Women Must Dress is a breezy relic worth a look

Is it worth your time?

If you have a soft spot for 1930s B-movies that move at a clip and don't care about being 'important,' then yes, Women Must Dress is a fun hour. If you need grit, realism, or a complex script, keep walking. This is for the folks who like their cinema light, quick, and full of people wearing hats indoors.

The whole premise starts with a thud. Our protagonist gets dumped, and it’s one of those movie divorces where the husband runs off with someone younger before you can even blink. It’s handled with such a lack of gravity that you almost wonder if they’re going to address it at all.

Then, the shift happens. Suddenly, she’s a fashion mogul. It feels like a jump cut from 'sadness' to 'tulle and silk,' which is honestly the kind of pacing I prefer in movies like Go Get Him.

The Fashion Stuff

The actual dressmaking scenes are the best part. There’s something strangely hypnotic about watching these old sets filled with fabric swatches and pins. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Secrets of Hollywood, even if the stakes here are strictly about hemlines.

Minna Gombell is doing a lot of heavy lifting. She has this way of looking at a sewing machine that makes you think she’s solving a math equation. It’s not Oscar-level stuff, but it’s human.

Small things I noticed:

• The background extras in the shop scenes are barely pretending to work. There’s one guy in the corner who just moves the same hanger back and forth for like three minutes.
• The lighting in the second act is surprisingly moody for a movie about retail.
• There is a door that squeaks every single time it opens. Did nobody have an oil can?

It’s not as manic as It's in the Bag, but it has a similar 'let’s just get through this' energy. The dialogue isn't exactly sharp, but it flows well enough. Sometimes you just want to watch a movie where the biggest tragedy is a dress that doesn't fit right.

It gets a little repetitive near the end, and you can definitely tell when they ran out of ideas for the plot. Still, there’s a lightness to it that’s rare. You don't feel like you're being preached to. You’re just watching people make clothes and try not to be miserable. Honestly? That's enough for me today. 👗