Aaron Gabaldon Paper

7/28/2019 Aaron Gabaldon Paper

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Aaron Gabaldon

The Art of Film

Steerman

Essay

Costumes inMeet Me in St. Louis

With his light brown derby and his bright green tie, He was quite the handsomest of

men. I started to yen, so I counted to ten, then I counted to ten again. Clang clang clang, went the

trolley. Ding ding ding, went the bell. Zing zing zing, went my heartstrings. From the moment I

saw him, I fell. A musical about falling love and staying together as a family, Meet Me in St.

Louis follows the Smiths throughout the year before the opening of the St. Louis World Fair in

1904. The family consists of Alonzo, the patriachial father; Anna, the loving mother; Katie, the

house maid; Grandpa; Rose, the eldest daughter; Esther, the love-struck main character; Lon, the

eldest brother; Agnes, the troublemaking middle sister, and Tootie, the youngest. The movie

begins to center on Esthers love life as her interest in John Truett, The Boy Next Door, starts

to blossom into a relationship, then to the familys dismay, Alonzo announces his promotion and

plans to pick the family out of their St. Louis roots and replant them in New York City. As the

family begins to accept that this is their last year in St. Louis, the love between Esther and John

grows and as Alonzo begins to realize that the move would break the familys heart, he

reconsiders and decides that the only home that the Smiths will ever have is St. Louis. He seals

this by saying the line Were gonna stay right here, were gonna stay here till we rot.

The movie leaves the viewer knowing that having those you love around you is all that

really matters in life. The movie creates the atmosphere a musical should: one of joy and

optimism, where the viewer feels like one could step out into the real world and move into song


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at a moments notice. One of the reasons the movie is so successful in drawing the viewer into

the world of 1904 St. Louis and the life of the Smiths is its dynamic use of costumes and color

cinematography. Each character and scene is set up with a color motif that effectively brings the

audience into the period and underscores the main themes of family and love. The color of the

costumes convey to the audience emotions and characteristics of each character. Esther,

especially, has costumes that give impessions of what she is feeling.

In the scene, The Boy Next Door, Esthersings quietly to herself while gazing out the

window of passion for John Truett, who at this point she has never actually meet. While

longingly staring at his house, Esther wears a dress made up of light blue and white vertical lines

broken up by a white belt and white tie at the collar. The color light blue in this sequence

represents Esthers youth. As a young teenage girl, she has yet to experience anything that a

woman has and is still, in the eyes of her family, a girl of innocence. The next scene reinforces

blue as a child-like color, when Agnes comes in from playing wearing a dress that is entirely

blue. Esther is in the transitional period between adulthood and childhood; represented by the

white stripes breaking up the pattern of blue, white representing her aging and the wisdom that

comes with being an adult. The deep red that makes up her lipstick and the rouge on her cheeks

represents her desire to be an adult and not just a teenager, as well as her desire to fall in love.

Her ruby lips create the idea that she is ready for kissing passionately and because rouge is

supposed to create the illusion of a flush in the face, it shows her readiness to feel the romantic

emotions that would lead her to blush.

Color plays an important role in the party sequence also. The idea of overcoming

childhood by falling in love is reintroduced when Esther and Rose are getting ready for the party.

Rose, the eldest who seemingly could not care less about love, wears a yellow-tan dress with a


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lacy collar and a brown belt at the waist. Esther is dressed in baby blue again, with a white slip

finishing her hair. As Esther sits at the mirror, she tells her older sister of her plans to allow John

to kiss her. Esther replies, Esther Smith! Nice girls dont let men kiss them until after theyre

engaged. Men dont want the bloom rubbed off. Esther answers in almost a meloncoly tone,

Personally, I think I have too much bloom. Maybe thats the trouble with me. The dialog ue

centers on Esthers feelings about doing what it takes to allow herself to fall in love and to make

sure John will fall in love with her as well. Rose, who has more experience with boys and has

gone through all of the things Esther is going through, has a different outlook when it comes to

love. The yellow-tan color of her dress represents her naivety fading and her becoming more

maternal and womanly. The lace collar shows her delicate womanly nature starting to be

established, (Mrs. Smith wears a lace collar throughout the movie), while Esthers yellow tie

represents her gradual change from naive young girl to experienced young woman. When Esther

finally makes her way down to the party, Johns blue dress jacket and white pants enhances the

idea that Esther and John are on the same level in their youth where they are ready to fall in love,

so, naturally, they are paired using the color of their costumes. The use of Johns hat in the

sequence also shows significance to the plot. Esther uses his hat during the Cakewalk and then

stashes his hat in the breadbox. His hat symbolizes the piece of him she covets and wants to get

to know. As he comes to Rose to inquire about his hat, Esther retrieves his hat and reluctantly

gives it back to him.

The most recognizable sequence of the entire movie focuses on Esthers trip on the St.

Louis trolley to see where the Worlds Fair is going to be held. As Esther sings of her love for

John in the popular Trolley Song, she is surrounded by many colorfully dressed women, each

with a different colored dress that represent the emotions she feels during the ride. The blue once


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again represents her feelings towards being young but ready to be in love. The green represents

her anticipation for John to get on the trolley car and be with her. The pink represents her

budding feelings for him, which began from the very first moment she saw him. The red shows

the possibility of those feelings deepening over time. In addition, the purple shows the

embarrassment she feels when he catches her proclaiming her excitement to be with him. This

sequence pulls the viewer in by giving emotional cues similar to the many one feels during a

budding romance.

