Stylish elegance masked Porters' private anguish

By Robin Givhan
Washington Post

Back in the days when it was socially important to keep up appearances — of a happy marriage, a happy home, being happy-go-lucky — everyone, it seemed, looked smashing. Before the now common public confessional, one's peccadilloes were swept under the rug and unorthodox behavior was engaged in discreetly. People worked hard to present a perfect veneer. Fashion was complicit in constructing that facade.

Ashley Judd and Kevin Kline portray Linda and Cole Porter, who, for many, embodied high-society elegance in the 1920s and 1930s. Associated Press

Any cinematic tale needs drama, however, and the Porters oblige. He becomes increasingly indiscreet in his affairs. She becomes frustrated that the delicate balance of their lives is being destroyed. She has a miscarriage. He becomes a drunk. But all the while, they look splendid.

Costume designer Janty Yates crafted the look of the Porters as played by Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd, turning to designer Giorgio Armani. Although the film focuses on the years from the 1920s to the 1960s, the fashions are rooted in the '30s and '40s, decades when everyone looked particularly swell. This is a film that gives elegance as much importance as historical accuracy. And although Armani has contributed to a host of recent films such as "Shaft" and "Hannibal," not since "The Untouchables" in 1987 has a film benefited so profoundly from his aesthetic.

" 'The Untouchables' was the first period film I worked on and it taught me that I am really not a costume designer. I can only work on projects which lend themselves to my aesthetic," Armani says in an e-mail. "Though the film was set during Prohibition, the look was my interpretation of what the style of the time was.

"The same can be said of 'De-Lovely,' a film where the action spans the '20s, '30s and '40s. I love this period of fashion — it was a time when people really dressed up in an elegant manner. However, I am not a fashion historian, nor am I interested in re-creating the past. Instead, I have done outfits which have the spirit of elegance of the time, but are updated with modern touches."

Yates, who worked with Armani on "Hannibal," was responsible for striking a balance between what was appropriate for the time and what is pleasing to modern eyes. For example, many of Linda's evening clothes were pulled directly from the Armani archives and used with only subtle changes.

"Mr. Armani nearly always makes his evening wear in a slipper satin silk, so because of that we were halfway there. He cuts on the bias, so we were three-quarters there," Yates says in a telephone interview. "In a couple of dresses, he took out the zipper and put in buttons and took out elastic and put in ribbon."

Both Porters had a distinctive style, and for once, the gentleman's fashion sense is not overshadowed by the woman's. He was a theatrical dresser, almost always wearing a suit and never dressing down. "Cole Porter always had a flower in his lapel. He would always, always go for a fresh flower and would go after an unusual flower. We were always looking for purple flowers and dark green flowers," Yates says.

This was a period when even the most dissolute man would button himself up in an extravagant suit. And even when Cole's shadowy dalliances were becoming more reckless, he sartorially presented himself as composed, controlled and confident. In one scene, Cole wears a white suit as he prepares to depart from Venice. He looks supremely elegant. Yet is there a man today who can wear a white suit and not look as though he should be an airport lounge singer? During a rehearsal for one of his musicals, Cole sits cross-legged on the floor in a beautifully cut gray suit with a red flower in his lapel. Are there still men who can simultaneously be so relaxed while dressed up?

The '30s, says Armani, was "an era of great tailoring." The clothes were in service to the wearer.

Tailoring "did everything to give men as much of a shape as the women," Yates says. "You had these broad shoulders and slinky hips. Even the rattiest man could cut a dash."

Linda preferred clean lines and simple tailoring. Her palette was often monochromatic gray, navy and cream. Her jewelry was bold and glamorous. She was one of the day's notably stylish women and used her influence to launch the career of her jeweler, Fulco di Verdura, by introducing him to Coco Chanel. There is a cool sophistication to all Linda's clothes that belies the complexity of her emotional life. When she tells Cole about her miscarriage, she is wearing a spare white satin, vintage-inspired gown that slithers down her frame, accented by a provocative piece of jewelry. Her wedding gown, designed by Armani, is a sensual swath of ivory satin. It shows no skin but hints provocatively at what is hidden.

"De-Lovely" addresses the ways in which appearances, stylishness and elegance were valuable currency and worth safeguarding which in the film enhance the complicated beauty of Cole Porter's music.