Falling for Vertigo: 1950s Fashion and Alfred Hitchcock’s San Francisco

Yesterday was our Greater Bay Area Costumers’ Guild Falling for Vertigo: A Toast to Alfred Hitchcock’s San Francisco event. We had a wonderful time attending a guided tour of the Georgian portraiture at the Legion of Honor (an iconic Vertigo filming site), a nod to the fictional “portrait of Carlotta” that appeared in the film. Afterwards, we visited historic Fort Point, the location where “Madeleine” throws herself into San Francisco Bay, to explore the Civil War-era fort and behold the spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin Headlands. Our day ended with drinks and dinner at the Presidio Social Club (and for some of us, the Top of the Mark).

Thank you to everyone who supported the event! Everyone was impeccably dressed in their 1950s and 1960s day wear! Vertigo costumer Edith Head would’ve been proud:

I wore my teal Bettie Page Clothing Rita dress with a vintage fur hat and cashmere/fur coat from the early 1960s. Oh, and a vintage faux-patent leather purse!

Our Vertigo Locations:

• GBACG’s Falling for Vertigo event page
• Vertigo Then & Now – Basichip.com’s before and after images of various San Francisco locations used in the film
• San Francisco’s Legion of Honor Museum was our primary location
• Lights! Camera! Action! Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo at the Legion of Honor
• Maps and driving directions to the museum – Limited street parking is available
• Public transit (Muni) options
• Free parking and free park admission are available at Fort Point, which is not too far from the museum
• Official Top of the Mark website
• Getting to Top of the Mark/Mark Hopkins Hotel/Nob Hill

Vertigo and Costume Links:

• GBACG’s Falling for Vertigo event page
• Vertigo Screenshots – Useful images presented by Alfred Hitchcock Fans Online
• Vertigo at Wikipedia
• Vertigo at IMDB
• My Edith Head article
• Edith Head Papers – Presented by the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
• Edith Head and Kim Novak – Information and an interview with Kim Novak on the costuming in Vertigo
• Designing Women: Modernism in Hollywood Costume by Sandy McLendon – Includes a section on Edith Head’s designs
• Saul Bass on the Web – A tribute to the artistic genius of Saul Bass, Vertigo’s title designer
• Women’s Fashions of the 1950s – Presented by Costumegallery.com
• 1950s Costume Links – At Thecostumersmanifesto.com
• Pinup Girl Clothing – A variety of midcentury-inspired women’s clothing
• Bettie Page Clothing – ready-made women’s fashions based on designs from the 1950s