Yesterday's post focused on contemporary fashion references to traditional Mexican motifs and closed with a look at bags designed in the 1960s by Bonnie Cashin.
The American fashion designer visited Mexico in the '60s, but she has also got another "Mexican connection": in 1945 she designed the costumes for The Bullfighters, directed by Mal St. Clair and starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy (this was actually their last American film).
The comedy follows the vicissitudes of Laurel and Hardy as two private detectives travelling to Mexico City (the film was actually shot in a studio...) in pursuit of a criminal - Hattie Blake, better known as Larceny Nell.
They find her pretty soon, but Laurel ends up having to disguise himself as a famous Spanish matador, Don Sebastian, arriving in Mexico City for a bullfight, to hide from Richard Muldoon, a man who spent time in prison after Stan and Oliver testified against him.
There are a few women gravitating around Laurel and Hardy, so Cashin must have spent quite a lot of time working on their attires: first of all, there's Hattie Blake (Carol Andrews), the blonde criminal who turns out to be a nightmare for Laurel and Hardy during a subtle egg fight at a cocktail bar.
Cashin had her dressed to the nines in a wonderful black suit, truncated conical hat, white gauntlets accessorised with several thick bracelets and large clutch. Unfortunately for her quite a few of her accessories, including one shoe, get ruined during the egg fight, but Hattie has her own way and revenge on the two detectives.
Cashin must have had fun creating also the gowns for Don Sebastian's admirers: they are all donning dresses in 1940s styles, but one of the girls is wearing a grid check printed dress with one clever geometrical reference - square buttons - that create a sort of three-dimensional detail on the dress.
The character Cashin must have enjoyed the most is probably Conchita, impersonated by Diosa Costello.
Juana de Dios Castrello y Cruz, better known as Diosa Costello, was born in Guayama, Puerto Rico, in 1917. She had her big break as the co-star in the 1939 Broadway hit musical, "Too Many Girls", working opposite Desi Arnaz, Van Johnson and Eddie Bracken. She became famous for the part of Bloody Mary in "South Pacific" and, dubbed "The Latin Bombshell", she paved the way for Latinos in Hollywood. In 2011 she donated some of her costumes to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
In her performances on Broadway, in films and nightclubs, Costello always showed a great energy and an ebullient personality.
Cashin symbolized this through her costumes for Conchita: her character is always wearing elegant dresses with fun prints and details, usually accessorised with striking hats.
The ensemble she wears at the end of the film, comprising a top with a heart and a sailor's hat, represents her comic talent and joie de vivre.
Cashin also did for Conchita a wonderful gown for a dance number that included a sparkling fringed bolero and a long wallet skirt. Conchita wears it when she sings an electric version of "Bim-Bam-Boom" (a song by Noro Morales, with whom Diosa had worked in the mid-1930s) and, while the skirt allows her to move freely, the fringe is instrumental to show off her boundless energy.
Last but not least, Cashin also dressed Margo Woode as Señorita Tangerine. Towards the end of the film she's wearing a '40s suit accessorised with a lace hat and long gloves. The lace is vaguely reminiscent of the cut-out motifs of the papel picado flags we looked at in yesterday's post and creates lovely shadow and light effects on the actress' face, adding a note of drama and romance to this comedy.
Accessories become therefore striking elements in this film: they help Hattie the criminal standing up to the detectives who want to arrest her; they offer Tangerine a femme fatale moment with (the real) Don Sebastian and are employed to highlight Diosa Costello's fiery style of acting.
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