I have written before about the importance of clothing as it relates to identity, but I'd like to revisit the topic from a slightly different angle. All About Eve has always struck me as effective in its use of costume as a means of developing the dynamic between young upstart Eve Harrington and her idol/target, established stage actress Margo Channing.
Women are still enacting this drama, all over the world, in various milieus, and at all ages. It has been famously said that women don't dress for men, they dress to be annoying to other women -- and it's true. Women carry on a sort of psychological warfare with one another through their clothing, and while the outcome is often relatively harmless (when the competition is mild and silly), there are instances that take on a far more sinister cast.
In AAE, budding actress Eve mimics Margo, the very competition she wishes to eliminate. Birdie Coonan, Margo's friend and assistant, explains, "she's studyin' you, like you was a play or a book or a set of blueprints. How you walk, talk, eat, think, sleep--" Visually, we realize that Eve imitates Margo through clothing, as well. We see her wearing one of Margo's hand-me-downs, she holds Margo's period costume against her body while gazing in a mirror, she wears an evening dress that's similar to Margo's during the famous party episode, etc. It's as though Eve were putting Margo on, like a second skin, trying to become her.
This sort of thing happens in real life... and it's just as annoying, and just as scary. Why, you might ask, would the antagonist/copycat wish to become the "carbon copy you read when you can't find the original," as Eve unwittingly reveals? Simple. It's because she is not an original -- in any way. She cannot be original because, in spite of critic Addison De Witt's statement to the conniving Eve, "There never was, and there never will be, another like you," the fact is, there are plenty of Eves out there, as we see at the end of the movie, when "Phoebe" starts to "do one" to Eve as Eve has "done one" to Margo.
The Eve type is ambitious, yet soulless, and therefore cannot possess originality, as originality can only spring from substance; simply, there is no there there. So, in order to surpass the original, she must out-Herod Herod, and she'll often do this in the easiest, most obvious way -- through the outward trappings of your personality, namely, your clothing/style. You will find the Eve type stealing a glance at your shoes, or an unusual piece of jewelry, or feeling the fabric of your dress, without saying a word about the coveted item. Or, she might compliment you on it, buy an exact replica, and then pretend she never knew you "had one just like hers." Either way, she will make it her business to acquire (a version of) your wardrobe, and you will eventually notice this. And it will annoy you to no end. And that's when you find yourself in the middle of a competition you had no thought toward entering, particularly if you are not the competitive type. Yet, now, you feel the need to (re)establish your own you-ness, and that, of course, is frustrating, as it ought to be wholly unnecessary.
And really, that is part of the Eves' game, tho' perhaps even they don't know it. By pushing you to (re)assert your selfhood, they have forced you to enter the competition, and, in so doing, you make them relevant. They are now relevant in your life, and therefore, in their own lives, which were once (and really, still are) so empty. This is a simulation of a life, but to them, it's as good as real, as they are only a simulation (of you), themselves. They now feel that there is a there there.
The feelings that they have created in you and themselves amount to a semblance of substance. The competition, and all it entails, has given them something to live for. This is all they can manage, really, because they are incapable of anything deeper. If their inner lives were rich, they wouldn't need the drama in the first place. If they were comfortable in their own skins, they wouldn't need to steal costumes. As it is, however, they will always be play-acting, even after all others have quitted the stage, and the audience has left the theater.
Women are still enacting this drama, all over the world, in various milieus, and at all ages. It has been famously said that women don't dress for men, they dress to be annoying to other women -- and it's true. Women carry on a sort of psychological warfare with one another through their clothing, and while the outcome is often relatively harmless (when the competition is mild and silly), there are instances that take on a far more sinister cast.
In AAE, budding actress Eve mimics Margo, the very competition she wishes to eliminate. Birdie Coonan, Margo's friend and assistant, explains, "she's studyin' you, like you was a play or a book or a set of blueprints. How you walk, talk, eat, think, sleep--" Visually, we realize that Eve imitates Margo through clothing, as well. We see her wearing one of Margo's hand-me-downs, she holds Margo's period costume against her body while gazing in a mirror, she wears an evening dress that's similar to Margo's during the famous party episode, etc. It's as though Eve were putting Margo on, like a second skin, trying to become her.
This sort of thing happens in real life... and it's just as annoying, and just as scary. Why, you might ask, would the antagonist/copycat wish to become the "carbon copy you read when you can't find the original," as Eve unwittingly reveals? Simple. It's because she is not an original -- in any way. She cannot be original because, in spite of critic Addison De Witt's statement to the conniving Eve, "There never was, and there never will be, another like you," the fact is, there are plenty of Eves out there, as we see at the end of the movie, when "Phoebe" starts to "do one" to Eve as Eve has "done one" to Margo.
The Eve type is ambitious, yet soulless, and therefore cannot possess originality, as originality can only spring from substance; simply, there is no there there. So, in order to surpass the original, she must out-Herod Herod, and she'll often do this in the easiest, most obvious way -- through the outward trappings of your personality, namely, your clothing/style. You will find the Eve type stealing a glance at your shoes, or an unusual piece of jewelry, or feeling the fabric of your dress, without saying a word about the coveted item. Or, she might compliment you on it, buy an exact replica, and then pretend she never knew you "had one just like hers." Either way, she will make it her business to acquire (a version of) your wardrobe, and you will eventually notice this. And it will annoy you to no end. And that's when you find yourself in the middle of a competition you had no thought toward entering, particularly if you are not the competitive type. Yet, now, you feel the need to (re)establish your own you-ness, and that, of course, is frustrating, as it ought to be wholly unnecessary.
And really, that is part of the Eves' game, tho' perhaps even they don't know it. By pushing you to (re)assert your selfhood, they have forced you to enter the competition, and, in so doing, you make them relevant. They are now relevant in your life, and therefore, in their own lives, which were once (and really, still are) so empty. This is a simulation of a life, but to them, it's as good as real, as they are only a simulation (of you), themselves. They now feel that there is a there there.
The feelings that they have created in you and themselves amount to a semblance of substance. The competition, and all it entails, has given them something to live for. This is all they can manage, really, because they are incapable of anything deeper. If their inner lives were rich, they wouldn't need the drama in the first place. If they were comfortable in their own skins, they wouldn't need to steal costumes. As it is, however, they will always be play-acting, even after all others have quitted the stage, and the audience has left the theater.
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