During the film, I could not help but to watch how the costuming replicated the mood of Helen. In the beginning when she is nude, it represents the idea of Helen as a fairy. Then she is in very motherly outfit: an apron and dress, as she attends to her child and duties around the home. But once she must become the seductress, her outfits reflect this too. A hat carefully covering one eye to show that she is hiding a part of herself, the large coat to display her previous successes. All of these play into the role she is playing. When she brings her costume home, it is the sign that she has shifted away from mothering and into supporting her family as a man would. The glamor of the costume brings about a feelings that the world she is in is too small for her to be a part of. When Helen eventually turns her son over to her father, she is again in motherly clothing. These clothes are tattered, covered in patched, and simply awful to see a woman in. This is symbolic of her mothering technique. Its gone downhill. She can no longer care and provide for her child like she thought she once could. In Paris, her singing outfit is a suit. No longer in dresses and frills, Helen herself has turn cold and is supporting only herself, much like a man who would wear such a power suit. She has abandoned her roles of  motherhood.  Her return home, she is at the door in a luxurious coat. But she sheds it when she tells Johnny the loves story. Here again she is wearing a simple dress, completing her journey and ending it again as a mother.