Reel to Real #16: Julie Christie in "Don't Look Now"

Here's a confession: I'm afraid to grow up. Generally, it's okay to dress as crazily as we want to until we hit a certain age, when we then have to (yikes) enter the workplace and somehow look mature. Well, despite how much i've praised "sophisticated" looks in the column, I personally believe in dressing as whimsically as possible, and think that expectations of "age-appropriate"ness shouldn't interfere with creativity.

Which is why I love Julie Christie in 1973's "Don't Look Now": she looks mature and playful at once. Christie was a 60s icon, and as the decades changed, fashion turned away from the playful, Mod style that Christie won admirers for (such as myself: more than half my posts are about 60s films). The process of exiting the 60s for me is embodied in a sartorial change and the passage from youth to adulthood. In "Don't Look Now," Christie plays a mother in mourning for a dead child, so she wears appropriately muted colors. Yet she still incorporates interesting patterns, textures, and layering, such as the tweed coat pictured above, a soft and pretty floral robe, floppy hats, and red leather boots

I most liked the outfit pictured below, which includes pleats, patterns, color, and layering. Watching Don't Look Now made me breathe a sigh of relief at the realization that growing up doesn't mean giving up on having fun with fashion.