This spring all I have wanted to wear is romantic white dresses. I do wear other pieces, but if I had my way I'd probably have an entire closet of white dresses with puffy sleeves, lace inserts, and ground-skimming hems. If there's one film that speaks to this style while also being filled with the nostalgia of my younger years, it's Tuck Everlasting. (Long before sparkly vampires were popular, we had this movie about a handsome young immortal named Jesse living in rural Treegap.) Set in an idyllic countryside we are treated to sweeping panoramas of untamed nature and pastel Edwardian lawn dresses. Watching it makes me want to buy even more white dresses, a candy-colored parasol, and straw bonnets. Throughout the film we see Winnie struggling between her more wild, untamed desires and the reserved, contained upbringing she is accustomed to. This is illustrated through the film in the very literal dichotomy of her parent's fenced and manicured estate and the wild frontier she explores with Jesse. Her style expresses the same tension; around home she is corseted and bound in restrictive gowns, but as she explores the world outside of her home we often see her more undone in looser, gauzy dresses that allow her more literal freedom of movement. Her hair is similarly always in place and often covered by a hat when she is "in society" but when in nature her hair hangs loose or in a relaxed braid. Strikingly as well when we see her in one of the final scenes where she has made an important decision, her style is a marriage of the two elements. She wears a lacey blouse that wouldn't look out of place in her explorations with Jesse, but pairs it with a heavier skirt. Winnie has made peace with both sides of herself and life itself; she's found a comfortable balance embracing an exuberance for life without turning her back on society or natural laws. Style wise, I find the greatest appeal in Winnie's "wild" look. Perfectly imperfect curls, delicate and slightly destroyed white dresses with drooping ribbons and the occasional flower crown.
CONVERSATION