From the A-line skirts and chunky jewelry to the sky-high pumps and even taller hair, the fashion of the “The Help” brought the ’60s to life on screen.
Offscreen, it evoked more emotional memories for Greenwood residents who got to dress for the era as an extra.
“It really hit close to home for me,” said Lisa Melton of Greenwood.
Around the time of filming, Melton and her family had been cleaning out her grandmother’s house. What they found looked a lot like the costumes from the film.
“The styles, the hemlines, the fabrics,” Melton said, “my goodness, it was exactly the same.”
Melton’s grandmother had kept photos and clothes, lots of them, from when she was a young woman in the ’60s.
“I didn’t know these clothes even still existed,” Melton said. “It made me think we shouldn’t be so quick to dispose of them.”
Melton suspected the movie producers found clothes to use as costumes thanks to people like her grandmother who had kept them for all those years.
“My grandmother kept everything,” she said. “It was a part of her generation because she grew up during the Depression and would stockpile stuff.”
Although Melton didn’t need to don her ’60s garb to be reminded of her grandmother, she enjoyed being transported by in time by the clothing and its memories.
“It was so fun,” she said. “My grandmother always wore heels, she always wore skirts and she always wore stockings.”
Yes, stockings.
The look for the movie was true to the era — right down to those nylons, which Melton said were hot and uncomfortable in July and August when she filmed.
“I can just remember my grandmother wearing her stockings, even if she was just going to grab something at the store,” Melton said. “I can’t believe she wore them in this kind of heat.”
Women of the era, and extras for the movie, both knew about suffering for fashion thanks to those Mississippi summer temperatures.
Hairy situation
When Dixie Kelly was young, she thought her mother was crazy for wrapping her hair in “toilet paper.”
“Now, I know why she did that,” Kelly said. “Apparently, she wasn’t the only one.”
For the movie, Kelly had one of the tallest beehive hairstyles on set — if not the tallest.
“Even if I end up on the cutting room’s floor and you don’t see my face on screen, you will see my hair floating above the crowd in the banquet scenes,” Kelly said, with a little laugh.
For hair and makeup the first day of the banquet scene, Kelly said it took an hour or more to get ready.
“It took about 45 minutes for them to tease my hair so they could pull it up into a beehive,” she said.
And once it was up, her hair was up. The female extras were told not to wash their hair or take it down until the scene had been filmed. For the banquet, that meant extras had to keep their hair styled for six days.
“You would sleep in your hair, go out in your hair, just do everything in that one hairstyle,” she said.
The women were given hair nets to wear to help keep everything in place. And before each day of filming, they would get a little touch-up.
“I would make a beeline to my girl,” she said. “It became a sense of pride.”
Everyone’s hair also had to look identical from day to day since it was for the same scene.
“The women who did the hair were artists, and they took it very seriously,” Kelly said. “It was a work of art with hair.”
With her hair done, not only did Kelly think of her mom, but she also saw her when she looked in the mirror.
“Oh, my goodness, I thought I was staring at my mother,” Kelly said. “I have always been told I look like her, but with the heavier eyebrows and the hair, it was unreal.”
Some of the hairstyles worn by the extras included bull horns, beehives and bouffants.
Bling of the past
Making a movie, the costumer has to think beyond just the clothes. The accessories also had to be considered.
“There was a lot of pearl jewelry and rhinestones,” said LaNelle Tollison, owner of Lynbar Jewelers in Greenwood and an extra in the movie.
All of the pieces either had to be vintage or look vintage to fit in with the ’60s fashion.
Tollison said the jewelry for that time period was heavier and less tailored than today’s popular looks.
“They used a lot of large stones, the bracelets were wide and the necklaces were shorter,” she said. “They also had true cocktail rings.”
In the banquet scene, Tollison also noticed a lot of chandler-style earrings.
“The jewelry was really true to that time, and they matched it to the scene,” Tollison said. “They knew what they were looking for.”
Although most of the jewelry was brought with the crew, Tollison’s father’s watches are worn in the movie.
“That is really special for me,” she said. “It is nice that he could be a part of this, too.”
Tollison’s store was one of the first places in Greenwood where Chris Ubick, the movie’s prop master, began looking for jewelry.
“She said they needed some watches,” Tollison said. “When I got mine out, she said they were perfect.”
Her father’s watches were 14-carat gold Accutron watches from the era.
“My son saw the movie and said you could see their leather bands,” Tollison said.
When Ubick couldn’t find quite what she was look for, Tollison came to the rescue again.
Tollison helped design a custom engagement ring for the character Skeeter Phelan, played by Emma Stone. In the book, Stuart Whitworth gives Skeeter the ring.
Men of the movie
While the women’s clothing and hair stands out and up more, the men also had to get a new look.
The biggest change was on their heads.
The movie contracted with Legends Salon and Spa in Greenwood to get the shorter do.
April Yates, who did a majority of the men’s hair, described the haircut as short on the back and sides and long on the top, so it could be combed over.
The men even used the old-fashioned Brylcreem when it was styled, according to Yates.
To learn how to do the cut, the movie crew brought a packet of pictures.
“They were yearbook pictures that they had found,” she said.
Yates said some of the men were a little apprehensive about getting a shorter cut.
Paul Lyon was among those after his nephew told him of the major cut for the movie.
Lyon, who typically keeps his hair longer than other men his age, said by the time they finished with his haircut, they could have made a wig.
“It reminded me of my dad,” said Paul Lyon of his haircut.
It was a bit cooler for those summer months, and he said it did make him look a bit younger. But the overall response he said was either laughter, mostly from co-workers, and compliments.
Melton, whose husband, Floyd, was an extra, really liked the men’s clothes because it was more fitted than today’s look.
“I told Floyd that I wished they still sold pants like the ones he wore for the movie,” she said. “The men just looked so nice.”
While Melton and her fellow castmates enjoyed being transported back in time, they were glad to return to their normal clothes.
“It just took so long to get ready; we don’t have time for that,” she said. “But it was neat getting to wear those clothes and spark those memories of our parents and grandparents.”
• Contact Andrea Hall at ahall@gwcommonwealth.com.
