15 Favorite Fashion Trendsetting Films
From Pandora’s Box (1929) to Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
to Flashdance
(1983)
Films with Widespread Impact on the World of Fashion
edited by Madelyn Miller, the TravelLady
Movies have long had a pivotal role in setting new fashion trends, while
also serving as inspirations to legions of designers. To assemble its
list, Turner Classic Movies experts used guidance from two great
contemporary designers, Manolo Blahnik and Todd Oldham.
The list
includes such iconic films as Rebel Without a Cause (1955), which featured
James Dean setting a new standard in cool. “Even I had his red biker
jacket,” Blahnik said.
Other films made the cut because of the work
of someone behind the scenes, such as Edith Head, one of Hollywood’s
greatest costume designers. “Edith Head was the first at so many
things,” Oldham said. “She could change a national hemline with her
influential designs.”
Oldham also points out that a movie’s impact
on fashion trends isn’t always immediate, using as an example the exuberant
comedy Auntie Mame (1958). “While not as influential at the time of
its opening, it features one of the most fashionably daring wardrobes on
screen, always worn perfectly by Rosalind Russell. Every fashion
designer knows Auntie Mame.”
Fashion remains an integral part of the
images of many stars. “The greatest leading men and leading ladies all
had distinctive styles,” Robert Osborne said. “Today, we remember not
just the acting skills of someone like Cary Grant – we also know him for his
indelible fashion sense.”
15 Favorite Fashion Trendsetting Films,
listed in chronological order:
Pandora’s Box (1929)
– Louise Brooks once said, “A well dressed woman, even though her purse is
painfully empty, can conquer the world.” That could have been the
motto of Lulu, the role that made her a fashion icon for the ages.
Brooks had been wearing her famous Buster Brown haircut and dressing in the
height of flapper fashion for years, as had many other actresses, but her
sleek hairdo and half-naked beaded gowns were a perfect match for the amoral
charmer in Pandora’s Box. In many countries, the severe black bob is
still referred to as “the Lulu.”
Letty Lynton
(1932) – Joan Crawford and the designer Adrian were a match made in fashion
heaven. The young designer’s work on this 1932 romance about a woman
fleeing a disastrous love affair showed Hollywood just how much influence it
had on the way women dressed. For Crawford, Adrian created a
no-nonsense look that, while maintaining her femininity, accentuated her
athletic shoulders. Letty’s white organdy dress with shoulder ruffles
was copied and sold to more than a million women. And the
broad-shouldered power suits Adrian designed for Crawford created a national
rage for shoulder pads. Little wonder Edith Head once called Letty
Lynton the greatest influence on fashion in film history.
 It Happened One Night
(1934) – When Clark Gable had trouble keeping up the pace while
removing his undershirt in the famous “Walls of Jericho” scene, director
Frank Capra suggested he just remove his shirt to reveal a bare chest.
The scene was so sexy, men stopped buying undershirts, leading to a rumor
that one underwear manufacturer had tried to sue Columbia Pictures. As
if to make up for it, the clothes Gable did wear in the film – Norfolk
jacket, V-neck sweater and trench coat – rose in popularity as men around
the nation imitated Gable. After the film took off at the box office,
Gable decided that trench coats were his good luck charm and wore them in
any film he could.
 Pat
and Mike (1952) – While there really isn’t a single Katharine
Hepburn film that established her impact on fashion, this 1952 comedy about
an athletic coach breaking into pro sports is the perfect embodiment of her
liberating – and at times gender-bending – image. From her arrival in
Hollywood, Hepburn defied convention and, for some, morality by dressing
like a man, claiming her high-waisted trousers, pantsuits, men’s shirts and
loafers were simply more comfortable. The look fit the feisty,
independent characters she played to perfection, revolutionizing fashion by
freeing women for more active lives with a greater range of choices.
So great was her influence that, in 1986, the Council of Fashion Designers
of America honored her with a special award.
Rear Window
(1954) – The meeting of clotheshorse Grace Kelly and legendary
designer Edith Head was sure to produce fashion magic. This Alfred
Hitchcock classic established Kelly’s understated elegance, which stood in
stark contrast to the florid, oversexed Hollywood designs of the ‘50s.
With Kelly perfectly cast as a fashionable socialite, Head was able to
create haute couture designs that didn’t seem out of place for everyday
wear. From a pale green skirt suit with unfitted jacket to the floral
print dress with multiple crinolines, the designs taught working women of
that time how to be chic. Kelly’s little square overnight bag even
prefigured the “Kelly Bag” that Hermés would eventually name for her.
Rebel Without a Cause (1955) – Fashion would have been the
furthest thing from Jim Stark’s (James Dean) mind when he donned a t-shirt
and red jacket for a night of trouble. Thanks to Dean’s smoldering
presence in Rebel Without a Cause, however, the two items became essential
fashion for any self-styled rebel. Filming in color, director Nicholas
Ray and costumer Moss Mabry decided that a red jacket, not brown, would help
the character stand out. Some sources credit Dean with the idea.
Regardless of who thought it up, though, the red jacket became, as Variety
editor Robert Hofler has described it, the symbol of “a generation’s
despair.”
