I couldn't help but notice that everything in Miss Brodie's world is grey except her. The walls of the school, the children's uniforms, even the hair of the women at the head table! Miss Brodie almost always wears some kind of orange to complement her hair, or purple, all of which stands out in every scene. A wonderful tip to her over-the-top romanticism, trapped in a world of grey.
shareA bit like in Harold and Maude, when Maude crashes a funeral when it's raining, everybody else has a black umbrella, hers is bright yellow.
shareI noticed that too. Miss Brodie wears vivid bright colors, to which Miss Mackay comments on Her colorful frock. Even Her Hair has more color in it.
shareRemember the story takes place in the Great Depression. Furthermore, most people in Edinburgh still heated their homes with incredibly inefficient coal-burning open fireplaces, and that alone could make the city look drab. It was a very clever move to make Miss Brodie colorful.
shareEdinburgh was also beset with fogs from the North Sea.
Not at all difficult to understand the town's nickname - Auld Reekie!
It translates as old smokie, roughly, meaning the smoke from the chimneys of houses and a few factories. That didn't change until the 60's.
I thought there might be more to it than that, something to do with the Character's Personality. You know She's so lively, Flamboyant, and extroverted. so therefore She wears the bright loud colors, when Everyone else, I'm talking about the other Teachers, not the Kids since they all wear uniforms, are wearing more darker conservative colors, to indicate they are more conformist. If I was to pick sides of which Character I agree with, it would be Miss McKay, the Headmistress.
shareWell, having lived in the capital, and knew types vaguely similar to Miss Mackay, narrow-minded, morally superior in tone, judgmental, and lacking in humour, I rather think you would run for the town's exits faster than a sled on the Cresta Run if you ever had to live near someone like Miss M.!! Not a bad woman but best kept at a distance, and a far distance at that!
shareSomething else I noticed was that during the school assembly at the beginning of the movie, all of the faculty except for Miss Brodie are wearing their black academic gowns, and Miss McKay was still in hers when she visited Jean's classroom.
shareGuess you are right.
At my school in the 60's, about 85% of our teachers always wore their gowns in class, but at assemblies, prize-givings, all gowns worn by teachers were mandatory. The tails of the masters' gowns came in useful at times when a pupil was slow to answer, getting a swipe over the head!