Rear Window Grace Kelly - the Wardrobe Fit for a Princess
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Rear Window Grace Kelly - the classic fashion she wears in her role as Lisa Fremont before becoming a real-life princess.
Rear Window is the second movie that Grace Kelly collaborated on with Alfred Hitchcock. During the shooting of their third movie, To Catch a Thief is where she met and then later married the prince of Monaco.
Grace Kelly’s clothes in the movie play a large role in showing her character in the film. Her job is never mentioned but she seems to be a model or somehow otherwise connected to the fashion industry.
The clothing that she wears also serves to emphasize the difference between her character and her boyfriend Jeff (James Stewart.)
She is refined, polished, perfect, wearing evening gowns for a dinner-in. Jeff on the other hand is a sports photographer who likes to travel. He’s unkempt (well as unkempt as the 1950’s allow) scratches underneath his cast and likes to collect interesting things that he finds on his travels.
It’s no wonder he thinks she’s too perfect for him...he complains about it to everyone, and her clothes help create that image. It isn’t until she joins him in the adventure of trying to catch a guilty murderer next door that he realizes they might get along after all.
This post is all about Rear Window Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly Rear Window Movie (spoiler alert!)
Rear Window is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s better known films from the 1950’s earning an 8.4 on IMDB.
Grace Kelly plays the stylish Lisa Carol Fremont, the girlfriend of L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries (James Stewart).
When Jeff breaks a leg in a photograph accident, he is wheelchair bound and stuck looking outside his rear window for entertainment...sound familiar for the 2020’s? A major difference between his lockdown situation and the covid-19 lockdown is that he didn’t have Netflix and TikTok to entertain himself.
So, he does the next best thing: snoop on the neighbors and get involved in a murder case.
He even gets curious enough at intervals to pull out his binoculars to get a closer look. He knows all of them and has nicknames for all the neighbors.
Well, he doesn’t know them personally but he’s been watching them for so long that he has nicknames for all of them.
There is Miss Lonelyhearts, the single lady across from him who pretends that she is having a date... A songwriter in the corner unit writes beautiful music and throws glamourous parties….then there is the jewelry salesman the neighbor that becomes the suspect and also the only neighbor who we find out his real name: Lars Thorwald played by Raymond Burr.
Jeff knows the neighbors so well by this point by watching them constantly that he takes notice with the jewelry salesman begins acting strangely.
Knowing them so well, he takes notice when one of them the “jewelry salesman” played by Raymond Burr begins acting strangely. He is sneaking out in the middle of the night and then suddenly his wife who used to nag at him has disappeared.
He suspects a murder, but since he can’t really do much being in a wheelchair, this is where he needs Lisa’s help to find out more details.
At first she isn’t convinced of the neighbor’s guilt until she witnesses him acting strangely. She is excited to help out and their adventure helps theme overcome their differences and in the end they actually begin to get along together.
This movie is worth the watch if you’re a major Hitchcock movie fan, James Stewart fan, or a Grace Kelly style fan, or maybe all the above! But, as a word of caution, if you’re not used to classic movies this movie does start out very slow.
Seriously. For literally the first forty minutes of the film all we see is James Stewart watching the neighbors, getting a back massage and trying to scratch an itch beneath his cast.
Of course, everything gets better once Grace Kelly shows up and the storyline starts to develop.
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Rear Window Grace Kelly Style
The stylist for the film was the famous Edith Head, the famous fashion designer who won eight Academy Awards for her work.
She often collaborated with Hitchcock on his films, including Rear Window, The Man who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, The Birds, Marnie, Torn Curtain, and Topaz.
The styles she created for Grace Kelly’s character Lisa helped create her image of a perfect Hitchcock Blonde.
She’s perfect. She’s well-mannered and polite. As her character Lisa Fremont in Rear Window says: “if there’s one thing I know, it’s how to dress.”
Two of the dresses Grace Kelly wears in Rear Window are classic 1950’s style dresses with the fitted waistline and the full skirt. She does break the mold though with her stunning green suit topped with a pillbox hat, and a classic little black dress that would still be a classic today.
