the Ascot Races gown from the Golden Age of Hollywood exhibit I saw this year. Just saying :P

  2. I would love if you reviewed Audrey’s War & Peace it’s mostly pretty and quite entertaining would be very grateful but of course it’s more than 3 hours so I imagine that it would be difficult

    1. I love the ball gown. I believe that the Queen of Transylvania wore real jewels. I sort-of remember reading at the time the movie came out that they, the jewellery, were from the Rothschild Family, which makes sense as Baroness Rothschild was the queen.

      1. Wait, somebody actually wore that three pronged monstrosity of a tiara in the Real World? Why???

  3. As much as I love the ascot outfit,the floofy pink monstrosity makes Hepburn look like a granny.In NOT a good way.After so many great outfits,why did they put her in such a pathetic outfit!

  4. I hope there was a large dedicated costuming staff. I feel exhausted just looking at the crowd scenes.

  5. Audrey and Cecil must have had great fun rummaging through the costumes.

    I understand not doing male costumes. But I would have loved a look at Young Jeremy Brett as Freddy…

  6. The theatre production with Rex Harrison that toured in 1981 had a lot of (reproductions I assume) these costume designs. I was working in the theatre selling tickets and got to go backstage with the wardrobe mistress and see them up close. They were GLORIOUS. Especially the Ascot hats.

  7. I LOVE this movie. I look at his sketches and see, yup that’s 1912. But then the construction filtered some aspects out, introduced others and BAM. I still love it all, in particular the apricot suit (which in my memory was chartreuse, how Freudian) and ASCOT. I hope one day to make hats for that scene!

  8. Stanley Holloway’s numbers are still my favorite scenes, but Audrey at the races comes a close second. The hats! I hate hats, and never wear them, but these were wondrous, especially when showcased by Hepburn for the Beaton photo shoots.

    OT: I could swear that there was an MFL revival in London a few/several years ago, with an African-Anglo/American musical comedy star as Eliza, but I can’t find anything about it on Google. Anyone know anything about this?

  9. I’m all grown up but I still love the ruffled pink dress. Though yes, it is a bit bridesmaids.
    Ascot is FABULOUS!
    I’ve always had doubts about the historicity of the ball gown but I knew the hair was pure sixties and I love the delicate little tiara and the sparklyness of it all. I think the extras costumes were intentionally made loud and colorful to set Audrey off in her shimmering white.
    Never much liked the peach suit though. Probably because I don’t like the color.

  10. That Ascot scene… I mean, it’s just a pleasure to look at. So yes some more modern elements, but so well done… I also loved the pink dress as a kid… but now I see what you mean.. well Audrey Hepburn can carry anything off. How fun that she got to try on the other costumes!

    1. So true, Audrey Hepburn can make any outfit look good. And I’m not at all surprised that her reaction to the Ascot costumes was ‘Let me try on them all!’

  11. A great post, thank you for sharing! It’s interesting because although I agree it looks modern, the beaded overlay of Eliza’s ballgown was actually an original antique found by Beaton. Audrey commented on it in an interview. The under-dress was added by Cecil Beaton and I assume that some beading was added around the neckline. But the rest was original. Perhaps there was some tweaking of the dress in the Wardrobe department to make it more of a 60s sheath!

  12. I remember when i was a kid watching this film in the 80s. I liked the aesthetic, but i had no idea what the time period was supposed to be. I was like “hmmm… looks early 1900s” then “oh wait. Is it 1920s?” And then “oh, but that’s clearly 1960s. Is that when it was made? Maybe it’s not supposed to be old timey”, and finally “if that pink dress was teal, it would look like my the bridesmaid dresses at my aunt’s wedding”

    And yeah, that pink dress makes my skin crawl.

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