We’re highlighting a different classic Christmas movie dress every day until Christmas Eve and we figured we’d kick things off with one of the most iconic cinematic Christmas dresses of all time, Mary Bailey’s dutiful wife frock, from the climax of 1946’s It’s A Wonderful Life, directed by Frank Capra.
This dress, designed by Edward Stevenson and worn by Donna Reed, manages to do something onscreen that represents the themes of the film: it reads as richer than it actually is.
It’s a simple black knit dress that speaks to her frugality as the wife of a struggling businessman, not to mention a woman in an America just beginning to recover from wartime rationing. The lace collar speaks of the sorts of traditional, conservative, middle-class values the film espouses while also signaling her status as a wife and mother, as does the somewhat mature hairstyle, which differentiates her from the younger version she played earlier in the film. The pearls are the one concession to the evening, a bit of dressup for a Christmas Eve that turned out quite differently than the one she had planned. She’s beautiful, traditional, maternal, and supportive, with just a touch of glamour; the perfect post-War American wife in the perfectly appropriate holiday dress.
Next up: Whimsy!
[Photo/Still Credit: AMPAS, Paramount Pictures – Video Credit: Paramount Pictures/YouTube]
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