The Vogue for Vintage

Rebecca Gayheart, who starred this summer in Shadow Hours with Peter Weller and Balthazar Getty, collects vintage pieces and knows a thing or two about old-style Hollywood glamour. Here she evokes a bygone era of silver screen fashion in a beaded halter dress by Randolph Duke, black fur by Christina Perrin and jewelry by Michael Beaudry.

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THE LOOK OF THE '20s & '30s IS ON SCREENS, ON RUNWAYS & ON STARS

In the fast-forwarding world of popular culture, almost anything that happened longer than five minutes ago is so over it's barely worthy of discussion. But the fast-forward mentality also likes rewind mode, so whatever is "over" becomes, in another five minutes, prime vintage and is therefore back "in" all over again. Vintage vogue is a pure product of the postmodern world. Any given decade, along with the fashion, music and design that enlivened it, now gets recycled with such accelerating frequency that the Present has become merely an arena for various parallel, overlapping or randomly intersecting Pasts. A typical modernista of 2000 might well be freeze-framed channel-surfing from a James Cagney '40s classic to a mid-'60s episode of "Get Smart" while sprawled in an Eames chair that coordinates perfectly with the Bee Gees-era, flared-cuff pants and tube top this person born in 1980 is wearing. The knack for mixing multi-era vintage with contemporary looks is now basic fashion instinct for the style-conscious of every age. Those whose instincts are good look positively of the moment in a pastiche of styles that ate anything but. Winona Ryder is gifted in this way and openly favors vintage pieces over any year's particular runway tyranny. The character Ryder plays in her new movie, Autumn in New York, likes vintage-inflected pieces too, and they look sensationally right on the actress. In real life, Ryder is very good at capturing vintage Hollywood glamour and owns dresses she's happy to appear in again and again on special occasions. She, like a number of other actresses over the last several years, understands the evocative beauty of late '20s and '30s fashion--the style of Hollywood's most glamorous era--when it tomes to big moments in the limelight.

Sharon Stone gave retro glamour a shot in the arm by swanning into the 1994 Oscar ceremony in a black sequined flapper-style showstopper with her brows arched and tresses wavily marcelled. Her fashion message was stylish and clear: "I'm part of the movie star tradition that gave sleek glamour its raison d'être." Demi Moore has put on similar displays, most memorably in Norman Norell's blue sequined column gown. And at last spring's Oscars, Charlize Theron won over the sharp-taloned fashion hawks with that tangerine '20s/'30s-inspired Vera Wang dress with Fred Leighton diamond clips at the straps. Theron's wardrobe in the late fall saga The Legend of Bagger Vance, which is set in 1931, consists exclusively of authentic vintage and vintage-inspired pieces and provides dramatic proof of both how beautiful Theron looks in that early 20th-century look and how timelessly beautiful that look itself is.

Fashion designers have always found inspiration in the '20s and '30s, but that particular vintage look has been especially prominent, lately. Cate Blanchett mesmerized at the BAFTA awards last spring in a gold-and-silver Prada number that radiated an unfussy "new retro" attitude. In their spring collections Badgley Mischka (whose whole line has been an ongoing celebration of reconsidered old Hollywood glamour) as well as Alberta Ferretti and Stella McCartney for Chloé went in for sparkly sequins, appliqués and clinging, shimmery fabrics that suggested a '30s cool worthy of Carole Lombard, only looser and less obviously "done." Fall collections are carrying on the fascination. Prada, Yves Saint Laurent and Michael Kors have all referenced the '30s with new spins on such throwbacks as fur-trimmed coats, patterned silks worn with strings of pearls and cloche hats that recall the sexy nonchalance of Louise Brooks. Rita Watnick, owner of Beverly Hills' high-end vintage house Lily et Cie, where Demi Moore, Winona Ryder and many other actresses have shopped, cautions that such '20s style hallmarks as cloche hats and dresses with no waist, which make even the shapeliest gym-toned bodies seem boyish, have less innate appeal to moderns than the revealing, bare-shoulder opulence of '30s clothes. But as Hollywood on and offscreen proves these days a woman can take on a touch of Zelda Fitzgerald one day and a whiff of Jean Harlow the next and create an homage to past beauty that wears like a million bucks in 2000.

