Mode
Iconic look: Lauren Bacall's white shirt in Key Largo (film, 1948)
One hurricane, one white shirt, and a husband on screen and off.
In Key Largo (film, 1948), Lauren Bacall, as the young widow Nora Temple, wore a white shirt with rolled sleeves, a full pleated skirt, a wide belt and a pair of Spanish espadrilles laced at the ankle.
The film
Key Largo (film, 1948) is a crime drama directed by John Huston for Warner Bros. It was based on the play Key Largo (play, 1939) by Maxwell Anderson.
The army veteran Frank McCloud, played by Humphrey Bogart, comes to a hotel in Key Largo. He visits the family of a friend who served under him and died in the war in Italy. They are his widow, Nora Temple, and his father, James Temple, played by Lionel Barrymore.
A hurricane is coming. The gangster Johnny Rocco, played by Edward G. Robinson, and his men take over the hotel. In the end, Frank McCloud kills the gang one by one at sea, and heads back to Key Largo, and to Nora.
Florida was only on the screen. The film was shot almost entirely at the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California, where the hotel and the beach were built on the backlot.
Claire Trevor won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Rocco's girlfriend, Gaye Dawn.
The shirt
The shirt was white and tailored, with a pointed collar, buttons down the front and one pocket on the left breast.
Lauren Bacall wore it with the top buttons undone and the long sleeves rolled up to the forearm. On a hot island, with a storm on the way, it looked natural and easy.
The skirt
The skirt was full and pleated, fitted at the waist and flaring out to mid-calf. It was made of wool, and it had deep side pockets, where Nora often slipped her hands.
The accessories
On her feet, she wore flat espadrilles with rope soles, laced at the ankle. They were practical shoes for the wooden piers and the sand.
A wide black belt with a large rectangular buckle marked her waist, between the soft shirt and the full skirt.
The story
The wardrobe was credited to Leah Rhodes, the Warner Bros. costume designer who had also dressed Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep (film, 1946).
Frank McCloud's clothes matched Nora's almost detail for detail. He wore a white shirt with a long pointed collar, its sleeves rolled up and its top buttons open. With it came high-waisted pleated trousers and a leather belt.
The two stars fell in love on screen, and they were husband and wife in real life. Lauren Bacall had married Humphrey Bogart in 1945. Key Largo was the fourth and last of their films together. The others were To Have and Have Not (film, 1944), The Big Sleep (film, 1946) and Dark Passage (film, 1947).
Five years later, Audrey Hepburn wore a very similar white shirt, wide belt and full skirt in Roman Holiday (film, 1953). Audrey Hepburn’s white shirt was the shirt of an innocent young princess. Lauren Bacall’s white shirt was the shirt of a woman who had lived through grief and hardship.
That white shirt was also Lauren Bacall’s only outfit in the whole of Key Largo. Worn with a full skirt and a pair of espadrilles, it carried so much emotion and so much story. It was a poignant choice for a crime drama.
