50 new things in 2023, part 13/50

[kindkit]

I got lucky with the thirteenth new-to-me thing: Fashions of 1934, a just-barely-pre-Code movie starring William Powell as a charming con artist and Bette Davis as the artist and designer who helps him launch a new scheme: pirating Paris fashions as soon as they hit New York. The collapse of this plan sparks another new plan, and so on, until Powell finds himself the owner of a Paris fashion house and the crimes have expanded from piracy to forgery, blackmail, and several varieties of fraud. It's all very light-hearted, helped along by a brisk run time of 1:17 including a Busby Berkeley musical number. Lots of fun and some stunning 1930s fashions, too.

It's streaming (in the US) on HBO Max if you feel like watching it.

Comments

[sovay]

pirating Paris fashions as soon as they hit New York. The collapse of this plan sparks another new plan, and so on, until Powell finds himself the owner of a Paris fashion house and the crimes have expanded from piracy to forgery, blackmail, and several varieties of fraud.

This is a pre-Code I have not seen and it sounds delightful! Thank you for the heads-up.

[oursin]

Huh: I was wondering if that was based on Elizabeth Hawes' Fashion is Spinach - Hawes got her start in fashion going to Paris couture shows and then furiously scribbling down the designs from memory afterwards so they could be pirated by US rag trade - but that was 1938. Sounds fun though!