In Praise of ... Rebecca

Such taste, such style, such beauty. We can only imagine what she looked like, but Daphne Du Maurier's 1938 novel and Hitchcock's 1940 film always leave me yearning for a glimpse of Rebecca, the first Mrs. de Winter, who gets this week's Great Underestimated Fashionistas of Fiction Award.




Yeah, yeah, by the end of the story we're supposed to view Rebecca as a lying, cheating bitch. Maybe she was, but maybe that's just Maxim's view. He's a bit shady himself. Like his fellow romantic figures in the pantheon of English Lit (I'm looking at you, Mr. Rochester. You too, Mr. Darcy), Maxim de Winter is a little douchey. The way he snaps at, dismisses and condescends to his second wife, I'm guessing Rebecca did not brook that nonsense. What if she was a bitch? To paraphrase Tinay Fey: bitches get stuff done. That ginormous estate wasn't going to run itself, you know. Rebecca was confident enough to keep that Danvers in check and she clearly had healthy self-esteem with the gigantic "Rs" etched, engraved. monogrammed and embossed on everything, marking her territory and announcing herself to the world. If her meek successor had a bit of gumption, she'd have saved herself some grief and maybe dealt with Danvers before she could pull a Left Eye. Just saying.

Tipping Point: Due to the success of this film in Spain, the specific jackets that Joan Fontaine wears during the film began to be known as "rebecas". The word "rebeca" is still used nowadays to refer to this item of clothing. Source: IMDb.