Isabella Rossellini on Her Mother Ingrid Bergman?s Enduring StylePosted by oneal on August 7th, 2015 “This is how I look, take it or leave it,” said the Swedish film star Ingrid Bergman, perhaps the first natural actress of the Golden Era. (When the film producer David Selznick suggested a Hollywood makeover — change her name, pluck her eyebrows and fix her teeth — right before her debut in 1939, she refused.) This year, Bergman’s legacy will be honored in a centennial celebration opening at the Museum of Modern Art on her bittersweet birthday, Aug. 29, which is also the day she died at age 67 in 1982. The 14-film retrospective spans Bergman’s 50-year career, including her starring roles in “Casablanca” and Hitchcock’s “Notorious.” In 1950, she married the Italian director Roberto Rossellini, with whom she had three children. When asked about her mother’s style now, her daughter Isabella Rossellini chuckles. “She once created a big scandal because they asked her what designer clothes she would wear, and she said ‘I seldom wear them, they’re so expensive,'” Rossellini says. “Mama always said the truth, she couldn’t really lie.” Bergman always wore flat shoes (high heels hurt her back), sported minimal makeup and kept a simple wardrobe in a time when Hollywood was drenched in glamour. She wore a slim-tailored skirt, a button-down blouse and a brimmed hat in “Casablanca,” which touched upon her personal style: “She was always very practical and down to earth,” says Rossellini, who will introduce the film at MoMA with her half-sister Pia Lindström on Sept. 5.
After World War II, Bergman wore pants and shorts in Europe. “I think it was absolute revolution, especially in Italy,” says Rossellini, who will also introduce her father’s film “Stromboli” on Sept. 6. “It wasn’t what it is today, with Armani and Dolce & Gabbana.” Bergman also shot her own family films, as well as behind-the-scenes footage on the sets of “Stromboli” and “Journey to Italy”; they will screen on Sept. 12 as part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s two-week Bergman tribute coinciding with the centennial. Rossellini and actor Jeremy Irons will take the stage to show unseen silent footage, read unpublished letters and excerpts from her out-of-print autobiography “Ingrid Bergman: My Story.” “I don’t remember my mom ever having a stylist doing her wardrobe,” Rossellini says. “Now, everyone has a stylist on staff. I couldn’t believe it; I just discovered that about a month ago. I was stunned.” Her mother wore beautiful dresses to award ceremonies, sure — “but it was not what it is today, where what you wear to present your film is almost more important than the film itself,” Rossellini says. “My mother was not a fashion icon; she was still an icon. One never has to go through torture to be accepted as one.” Rossellini has followed in her mother’s footsteps — both as an actress and more literally. Despite the widely publicized high-heel dress code, Rossellini wore Stella McCartney flats on the red carpet at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where Stig Björkman’s documentary “Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words” premiered. “Mother gave me the courage not to wear high heels,” Rossellini says. “Elegance is an expression of not only of one’s taste but how you want to live your life. When I see high heels, I think: ‘That person is a fashion victim.’ I think that comes from Mama.” Like it? Share it! More by this author |
