Grace Kelly’s 1950s fashion in Rear Window (1954)
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Rear Window Synopsis
In Rear Window, James Stewart’s character L.B “Jeff” Jeffries is temporarily wheel-chair bound after a photography accident with his leg in a cast. Since he’s stuck in his apartment, he gets his entertainment by watching his neighbors (this is pre-Netflix days!).
Grace Kelly plays his love interest Lisa Carol Fremont who visits in the evenings after she gets off work. As James Stewart watches the neighbors, he begins to suspect that one of them, Lars Thorwald (played by Raymond Burr) has murdered his wife and taken her body out in pieces. Grace Kelly also becomes convinced of Thorwald’s guilt and helps find evidence against him. Just a heads-up that the film starts out almost painfully slow for the first half hour, before slowly building in true Hitchcock-style suspense to a dramatic ending.
Grace Kelly, who is, of course known for her classic, elegant fashion, (as well as being a princess) doesn’t disappoint with her outfits in this film. Edith Head, a famous costume designer from the 1950’s, who often collaborated with Hitchcock, created the stunning looks for the movie.
We catalogued all of Grace Kelly’s outfits from the film below….we challenge you to pick your favorite!
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This post is all about Grace Kelly 1950’s fashion in Rear Window
Grace Kelly 1950s fashion: Evening gown with black top and white circle skirt
The first evening Grace Kelly’s character shows up to bring dinner in for Jimmy Stewart who is wheel-chair bound.
She arrives in an elegant monochromatic dress with a full white ‘circle’ skirt and off the shoulder top. She accessorized the dress with a classic red lip and a simple strand of pearls.
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“The low-cut, off the shoulder neckline, full tulle and chiffon skirt, embellished floral pattern and cinched-in waist on this spectacular dress make for an oft-imitated style that is enduringly chic.”
Grace Kelly 1950s fashion: Green suit and white pillbox hat
Grace Kelly returns the second evening in a green pistachio colored suit on top of a beautiful white halter top. As you can see, from the images to the right and below, the outfit looks equally stunning both with and without the jacket.
The pillbox hat was a popular style in the 1950’s that carried over from the 1940’s. Usually the style she is wearing with the short veil was reserved for dressy occasions.
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“They were circular shaped and a few inches tall, with straight sides and a flat or slightly rounded top that covered just the peak of the crown of the head or perched flat on top. As the decade moved on, the depth of the crown grew to 4 or 5 inches tall.”
Again, she relies on a classic red lip and strand of pearls, this time also complete with large pearl earrings, and even a jingly bracelet. Oh, and don’t forget the white gloves that she is oh-so-casually removing! Let me just casually take of my driving gloves as we chat here.
Grace Kelly, perfectly polished in a pistachio-green suit with a pillbox hat.
Grace Kelly 1950s fashion: Green skirt with white halter top
Here, she has removed the pillbox hat, gloves, and the jacket, showing the white halter top.
Just by removing the jacket, she has created an almost entirely new outfit.
Which variation do you like better?
Grace Kelly 1950s fashion: The little black dress
The beauty of Grace Kelly’s third dress is in its simplicity. Again, it has a fitted top with the popular 1950’s circle skirt.
She again wears a classic red lip and a pearl necklace to accessorize it, but this time opting for a fancier triple-strand, instead of the single strand she wore earlier.
Also, side note, but this is the only film that Grace Kelly allowed herself to be filmed smoking in. So if you’re into that sort of thing, enjoy!
Grace Kelly 1950s fashion: The Negligee
For her sleep-over, Grace Kelly packs a small case with her night clothes—a gorgeous silk negligee of course, which honestly looks fancy enough to be an evening gown.
Grace Kelly 1950s fashion: White and gold embroidered dress
For her final dress in the movie, (but not her final outfit) Grace Kelly wore a white dress embroidered with gold flowers. Again, it’s in the classic 1950’s style with a defined waist and full skirt, although the skirt isn’t quite so full on this dress. For accessories, let’s guess—again, red lipstick and pearls!
Grace Kelly 1950s fashion: Casual outfit
We only see Grace Kelly’s final outfit for just a moment in the final scene of Rear Window as she’s pretending to read a travel book to prove she can fit in with James Stewart’s nomadic tendencies, before switching to a fashion magazine once he falls asleep.
It’s not often we see Grace Kelly in casual clothes, but she somehow manages to make a simple red button-up shirt, blue jeans and black loafers looks just as elegant as her evening gowns.
Her signature red lipstick is a bit more muted here, and no pearls in sight!
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This post was all about Grace Kelly’s 1950s fashion in Rear Window
What did you think of Grace Kelly’s 1950s fashion in Rear Window? Which outfit was your favorite?
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Last updated: Sep 05, 2024
Excellent assessment – my favorite, as it happens, is the white embroidered dress she wears at the end – the dress is lovely and Grace Kelly wears it beautifully – but it always amuses me that Lisa climbs fences and manages to get into the murderer’s apartment on that beautiful dress, a strand of pearls and heels (albeit not a medium heel, but still) – thanks for this. I just stumbled upon this site – I hope to catch up on what I’ve missed – thanks for all of the time and effort you expend doing what you do.
Yes, she climbs up to the apartment as though it’s nothing out of the ordinary to do in a cocktail dress and heels! Thanks for the kind words, we love finding others who enjoys the classics like we do.
Her fashion was truly amazing! I love both Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn. They are my fashion icons even here in 2021. Both women were fabulous in using clothing to define their characters and their attitude in their films. What glorious days and what amazing women.
Really cool and fashioned woman . I would like to say that most of her fits are fashion nowadays. She is an icon . TW I am looking for similar topic where to buy an article review writing https://essays-writer.net/buy-article-review.html
The first costume is the most beautiful, yards of flowing white silk tulle with just the traces of black. And don’t forget the white tulle wrap for her shoulders. Also could have been draped front to back around her neck. Most beautiful costume of 1950s films!
Yes, we love love Grace Kelly’s incredible fashion in Rear Window, and it’s really hard to beat that first costume…. You have fabulous taste in vintage fashion, that’s truly always classic and timeless!
Have a wonderful weekend! Cheers!
Thank you for this post; love all things Grace! I have a small ‘edit’ from an English teacher’s daughter. I hope you don’t mind, it isn’t not meant to be anything but helpful for your future posts as a writer. Remember to use ‘it’s’ for the possessive vs. the contraction ‘it’s’ which of course means ‘it is’. The beauty of Grace Kelly’s third dress is in its simplicity should be ‘…in its simplicity’ Thanks again for the beautiful pictures.
We love all things Grace Kelly Style too! …and we grew up watching old Hitchcock movies and dreaming about vintage fashion, and not as much time with the English grammar books (Haha), so thanks for the message.
Here’s to a lovely weekend… which hopefully includes some more fabulous Grace Kelly fashion scrolling!
Were those shoes in the last shot, Weejuns?
Yes! Weejuns, or loafers, not sure if there is a different or if Weejuns is just the nickname for loafers. 🙂
I am trying to identify which style Weejuns is Grace Kelly wearing, either the 1936 Willa Flat Strap Weejun or is it the Whitney Weejuns? Anyone know?