Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan

A still from Whit Stillman's 1990 film Metropolitan

In honor of acclaimed indie director Whit Stillman’s new film Damsels in Distress, we travel back to the year 1990 and revisit his very first movie, the beloved Metropolitan. The plot is simple: a group of upper class college students on winter break navigate the social waters of New York’s debutante season. Long, puffy formal wear and Upper East Side apartments reflecting late ’80s elegance are screen staples, and an amazing script (written by Stillman) earned this gem of a film an Oscar nomination.

As Metropolitan opens, we see Audrey Rouget (played by Carolyn Farina) running to her bedroom, wearing an over-sized white debutante dress. She feels insecure about the way it fits, and after her mother takes it off her hands in hopes of altering it for the better, Audrey she looks herself over in the mirror. And there you have it: this fair-skinned, short-haired heroine conjures images of Molly Ringwald in the opening scenes of Sixteen Candles. This is our main character, and we instantly like her.

Carolyn Farina as Audrey Rouget in Whit Stillman's Metropolitan

Let’s take a closer look at Audrey’s bedroom decor. If you were a girl in the ’80s, chances are you owned an item from designer Laura Ashley. Maybe it was a dress, maybe it was a pillow, but whatever it was, you were convinced it was the most beautiful dress/pillow in the world. Audrey’s bedding appears to be Laura Ashley’s “Country Rose.” I know this because it was my bedspread too. But my bedroom didn’t house designer framed wallpaper panels and light fixtures fit for a hotel corridor…

Decor from Whit Stillman's Metropolitan

…and nothing says ’80s like a vase of tulips. As Audrey suffers the angst of yearning for a guy who pines for someone else, at least her bedroom elegantly frames her in a warmly-lit pink paradise:

Carolyn Farina as Audrey Rouget in Metropolitan

And then there’s the fashion…

Allison Rutledge-Parisi in Metropolitan

Audrey wears a variety of big-sleeved dresses that she somehow manages to pull off with style. It must be the voluminous short hair and bright red lipstick. But for the rest of us who never should have said yes to long, full skirts, this film provides a glimmer of hope.

Take the dress worn by Jane Clark (played by Allison Rutledge-Parisi). A low neckline allows the wearer to showcase a necklace of her choice, and the bodice displays a ruched fabric with an interesting array of intersecting lines and curves. Plus, the plum hue is divine, especially on Rutledge-Parisi with her dark hair and fair skin.

But if the dress still has too much fabric for your vintage preferences, there’s additional style advice to be taken away from this fine film…

Take the fashion of Cynthia McLean, played by Isabel Gillies. We’ll start with her hair. If more young women in the late ’80s/early ’90s had kept it simple with chic bangs and some strategically-placed bobby pins, there would be far fewer blackmail pictures out there.

We also love the way her half-up/half-down ‘do highlights elegant sparkling earrings, which make an appearance later in the film as well. Although the dress isn’t prominent in the shot below, its thin straps and small black bows just above the bodice are the epitome of girly elegance.

Isabel Gillies in Metropolitan

Oh, and one more thing….this film is FUNNY. There’s a reason the script was nominated for an Oscar. These socialites are very aware of their status, and there’s a humorous fragility in the way they make sense of it, including its potential to change. A cast standout: Chris Eigeman, shown at the far right in the image at the top of the post. Eigeman later appeared in Whit Stillman’s 1998 film The Last Days of Disco, another great flick with ’80s style. Perhaps a future blog post is in store…