Fashion In Film Friday - Racing With The Moon

The 1984 film 'Racing With The Moon' starring Nicolas Cage & Sean Penn was a romantic drama set in California in 1942 & centered around the lives of two young men trying to get in their 'last flings' before heading off to war.  The characters played by Cage & Penn, 'Henry & Nicky', work together at their local bowling alley setting up pins.  After work one night, Henry heads off to see a movie and meets Caddie played by actress Elizabeth McGovern.  After following her home and seeing that she lives in a mansion, he immediately assumes that she is a "Gatsby girl" (meaning 'rich').  In reality, Caddie is living there with her mother who is a maid.

The term 'Gatsby girl' originated in the roaring twenties and defined the era that saw women becoming more rebellious (i.e. drinking & smoking) and it trailed into the mid forties gearing more towards defining women who were the 'haves' in comparison to the 'have nots'.  To be a Gatsby girl in the vintage 40's meant they you afford panty hose and perfume in spite of the fact that you were in the midst of the 'great depression' & in the throws of World War II. 

The 1940's Gatsby girls were modest yet still had the ability to produce a valid amount of sex appeal. Skirts/dresses were knee length or longer and necklines were modest & button down sweaters were 'in'. Maybe it came more from their attitude than from their clothing style? Either way, they made it work!  Maybe it was the allure of 'innocence' that was at an all time high from that point thru to the 50's?... 

pics: freecodesource.com, au-cinema.com, forgottenflux.com, mooninthegutter.blogspot.com, thisislondon.co.uk.com, cultureandthrills.com

CoCo Chanel A Nazi Spy?

The reputation of the revered designer CoCo Chanel is being put to the test as speculations have surfaced that she was a Nazi spy.  It wasn't kept a secret that she dated a German military intelligence officer during the war who was later found out to be a Abwher spy. The question remains as to whether or not she knew this info and if so, did that make her guilty by association?  A book was released this week suggesting that she did know and that she was actually a part of the operation.

American author, Hal W. Vaughan, a veteran of both World War II & the Korean War, worked with the U.S. intelligence community in Geneva and claims to have had intimate connections with international relations.  In his book, Vaughan even states that Chanel served Abwehr as Agent 7124, under the code-name 'Westminster'.  It was even suggested in his writings, that she was a liaison who attempted to orchestrate a meeting between Hitler and Winston Churchill in Madrid.  This puts a definite damper on the legacy the poverty born Chanel has left behind & since she passed in 1971, she's not here to defend the accusations.   

If she was in fact a part of the debauchery that was the Holocaust, all I have to say is..."Sucks to be you right bout' now CoCo" because those are some heavy duty irreparable sins!        




pics: torbaytorq.co.uk, documentingreality.com