Thursday, July 06, 2006

Shopping From the Movies: National Velvet



A day later, I find myself browsing through the classic horse melodrama, National Velvet, shopping for summer outfits and home decorating inspiration. First, I'm caught offguard by the film's challenging confluence of animal barn and guest bedroom. The Pie's itinerant trainer, played by Mickey Rooney, lives in a tidy room which curiously merges with the space of a horse stable (making it possible for Elizabeth Tailor to dash in by horseback for an animated chat about The Pie's prospects for the Grand National).



Most enticing for this vintage shoe nut are Elizabeth "Velvet" Tailor's riding loafers (a genre of shoe which I believe should be promptly reissued by major department stores).




Ultimately, I'm drawn to the wintery barn togs Tailor and Rooney sport during their efforts to revive The Pie from a fatal horse malaise using the surefire curatives of whiskey, blankets and earrubs (since I'm fastforwarding through the the film I'm not bothered by the characters' abrupt transition from summer to winter wardrobes)(four seasons worth of JCREW catalogues stapled together).

2 comments:

r? said...

Never underestimate the power of whiskey and ear rubs....

li'l hateful said...

You didn't fast-forward over her fantastic sailor-inspired ensemble, did you? GO BACK! GO BACK!