Vintage Inspiration from the Timeless Billie Holiday
In honor of Women’s History Month, we wanted to commemorate a powerful female voice both symphonically and historically. From ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ to ‘Strange Fruit’ her voice defined an era, and yes now you may have figured out who I am referring too, we all watched “The United States vs Billie Holiday” this weekend and were moved by her story and captured by the looks that costume designer, Paolo Nieddu used to encapsulate her essence throughout the film.
Lee Daniels, the Director, and Paolo Nieddu worked with Miucca Prada in recreating Lady Day’s iconic looks. The team at Prada, scoured through their archives to take elements of previous Prada Collections, pulling from collections such as Fall 2017 and Resort 2011 to inspire Lady Day’s beautiful silk yellow gown for her performance of “Them There Eyes.” The floral sparkling accent on the dress are subtle details, accompanied by Holiday’s Iconic white gardenias as an homage to her use of florals.
Nieddu and the team at Prada also looked to vintage magazine’s bought on eBay to inspire their creation of her timeless gowns. Not only did the costume designer use vintage magazine’s but also explored eBay for a pair of vintage 1940s heels used in the scene where Lady Day is crowd surfing. Nieddu didn’t stop with eBay in his search for the perfect vintage accessories, he also found a charm bracelet in a Vintage Montreal boutique and cat-eye sunglasses to authentically recreate 1950s fashion.
Florals and Mink Coats were an intentional decision and integral part of Holiday’s iconic legacy. Black Hair Historian, Ayana Byrd, explains, “The fact that such a famous Black woman adopted a flower-which is soft, delicate, and beautiful-and made it a part of her signature look was a reclaiming of this idea that Black women are also beautiful in this way.” Billie Holiday’s relentless courage and thoughtfully crafted ensembles have inspired us to elevate our wardrobe and be more thoughtful in how we curate our own looks.
In our endeavor to recreate our own styles inspired by the stories of those who have fought in the past, let’s incorporate some florals into our looks. Despite what Miranda Preistly says in Devil Wears Prada, this year florals are in fact, ‘Groundbreaking.’
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