Photo © Abe Frajndlich. Used with permission
Every so often I’m lured into watching a movie for no other reason than its catchy title.
In the 2022 film, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, the Cinderella trope is turned on its head. There is no prince and no fancy ball, just a hard-working British housekeeper with spunk and a lot of heart who falls in love with a Christian Dior dress she sees in the wardrobe of one of her employers. This employer, a woman who reeks of privilege at its worst, could be a variant of any evil stepmother.
Why a working-class woman becomes determined to get herself a Christian Dior dress speaks volumes about the ways in which our culture feeds desire.
It’s post-war London, 1957. Ada Harris has only just learned that her husband was killed (no longer missing) in action during the war. She understands what it means to a woman of a certain age, invisible.
At the same time, her desire touches on the intrinsic place of fashion in our cultural landscape. . .