As the movie progresses and summer turns to autumn and autumn to winter, Esther and

Johns relationship strengthens and grows as well. On Halloween, Tootie and Agnes find

themselves outside causing trouble as kids back then did on Halloween. The mischief Agnes and

Tootie create causes Tootie to get hurt in the process. Tootie screams and the family run to her

attention. In pain Tootie exclaims, It was John Truett, he tried to kill me. Esther immediately

responds in disbelief exclaiming, Tootie Smith thats a monstrous falsehood, because she is so

eager to believe that her John would never do such a cruel thing. The hair in Tootie s hand is the

evidence that convinces Esther that John had to have done it, so she flies over to his house in a

rage and attacks him. After returning to the Smith house, she finds out John did not actually hurt

her sister and was, in fact, protecting her. She whirls back to his house in a panic to apologize to

him. After he accepts her apology, he kisses her passionately. In this sequence, Esther is wearing

a combination of baby blue and red. The blue makes up her blouse, which is ripped in her

struggle with John when she attacks him in the name of her injured sister. The bottom of her

outfit is a passionate red. The blue shirt represents the hope that John is innocent of the crime he

is accused of and her lack of experience with love and relationships. The rip in her blouse

represents the metaphorical rip in her affection for John when she believes that he is the monster


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who harmed her very sister. She expresses her hope for his innocence and the damage done to

the image of him she holds in her heart when she says, John Truett wouldnt hit a girl, least of

all my sister. After the mess is sorted out and John turns out to be the knight and not the villa in

in the scene, the red of her skirt represents the passion between the two coming to a head in the

kiss shared between them. A kiss so full of red passion that when Esther comes out of it she is

bewildered and dazed, so dazed she mumbles, Youve got quite a strong grip, for a boy, and

continues into her house with the stars in her eyes still twinkling. The red doubly represents her

rage and her crush hurting one her own sisters, and the infatuation that is sealed with the power

of their kiss at the end of this sequence.

As Esther and Rose enter their last dance in St. Louis, they have a grand plan in mind to

get back at Lucille Ballard, the woman who managed to wreck Lons and Roses evening.

Esther, having lost her date to the dance, has agreed to help Rose in her plans. However, when

Lucille comes onto the screen, she immediately takes control of the situation and alters the

couple pairings so that everyone is happy. Since the plan was already in motion to get back at

Lucille, Esther has to take the punishment that she has crafted for Lucille. Since John was unable

to attend the dance, while her and Grandpa are dancing John surprises her by cutting in on the

dance with Grandpa and sweeps her off her feet. Later in the sequence, he proposes to her so that

they can find a way to be together. During these scenes, Rose wears a green dress, Esther wears a

red dress, and Lucille wears a yellow dress. Roses color scheme in this section of the movie

alters from tan-yellow earth tones to green to represent the envy and immaturity that she is

displaying. Rose is envious of Lucille because her beau Warren asked her to the dance instead of

Rose. The color represents her immaturity because Rose reverts to childish behavior, much like

that of Agnes and Tootie, by playing games in order to feel superior to Lucille. Rose concocts a


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scheme in which Esther fills out Lucilles dance card with the untouchables from St. Louis.

Esthers entirely red outfit in this scene represents her transforming into a woman and her ability

to know reason and think as one, even though she is completely in love with John at this point.

As he proposes to her, she begins to realize that their lives will not be lived to fullest if they get

married at such a young age. She truly loves him but takes a step back from her feelings and says

John. Even if I did go to New York, we could still work something out somehow. Couldnt

we? She understands that she needs to be with her family, and even though it would break her

heart to leave John, her family needs her more to help with the transition from their old life to

their new one. Lucille wears the color that has been featured on Rose throughout the movie. Rose

from the beginning prides herself on her maturity, commenting on how at my age youll find

there are more important things than boys, but in this scene, the tables have turned on Rose

because she know she is acting childish and Lucille is the voice of maturity. Lucille quickly

interrupts the wrong pairings and fixes what she knows no one wants regardless to how the event

has been planned. The colors of the three main women in the sequence show their levels of

maturity and emotion.

As the movie culminates and the blossoms of spring bloom, the movie ends at the St.

Louis World Fair. Right before the taxi ride begins, the taxi driver asks where to? Tootie

excitedly exclaims The Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The scene moves over the crowd of

fair-goers in many different outfits. The Smith family women are outfitted in white and the men

involved are wearing neutral brown colors. The colors represent the purity of the moment. The

family has a pure love between one another, and Esther has reached a level of maturity by falling

in love with John that she has never known before. Because of this maturity, she is able to

recognize how lucky she is to be able to live where such a wonderful event is taking place. She


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exclaims, right where we live, right here in St. Louis. And the movie fades to black. The

togetherness of the Smiths is demonstrated by the uniform colors scheme to their outfits and it

comes across to the viewer that the family is inseparable and happy.

The colors of the costumes in Meet Me in St. Louis act almost as a facilitator of the

emotions and ideas of the character in each particular scene. From the beginning of the movie,

Esther is supposed to come across as a young girl transitioning into womanhood and yearning for

love, and the bright colors that compose her wardrobe help communicate the idea from the movie

world of St. Louis to the real world. Roses need to look mature, while still being somewhat

childish is shown through her wardrobe as well. Keeping her wardrobe a less nave and youthful

color, Rose comes across as older, wiser and uncaring when it comes to finding love, even

though somewhere beyond her faade it is plain to see she is still young and in need of romance.

The brightly colored outfits in this Technicolor world act somewhat as a bridge between that

period and ours, and allow the surreal musical world of 1904 St. Louis to be closer to us that

would have been possible without the convincing environment. The outfits help to convey

emotions that keep the themes of the movie in the subconscious of the viewer. The bright hues

trigger the associations that are often paired with those colors, baby blue with youth and love

with bright red, this greatly enhances the movies ability to bring the view into the artificial world

of the Smiths.

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