OverDressed for Life

Mom and me sporting our Ali MacGraw knit caps.

When the film Love Story came out in 1970 my mom was all about Ali MacGraw. She loved her effortless sense of style, particularly her long hair and the knit cap she sports in the movie.

I once heard that the cap MacGraw wears was actually her own. For the exterior winter scenes the film’s director had MacGraw and co-star Ryan O’Neal go out and play around in the snow. MacGraw grabbed her own warm cap and I think in those days costuming/styling was less controlled, so it stayed and consequently helped make the actress a fashion icon of the 1970s. (She even made it twice into Women’s Wear Daily and again as Fashion Moment #45 in their 2011 One Hundred Years commemorative edition.)

“Not everyone could pull off that look,” Mom says now. “It was kind of funky.”

Ali MacGraw looking funky-chic in her knit cap.

The following year, Mom found a pattern in a magazine for a similar cap. Ah ha, she thought, Christmas presents. A one-time avid knitter, Mom set herself to stitching knit caps for all of us. I was just a kid at the time, but I got several and have hung on to two. Now they fit nice and snug, as they should.

In those days knitting in the round was not the done thing. Mom knit straight and sewed the back. She used a diamond stitch pattern which shows up nicely on the head. My favorite part is the little point at the top.

I treasure these caps and wear them occasionally on winter walks in the park. Thanks, Mom.