Summer’s the best time to find a new romance: The nights are longer, the weather is warmer, and everyone wants to stay out later and get in on those SUMMER MAKEOUT VIBES. Summer love may cool off with the weather come September, but our love for these movies never will. Here are four of my favorite movies with hot looks for hot romances in hot weather.
In The Graduate (1967), Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) is a student fresh out of college and home for the summer. Like many young folk, Benjamin doesn’t know what the hales he wants to do, except float around in a pool ALL DAY LONG. Exactly what I want to do all summer! One night after a party he gives the wife of one of his father’s colleagues a ride home. Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) seduces Benjamin and they begin a very scandalous affair. Perhaps you have heard this famous song by Simon and Garfunkel? Just when you think things couldn’t get more escandalo, Benjamin falls in love with Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine! What a tangled web you are weavin’, boy! Mrs. Robinson is one CHIC seductress, and her style is as glamorous as you’d expect. This is a lady who, like me, never saw an animal print she didn’t endorse. Get her look with an assortment of leopard-print garments and a smoky eye.
The first time I watched The Notebook (2004), it was Valentine’s Day and I was riding solo. I ordered a heart-shaped pizza for myself (ROMANCE) and holed up in my bedroom so my eyes could sweat freely in private. I haven’t watched it since, because I’m afraid my heart (and mascara) won’t be able to take it again. The movie is about two young hotties—rich girl Allie (Rachel McAdams) and not-rich guy Noah (Ryan Gosling)—who fall in love one summer but are separated by Allie’s parents, who don’t approve of the relationship and forbid them from seeing each other. Allie goes off to college and Noah goes off to fight in World War II, but they can’t stop thinking about each other. This movie is where everyone’s torch for the Gos became lit. Then he had to go and become the world’s hunkiest hero and it was over for us all. Rachel even fell for him while they made this movie. Since most of it takes place in the 1940s, her character wears the sweetest vintage dresses.
In The Seven Year Itch (1955), Marilyn Monroe plays an actress living in an apartment building also inhabited by a married man whose family is away for the summer. He finds himself tempted by his attraction to her, and the movie is filled with his fantasy scenes. This is the film with that iconic scene where Marilyn’s white dress is blown up by a gust of wind coming through the subway grates. Macy’s has this amazing Marilyn Monroe clothing collection out right now, and it is the perfect way to get some of Marilyn’s style for yourself. They even have a dress that looks like the one in the film! Wear it with bright red lipstick (and maybe some bike shorts, just to be safe).
My Summer of Love (2004) is about two teenage girls (Emily Blunt and Natalie Press) from disparate backgrounds who meet by chance one summer and spend the rest of the season sharing secrets and falling intensely in love. Their style is ideal for these balmy days: colorful bikinis, jeans, and cute shorts. Find your own casual summer steeze with one of these pretty little bikinis from Delia’s, and get ready for your own summer of love.