Phantom Thread Breakfast: A Lifestyle Inspiration

As the Oscars approach, we’d like to take a minute for “Phantom Thread”—one of our favorite nominations from 2018 and a stunning film.

We love the flick for many reasons: the cinematography (the rolling hills, the vintage Rolls Royce on the country roads), the styling (Daniel Day Lewis’ silk neck scarves, the winding staircase of his home and atelier, the flushed cheeks of his muse, Alma, when they first meet, the clothes, the *gowns*, the silks) and the food.

Phantom Thread is, in many ways, a film about food. Yes, of course, Woodcock’s clothes (loosely modeled on Balenciaga) are about as stunning, layered, and feminine as a dream; and yes, we would give anything to style our EC@Home products against the pale pink silks, and deep velvets he concocts in his home atelier.

But – the food – this is where we really gasp with delight.

The best scene of the entire movie is the one in which our hero (if we can call him that) meets his muse, over the most decadent, outlandish, and iconic breakfast we’ll ever encounter.

His order?

“Welsh rarebit with a poached egg on top, not too runny, and bacon, scones, butter, cream, jam (not strawberry), pot of lapsang and some sausages.”  

Has a doper breakfast order ever existed?

This breakfast is followed by many lovely, sinister, and Britishy snippets – from Woodcock’s daily ritual of morning tea and sketching in his breakfast parlor over scones, to Alma’s methodical stirring of the wild mushrooms which set DDL into a demure (if feverish) haze.

And of course there is the weekly dinner that Woodcock has with his sister at the charming bistro down the road, where everyone dresses to the nines to enjoy their red wine, filet mignon, and pot de creme, before retiring for a cigar and brandy. If this is life in the 1950s, we are *here for it*.

The movie is a celebration of a lifestyle – which is as decadent as it is edited. As this year’s Oscar Ceremony approaches, we’re thinking about how to live more stylishly, intentionally, and devilishly.