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Iconic look: Eva Marie Saint’s black rose dress in North by Northwest (film, 1959)

"He was very protective of me—especially when I was wearing that black dress with the red roses." — Eva Marie Saint on Alfred Hitchcock, 1999

1959. Chicago.

Eva Marie Saint, as the spy Eve Kendall, wore a black silk cocktail dress scattered with wine red roses. It was a dress for a woman with a secret.

Eva Marie Saint in a black silk rose dress in North by Northwest (film, 1959) — Eva Marie Saint as Eve Kendall in her black rose dress, *North by Northwest* (film, 1959)

The film

North by Northwest (film, 1959) is a spy thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Cary Grant played Roger Thornhill, a New York advertising man mistaken for a government agent.

On a night train to Chicago, Roger Thornhill met Eve Kendall, a cool blonde stranger. She hid him from the police and flirted with him over dinner.

What he did not know was that she was the mistress of Phillip Vandamm, the spy who wanted him dead, played by James Mason. And Eve Kendall had a secret of her own.

Five years earlier, Eva Marie Saint had won an Oscar as Edie Doyle in On the Waterfront (film, 1954). Edie was a shy dockworker's daughter in plain clothes.

Hitchcock wanted a very different woman.

"I wanted her dressed like a kept woman—smart, simple, subtle and quiet," he explained. "In other words, anything but the bangles and beads type."

Eva Marie Saint as Edie Doyle in a plain coat in On the Waterfront (film, 1954) — Eva Marie Saint as Edie Doyle in *On the Waterfront* (film, 1954)

The dress

The dress was made of heavy black silk, scattered with wine red roses. The bodice was narrow and fitted, and drew in the waist. The neckline was round.

Below the waist, the skirt opened wide and full, and it swung when she moved. At the back, the dress dipped into a deep V.

It was not a studio costume. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had designed a wardrobe for her, but Hitchcock did not like it. He threw out almost everything.

Instead, he took his leading lady to Bergdorf Goodman, the elegant department store on Fifth Avenue in New York. Models walked past them, one after another.

"Tell me only what you really like," Hitchcock told her.

She fell for a black dress with roses.

"Wrap them up for Eva Marie," he said.

So the dress came straight off a Bergdorf Goodman model, not from a studio sketch. Who designed it is not known.

Years later, Saint still smiled at that shopping trip. "He never would have said that if he hadn't agreed with it," she said. She was sure he had done his homework, and the models showed nothing he would not have chosen himself.

Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue, New York, 1950s — Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue, New York, in the 1950s

Every outfit had a job in the story. Hitchcock planned them like scenes:

"I suggested she be dressed in a basic black suit (with a simple emerald pendant) to intimate her relationship with James Mason; in a heavy silk black cocktail dress subtly imprinted with wine red flowers, in scenes where she deceived Cary; in a charcoal brown, full-skirted jersey and a burnt orange burlap outfit in the scenes of action."

The rose dress was the dress of deception.

Close view of the fitted bodice and red roses of Eva Marie Saint's black silk dress in North by Northwest (film, 1959) — The black rose dress, *North by Northwest* (film, 1959)

The finishing touches

With the dress, Eva Marie Saint's pale blonde hair was set in a smooth, coiffed shape by Sydney Guilaroff, MGM's famous hairdresser. William Tuttle did her makeup, and Hitchcock watched over every detail.

The look seemed effortless. It was not. "It took hours and hours and hours to get the natural look," she said.

She and Sydney Guilaroff made a deal. At lunchtime, instead of eating, he put her hair up to keep it perfect.

The story

Eve Kendall wore the rose dress in her room at the Ambassador East hotel in Chicago. That afternoon, she had sent Roger Thornhill to a lonely road in Indiana, where a crop-dusting plane tried to kill him.

Now he was at her door, alive.

For a moment, a Bergdorf Goodman label flashed inside her open purse.

Eva Marie Saint in a black rose dress with Cary Grant in a hotel room in North by Northwest (film, 1959) — Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant in the Chicago hotel scene, *North by Northwest* (film, 1959)

That evening came the art auction.

Eve Kendall sat very still in her rose dress. A man's hand stroked the back of her neck. It belonged to Phillip Vandamm.

Roger Thornhill arrived and stood behind her. Over her head, the two men traded polite, cutting remarks about her.

Eva Marie Saint in a black rose dress between James Mason and Cary Grant at the auction in North by Northwest (film, 1959) — Eva Marie Saint between James Mason and Cary Grant in the auction scene, *North by Northwest* (film, 1959)

Off camera, the dress had a little story of its own.

On the day of the auction scene, the set was full of extras. Still in her gown, Eva Marie Saint went to get herself a coffee in a styrofoam cup.

Hitchcock stopped her. "What are you doing, my dear?"

"Getting myself a cup of coffee."

"No you don't—not in that gown. You must have someone get your coffee in a china cup with a china saucer."

And somebody did.

Alfred Hitchcock and Eva Marie Saint in the black rose dress on the set of North by Northwest (film, 1959) — Alfred Hitchcock and Eva Marie Saint on the set of *North by Northwest* (film, 1959)

Eva Marie Saint had trained at the Actors Studio, where the work starts from the inside. But for her "sexy spy lady," she said, "the look was so important."

Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint on the set of North by Northwest (film, 1959)

She lived to 102, and she never forgot the man who bought her the dress.

"I never had a sugar daddy before Hitch," she said. "I never had one after."