Memorable Movie Fashion: Sophia Loren, “The Millionairess”

Today, I'm going to talk about the beautiful Sophia Loren in the 1960 romantic comedy film The Millionairess.

The brief description of the film from Google says,

Millionairess Epifania Parerga (Sophia Loren) has everything she could ever want, except love. So when she meets brilliant Dr. Kabir (Peter Sellers), she decides to add him to her list of possessions. Unfortunately, Kabir is not so easily won and presents her with an unusual prenuptial condition: she must live on only 35 shillings a day for 90 days if she wishes to marry him. Epifania accepts and presents a counter-challenge: Kabir must triple a small investment within the same 90-day period.

Sophia Loren herself is incredibly beautiful. She honestly could make any thing look gorgeous. But thankfully, she had her costumes designed by Pierre Balmain. He designed the clothing in many films (primarily French). He designed some beautiful costumes for Sophia Loren in this film and I will go into her fashion (as well as her hair and makeup) throughout the film! Before I get into this portion of the article though, I wanted to quickly share some fun facts I found on the IMDB page (as well as additional info from TCM) for the film!

1. 20^th Century Fox originally wanted Ava Gardener to play Sophia's role Epifania! But, producer Dimitri De Grunwald insisted on Sophia Loren instead.

2. The film was to be made in 1953 with Katherine Hepburn and Alec Guinness, but the plan unfortunately fell apart.

3. Peter Sallis was going to have a part in the film but his role was never filmed. I was unable to find why this was!

4. Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren recorded a novelty song called “Goodness Gracious Me!” to promote the film. It actually was pretty successful!

Last fact!

5. Peter Sellers fell madly in love with Sophia during the making of the film (despite the fact that he was already married) and remained to have these deep feelings for her for the rest of his life. Sophia was very kind to Peter but, she did not return these feelings as she was married to producer Carlo Ponti.

Now, let's get into looking at Sophia Loren's beautiful wardrobe!

#1

First of all, I apologize that my screenshots will be a bit blurry! Anyways, In the first scene of the film, Sophia's character Epifania is listening to the will of her deceased father. She is wearing a beautiful tight black long sleeved dress with black tights. She has an incredible black veiled hat on with a lot of this think fabric all around the hat. I love her necklace, which is a black choker with some sort of silver charm. Lastly, she was wearing black heels to complete the ensemble. I can see this entire outfit being worn today, with the exception of the hat!

#2

In this scene, Epifania has just got in an intense fight with her husband. This is why her hair is messy and her dress is ripped. She still looks absolutely fabulous though! Her dress is black and shimmery. She accessorizes with black garters, a diamond bracelet, diamond necklace, dangly diamond earrings, and black heels (although she was only wearing one due to the rumble she was just in)

Her hair, despite being a bit of a mess, still looks really great. It was done in a bouffant style. Her makeup is done in typical 60s style. Fairly simple eye shadow, but paired with thick eyeliner, mascara, and natural lips!

#3 

In this next scene, Epifania is attempting to commit suicide as she sees it as the only way to escape her problems. When making this attempt, she meets Peter Seller's character, Dr. Kabir. She is shown wearing a beautiful body-con violet dress with a matching giant sunhat. She also wears an interesting necklace with large violet and gold beads (with a matching bracelet) along with a violet colored clutch. 

Her hair in this scene is down with a slight wave to it, while her makeup remains the same as the scene before. 

#4

 

Epifania now decides to confront her husband and his mistress. She wears a lovely white coat and matching skirt with black tights. She also sports a very interesting hat. It appears to be made from straw with a black veil, black trim, and a daisy! I've never seen a hat like this before! She also wears a necklace made up of large orange beads. Her accessories are fairly simple compared to the diamonds she often is shown to be wearing. 

Her makeup again appears to be the same as how it has been done in the previous parts of the film although her lips are more coral toned. 

#5

 

Epifania is now seeing a psychiatrist in order to discuss her feelings toward her husband and how because she was not able to make him happy, she now wants to learn how to make a man happy. I love her outfit in this scene! She has a beautiful purple collared dress with button detailing and a belt that cinches at the waist. She accessorizes simply with large pearl earrings.

Her hair is gorgeous in another bouffant-esque hairstyle. I was able to take a screenshot of the back of her hair so you can see the detail that was put into making it look so lovely. Her makeup, once again, remains the same!

#6, #7

Next there were two very quick scenes where only get these small glimpses of her ensembles. First she sports this ridiculous yet wonderful pink, feather hat! It also appears that she's wearing a fur coat. Then, she has another fantastically odd hat with pale blue flowers and black ribbon trim. She's most likely wearing another jacket and skirt combo, but this one is a lovely blue! And, of course, a beautiful pearl necklace. 

