Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

Jul 27, 2022

Because I’m going to France in a few weeks, and because I love fashion and small movies, I decided to go see this film about a cleaning woman in the 1950s who gets some money and decides to go to Paris to “buy a frock” by Dior. A series of mishaps ensue and each one is more unlikely than the other, including the trope (one I particularly despise) about the stranger in town becoming the savior of a group of people who didn’t need her in the first place.

The movie gets a lot wrong, both about fashion, mixing Dior’s New Look with more old-fashioned dresses, and about history. It makes it seem as if Dior was broke, when, in fact, he was wildly successful in the 1950s because he had licensed his name to all sorts of products (perfume, most notably; I am partial to Diorissimo, which is a lily of the valley scent). He died in 1957. In the 1940s, Dior presented one of the first fashion shows after the war and a lot of French people were horrified that he would do something so frivolous when so many French people (not the Jews, the Jews were dead or gone) were hungry and struggling. However, he, rightly, insisted that fashion was a major aspect of the French economy and so he was putting many people (mostly women) to work. Because I know all of this, most of the storyline regarding him and his workers seemed absolutely incorrect to me (although I haven’t fact-checked, so I could be wrong).

Also, quite honestly, it didn’t even seem like this film was shot in Paris. There is one scene along the Seine, but it was not sensational.

In the story, Mrs. Harris is struggling and lonely, and she believes only a dress will save her, not, you know, moving out of her basement flat that looked like apartments my friends used to have when we were in our 20s. Also, it’s not fashion that actually saves her. I don’t want to give away any of the plot because there are a lot of surprises, but an hour in, I turned to my mom, who was with me, and said, “here’s the ending” and I was exactly right. Fortunately, my mom talks loudly in movie theaters being from Brooklyn and all, and so that is the best part of going to a movie with her: talking about it while it’s happening.

Some of the dresses in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris.

A worthwhile read. Catherine Dior, Christian’s sister, was a French resistance fighter. The Gestapo arrested and tortured her, and she was sent to Ravensbruck, a horrific women’s concentration camp.

Last week, when I was in New York City, I went to the exhibit of Balenciaga and Dior at the Museum at FIT. Seeing the dresses up close is always remarkable because they truly are works of art and skill. Haute Couture is nothing like even the best pret-a-porter and when you compare these gowns, suits, and dresses to the Madewell dreck so many of us buy, you realize why it’s worth it to spend money on quality. So, rather than see the movie, go to the city and see this exhibit, or, better yet, go to Paris!