The Best Costume For The Day

A couple of months ago my friend Gus introduced me to the 1975 documentary film Grey Gardens and the 2009 made for television film of the same name that was based on the documentary and the lives of Edith "Big Edie" Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale.

I watched the 1975 Grey Gardens first, followed by the 2009 film. The original documentary was a captivating look at the every day lives of mother and daughter living in the filth of a decayed mansion in East Hampton named Grey Gardens. The 2009 film, which stars Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange as the Edies (both do an excellent job), takes you before, during and after the filming of the documentary with flash backs to when Little Edie was young and the mansion was in pristine condition, it also recreates some of the scenes from the documentary.

I was absolutely sucked into the fascinating lives of Big Edie and Little Edie. They're both such incredibly tragic characters, particularly Little Edie, who dreams of fame and fortune but is stuck in this decrepit mansion with her bossy old mother. I was also fascinated by the conditions they were living in. Absolute filth! Heaps and heaps of cats and racoons roaming around and piles of rubbish everywhere (and this was after Big Edie's neice, former First Lady Jackie O, helped to restore the house).




Little Edie to me is a bit of a fashion icon with her iconic headscarves (worn to hide her hair loss due to alopecia), signature brooch and her plethora of outfits, or costumes as her and her mother described them. I watched a clip on youtube from The Beales of Grey Gardens, a film with footage that was not used in the original documentary, where it is revealed that Big Edie made Little Edie change her 'costume' at least ten times a day. Imagine picking out ten outfits everyday... Little Edie did it. I've seen fashion pictorials that have very obviously emulated Grey Gardens and Little Edie's style.

After the death of her mother Little Edie tried to fulfil her dreams of fame and fortune with an unsuccessful stint performing a cabaret.
Grey Gardens is an extremely captivating film and I get excited everytime I see clips I haven't seen and everytime I read about the Beale's fascinating lives before, during and after the filming of Grey Gardens.

You can check out Gus' blog here and his Grey Gardens post here.