 #8

  
Here's a behind the scenes photo! Her outfit is very 60s here. A pretty black tight body-con dress with black heels, a white fur shawl, a diamond ring, diamond bracelet, diamond earrings, and a black purse. Her hair is done with pretty light curls on the end. Very classy and very 60s!

#9

I LOVE this outfit! She's wearing a black satin dress with this great matching black satin jacket with white (I'm assuming faux) fur cuffs. She accesorizes with large round black earrings, a three-stranded pearl necklace, and black heels. 

Her hair is lovely in another bouffant style and although her makeup mainly remains the same, it looks as though her lips are more of a light nude shade than the peachy shade she has been wearing in other scenes. 

#10

 

This next outfit is from what appears to be THE most famous scene in the film. Epifania goes to see Dr. Kabir because she wants to buy his building. When coming to see him, the nurse mistakes her for his next patient and tells her to undress. Epifania does so and is revealed to be wearing a black corset and black garters. But, before she undresses, she is wearing this gorgeous peach dress (with bow detailing in the front) with a three-strand pear necklace. Also, in the scene she is wearing a large, white straw sunhat w/peach colored trim, white gloves, white heels, and a white handbag. Her hair is done up nicely in another bouffant style.

#11 

Here she's wearing a beautiful white lace dress with a white fur coat, white handbag, a lovely 3 strand pearl necklace, and a white hat that is similar in style to the cloche hat of the 1920s. I really like this outfit since it uses a very simple color scheme (of just one color), but it stands out since she wore a lot of fancy pieces. 

#12

In this scene, she was simply wearing black lingerie, but her hair and makeup looked so lovely that I simply had to take a screenshot. Her has a lot of volume to it with lovely loose curls at the end. Her makeup remains the same as it has been in previous scenes but it really has a nice glow in this scene. This may simply be due to the lighting, but she really looks stunning. 

#13

This is a relatively quick scene, but she is shown wearing a navy blue wiggle dress with long sleeves. Also, it has a white collar along with white cuffs. She accessorizes with black heels (not seen in the photo), a brooch, and an interesting white veil. Her hair is done up in another bouffant updo and it appears as though she is sporting a nude lip rather than the peachy lip she has mostly been wearing. 

#14

This is one of those outfits that is only shown for a brief moment in a fairly quick scene, but it just looks so well put together and nice. It almost makes me sad to think that they had to plan out and design each outfit perfectly, even if it was only used for a scene that's only about one minute long! But, the outfit still got to be seen by many people. Epifania is wearing a black thin strap dress. This dress is very pretty and flowy and just overall looks so nice. She accessorizes, of course, with a fur coat along with a black three strand necklace, black heels, and she also has a black ring with gold detailing.  Her hair is again up and looks so 60s.

#15

I think this is by far the most memorable outfit in the film, besides her black lingerie. Here she is wearing a full on COMPLETELY leather outfit. Leather hat, leather dress, and a leather purse. The only things not leather were her black heels and sunglasses. I can only imagine how incredibly uncomfortable this outfit was for her! She did look fabulous though. 

#16

 Here, she is wearing a working uniform as she has now gotten a job and pretty much took over a pasta making business. She has on a clean cut, simple mint dress. She also has her hair done in a half up style with a bouffant. This is such a classic 60s hairstyle, I love it!!

#17 

Here, Epifania is wearing a beautiful white lace dress with white heels, a pearl necklace, pearl earrings, and a white hand bag. Her hair is done in a bouffant style, but also with a high ponytail. She is so absolutely stunning! I wish I had Sophia Loren's hair... sigh... 

#18

We have finally come to Epifania's final outfit of the film. In the previous scene, Dr. Kabir basically refuses to marry Epifania. This deeply hurts Epifania and she decides to completely leave behind the world of men and forever live in a Tibetan monastery. Dr. Kabir hears the news of what Epifania is doing, although her wrongly believes she is planning on committing suicide. He then rushes to her where he confesses that he has fallen in love with her after all. Anyways, she is seen here wearing a brown monk robe, although stylishly paired with a white sheer wrap and an incredibly extravagant headdress. Just goes to show that Sophia can make anything look totally stylish!

So there we go! A very long journey through the many wonderful costumes worn by the always beautiful Sophia Loren! At the moment, the movie is still on Youtube, so go check it out!

  

Which style in this film is your favorite? What's your favorite Sophia Loren film? Is there a classic movie character that YOU want me to do an article on? Let me know in the comments below!

All photos found on the following Tumblr blogs:

san-borne

sharontates

sala66

misssophialorens

hollywoodlady

Also, screenshots were taken by me.