The only casual outfit we see is at the very end of the movie and is one of our favorites. Her choice for a casual outfit consists of jeans, a red blouse tucked in at the waist, and a pair loafers.
Yes, it’s casual, but it’s still classy and timeless.
Rear Window Grace Kelly Dress #1
The Rear Window movie has a very slow start. If you haven’t seen it yet, be prepared to see James Stewart’s character getting a back massage, rolling around in his wheel chair, snooping on the neighbors, and even trying to scratch an itch beneath his cast.
In start contrast, in when Grace Kelly’s character Lisa Fremont comes over for dinner she’s wearing a dress with a black v-neck and full white skirt, typical of 1950’s styles.
He even comments on her style “Is this the same Lisa that doesn’t wear the same dress twice?”
“Only because it’s expected of her.” She replies with a smile.
She accents the dress with a simple strand of pearl earrings, white gloves, and her trademark red lipstick.
Rear Window Grace Kelly Dress #2
The next dress Grace Kelly’s character Lisa wears is a black dress with sheer sleeves. At this point of the movie James Stewart’s character is obsessed with the neighbor next door who he says is suspicious.
She is frustrated with him for watching the neighbors through his binoculars. Until at one point she freezes and begins watching the neighbor herself.
Rear Window Grace Kelly Green Suit
When Lisa returns again this time she is wearing a pistachio green skirt suit, topped with a 1950’s style pillbox hat.
Again, she’s accessorized it with pearls, red lipstick and stud earrings. As well as gloves and a jingly pearl bracelet.
She takes off the jacket to show a white halter top and white belt around the waist. We’re not sure which way we prefer the outfit.
By this time she believes Jeff’s theories about the neighbor and they try to convince one of Jeff’s friends who is a detective to look into the neighbor.
The detective doesn’t buy the story, he’s a bit of a creeper who spends more time checking out Grace Kelly then actually listening to what she has to say.
Rear Window Grace Kelly Negligee
For her sleepover at Jeff’s house, Lisa packs a negligee of course. Not sure if we can imagine her in boring silk pajamas.
After she changes she models her negligee for Jeff which she had proudly pulled out of a tiny suitcase that she also showed him to demonstrate how she really is low-maintenance.
We’re not sure if he buys the low-maintenance part but he seems to like the negligee all right.
Rear Window Grace Kelly Dress #3
By this point, the movie is really starting to speed up and get suspenseful.
Lisa is excited to help out, and even sneaks into the Lars Thorwald’s apartment to try to find evidence.
Jeff is able to see her in the apartment as well as a nail-biting moment when he also sees Lars Thorwald come back into the apartment and find her there.
For her errand to climb up into the neighbor’s apartment she’s wearing a white dress with gold embroidery on it.
It’s this show of gumption on her part that makes him realize that maybe they could get along after all.
He also seems to realize how much he cares about her when she’s put in a dangerous position by being caught snooping inside the murderer’s home.
Grace Kelly Style Casual
In a climatic scene, the neighbor Lars Thorwald had figured out who was watching him and came over to Jeff’s apartment.
There is a struggle where Lars attempts to push Jeff from his wheelchair out the window.
He ends up catching himself and hanging but ends up falling and breaking his other leg.
So in classic Hitchcock-style humor, the last shot of him we see him with both his legs in his cast instead of just one.
Lisa is also seen in her only casual outfit of the movie. She’s pretending to read a travel book, but after she makes sure that Jeff is asleep she then switches to reading a fashion magazine.
The camera pans slowly over her, starting with the loafers she’s wearing, up to the blue jeans, then we see the red blouse that she has tucked into her jeans.
The perfect weekend look. She still has her hair perfectly styled like always, but no other jewelry and only a smudge of red lipstick.
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3 Insanely Chic Ways to Copy Grace Kelly Rear Window Jeans Outfit
This post was all about Rear Window Grace Kelly
What did you think of Grace Kelly’s fashion in Rear Window?
What was your favorite style? Did you like her casual style or her fancier dresses?
Other posts you might like:
To Catch a Thief Grace Kelly - 10 Elegant Outfits You’ll Love
Grace Kelly’s 1950’s Fashion in Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder
