Cast members in New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House are responsible for assembling their own costumes — costumes that approximate what party goers in 1960 would have been wearing that night at Grandma’s House.
The styles most closely associated with the 1960s, loud, Hippie-inspired looks, had not happened yet in 1960. Styles that year still harkened back to the 1950s. Men were wearing ties and white shirts along with pleated front pants. Ties had shrunk to approximately two inches wide after narrowing throughout the late 1950s.
Women’s dresses looked formal by today’s standards but seemed casual at the time compared to some styles that had come before them. The level of casual dress we practice today was unheard of in 1960 America. Even attending a party with family was a dress-up occasion, as you’ll see here looking at the pictures from the actual Smaldone family New Year’s Eve party that inspired the play (see left column here).
So cast members are searching for appropriate attire. Some have even bought patterns and are making party dresses. Men’s ties have already been crafted from ties of today.
It’s all about carrying you back in time to Dec. 31, 1960, to a little Brooklyn, N.Y., brownstone for New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House.