Grace Kelly and Me

Grace Kelly in my dress

   I met up with Grace Kelly recently just outside of Melbourne.  Yes, THE Grace Kelly.  As we got to know each other I discovered just how much we have in common.  Beauty, grace, regal bearing....not exactly.  We have very similar tastes in clothing.  The "shirtwaist" style of dress, in particular.

   But let's start at where I met Grace.  At the Bendigo Art Gallery.   In an exhibition that was all about her: Grace Kelly , Style Icon.  I'm not big on blondes --either  bleached, cutsie-poo or vamp -- but there is a cool beauty radiating from this Pennsylvania native turned Princess.  

Grace Kelly movie costumes

   This exhibition started with  costumes from some of her movies-gifts from the studio to their star. We saw them in the movies and now we get to ogle them up close.  Rather slender our gal was. And the detailing in some of the costumes is admirable.  One dress has a zipper from the end of a cap sleeve to mid-rib with gussets in the armpits.  Grace would have needed a dresser to help with that zipper. 

   The stories and histories that came with some of the costumes practically  made them come alive. The dress she wore the day she first met Prince Rainier of Monaco for a movie publicity event is notable.  Her hotel had a power outage that morning. Grace had to pick the only dress that didn't require ironing to wear for the event. It was the dress she modeled for McCalls for their upcoming pattern book!  Moral of this story: if you didn't catch a handsome prince it is because you don't sew.  I like the way Grace frequently wore dresses more than once, including some of the very famous movie costumes. She referred to favorite dresses as "old friends" which needed visiting every so often.  I told you we were similar. 

Grace's wedding dress

   Everyone ooohs and aaaahs over her wedding dress. I think it looks rather constricting and itchy with all that lace against bare skin.  But walking around the entire dress,  I was rather amused to find that the back style of the dress  little related to the front and is entirely more to my liking.  

   I'm afraid the back half of the exhibition seems to creep downhill a bit.  The 70's were not happy years for fashion and our Grace preferred to cover her now more matronly figure with the caftans favored at the time. Ugh.  Monaco is famous for  its costumed charity balls. Grace's costumes to some of them live on in infamy.

1929-82

   But to each his own. If you find yourself in Melbourne between now and June 17th, head north to Bendigo.  My friend Grace Kelly is waiting to meet you.