FILM FASHION FOCUS:

AUTUMN IN NEW YORK

Costume designer Carol Oditz, whose credits include such style-influencing movies as The Ice Storm and Tin Cup (which did for the spaced pearl necklace what Chris Evert did for the diamond tennis bracelet), developed the wardrobe for Winona Ryder's character, a young woman who occasionally dresses with old movie star flair, in the love story set in contemporary New York. "Out of dozens of things Winona wears in the movie, very few are vintage pieces, but, surprisingly, people focus on that gold dress, which is merely an old dress we just happened to like," says Oditz. "I created the white dress she wears myself, so obviously it isn't vintage but it harks back to true 'old Hollywood' glamour, as does the shawl which was created to make her look wrapped in crystal fairy dust. Film and fashion interweave powerfully. As filmmakers, we create dreams. People see our films and want those dreams."

FILM FASHION FOCUS:

THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE

Costume designer Judianna Makovsky created Southern belle Charlize Theron's period wardrobe for director Robert Redford's upcoming saga of spiritual regeneration through golf, which stars Matt Damon and Will Smith. "The script was set in early 1931," says Makovsky. "So it required that we be not quite '20s but also not quite '30s yet, either. Women were still wearing cloches and other hats from the earlier decade, but they were also wearing the slightly longer skirts that came to dominate the '30s. The waist is on the waist, not on the hip as flappers wore in the earlier '20s. We dressed Charlize in a lot of chiffon, flower and bird-patterned girly dresses typical of the Southern belle of the time. Everything had to be custom-made for Charlize because she's tall and vintage clothes don't come in her size. But in one golf scene, she wears an actual vintage felt cloche, vintage embroidered sweater and skirt with a sport shoe that we had made for her based on vintage designs. In another golf scene, though, we made the '30s-style sports skirt with a navy blue and cream tweed sweater, but recut a real vintage blouse to make the blue organza blouse with ruffles that she wears under the sweater. In the scene where Charlize has her hair like Louise Brooks, the dangling necklace and ear-rings are vintage, and that's a real vintage art deco dress we had recut for her. All of the clothes are absolutely authentic, but the color palette, which we based on beautiful American impressionist painters of the South, is very controlled and designed."

TEN THINGS I WOULD NEVER THROW OUT OF MY CLOSET

1. MY DAD'S OLD SWEATERS.

They're big men's sweaters, sort of '70s-looking. I wear them with jeans or trousers and high heels--I try to funk them up a bit. I love mixing old with new.

2. MY FAVORITE JEANS--LEVI'S 501s.

I've owned these jeans since '91 and they're in perfect condition--no patches and faded, but not too faded.

3. MY EARL JEANS.

Hopefully I'll never grow out of them.

4. MY ADIDAS SHELL-TOE SNEAKERS.

They're white with black stripes. It's a style I buy over and over again, but I try to keep a pair for as long as I can because they get really worn in.

5. MY BEADED FENDI BAG.

It's not the teeny baguette, but a medium size. It has green and pink and yellow beads with a little fringe hanging down and a snakeskin strap. I'll use it day or night.

6. MY NEW PRADA SHOES.

They have a lip design on them. They're about three inches high. I probably won't wear them a lot. They're like a museum piece.

7. MY FAKE-FUR STOLE.

I got it at a vintage store in New York and I wear it whenever I want to feel glamorous. But it's also cute with just jeans and a little top.

8. MY BIG HOOP EARRINGS.

My mom gave them to me. I feel like her when I wear them because she's been wearing hoops since I was born. They're huge.

9. MY VINTAGE PUCCI BLOUSE.

I've had it forever. It's a very fitted, button-up blouse with a pale salmon pink, brown and maroon design. I love vintage Pucci.

10. MY HEART-SHAPED DIAMOND EARRINGS.

They were a gift from my ex-fiancé Brett Ratner, but I love them and I'll never throw them out--I've had them for so long that I don't associate them with him. And even if I did, I wouldn't get rid of them, because we're still friends.

REBECCA REDUX

"The new movie I'm about to start filming is James Toback's Harvard Man, in which I play an F.B.I. agent," says Gayheart. Not exactly out to enforce federal law here, Gayheart is pure '30s in a black matte jersey dress by Joanna Mastroianni, a red and black fur stole by Nicole Miller, and jewelry by Francis Klein.