And God Created Woman… (1956) – When
Brigitte Bardot sunbathed wearing neither clothes nor the slightest hint of
self-consciousness in And God Created Woman…, a new kind of sex symbol was
born, a sexual rebel whose free-wheeling approach to romance anticipated the
hippie era of free love. When she did wear clothes, though, she had
the wardrobe to match. The long-ignored bikini became an international
sensation. The ballet flats, cotton gingham beach dresses and open
necklines (the latter dubbed “the Bardot neckline”) that captured her sense
of abandon onscreen were soon the rage. And her tousled, up-swept
hair, dubbed choucroute (sauerkraut), remains the height of casual elegance.
Auntie Mame (1958) – When John Galliano debuted his
new line for 2009, the combination of zany colors, exaggerated silhouettes
and exposed undergarments had many commentators crediting Madonna as his
inspiration. But The New York Times’ Sameer Reddy placed the influence
earlier – on Rosalind Russell’s over-the-top costumes in the 1958 Auntie
Mame. Russell’s Mame Dennis lives and breathes fashion (some
commentators have suggested the character resembles Vogue editor Diana
Vreeland). Although not very influential at the time, Australian-born
designer Orry-Kelly’s innovative and daring wardrobe for Mame has since gone
on to impact collections and inspire young people to take up careers in
fashion.
 Breakfast
at Tiffany’s (1961) – When Audrey Hepburn ate a Danish
while gazing at a Tiffany’s window, the little black dress she wore became
the crown jewel in any woman’s wardrobe. Created by her favorite
designer, Givenchy, it highlighted her slight figure with simple, straight
lines. That wasn’t the only fashion influence exerted by this classic
1961 comedy, one of the last films made with a sense of old Hollywood
glamour. As ticket sales soared, so did sales of triple-strand pearl
necklaces, sleeveless dresses and oversized sunglasses. But it is the
little black dress, dubbed by Manolo Blahnik as “Divine!” and recently
auctioned off for $900,000, that established a new standard for elegance
that endures even today.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967) –
Initially, Faye Dunaway wanted to wear slacks in Bonnie and Clyde, arguing
that she’d need mobility for the getaway scenes. When she got a look
at Theodora van Runkle’s assembly of printed scarves, pencil skirts, knitted
sweaters and bias-cut dresses, she not only changed her mind, the one-time
model altered her entire approach to fashion, once saying “… until I met
Theodora, clothes ... had just been part of the job.” Thanks to the
anti-establishment comedy-drama, the “gun moll look” took off, triggering a
resurgence of ‘30s retro chic. Even the lowly beret – once the sole
property of Frenchmen and struggling poets – became a hot fashion item.
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) – When Steve McQueen traded
in his usual casual duds for tailored suits in this sexy 1968 caper film,
the British Invasion hit U.S. menswear in a big way. Top English
tailor Douglas Hayward created an assemblage of three-piece suits with
two-button jackets and suppressed waists that captured the character’s
affluence and set off the star’s lean frame to perfection. Even the
accessories – from his $2,250 Patek Philippe pocket watch to the blue-lensed
tortoise shell Persol sunglasses – were meticulously chosen to create a
timeless image of opulence. Although British menswear had already been
showcased at the movies before, it was this film that brought it to American
stores and continues to inspire such designers as Ralph Lauren and Tom Ford.
Shaft (1971) – Considered the first “blaxploitation”
film, Shaft mirrored the rise of urban chic among young, working-class
African-Americans. Former model Richard Roundtree’s wardrobe in the
film captured the sleekness and empowerment behind the new styles.
Three-quarter-length leather jackets and leather pants combined with
turtlenecks and other tight knits made him a fashion icon, the ultimate “sex
machine to all the chicks.” Almost 30 years later, Giorgio Armani
would draw on the look with a collection inspired by the release of the 2000
remake.
Annie Hall (1977) – Diane Keaton didn’t
have to go far to help create a look that changed women’s fashion in this
Oscar®-winning comedy; it originated in her own closet. Her eclectic
style – mismatched pieces of oversized men’s wear, from floppy hats to baggy
chinos, with a Ralph Lauren tie as the coup de gras – sent women running not
to boutiques but to the neighborhood thrift shop. It also triggered
the renewed popularity of women’s slacks on a par with the craze created in
the ‘30s by Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn. Designer Ruth
Morley was not sold on the idea initially and tried to nix it. But
when Keaton showed up for shooting, director Woody Allen insisted, “She’s a
genius. Let’s just leave her alone. Let her wear what she
wants.”
Saturday Night Fever (1977) – The ultimate
fashion icon of the ‘70s was not of some charismatic actress or famous
model. It was John Travolta in his white disco suit, pointing to the
heavens in the poster for Saturday Night Fever. He originally wanted a
black leisure suit until designer Patrizia von Brandenstein explained that
white would catch the disco lights and help him stand out from the crowd.
Stand out he did and, for one of the few times in fashion history, men came
to the fore. The film inspired a flock of polyestered peacocks in
form-fitting clothes with electric colors, open collars and a medallion
dangling from the neck. With a pair of platform shoes and a generous
application of styling mousse, it was the birth of a new type of glamour
designed for working class kids who blew off steam at the local dance club.
Flashdance (1983) – When the sweatshirt Jennifer Beals
wanted to wear as welder-by-day/dancer-by-night Alex Owens shrunk in the
wash, a fashion craze was born. Designer Michael Kaplan had to cut off
the top just to get it over her head, and the image it created on the film’s
poster swept the nation. Activewear was in, but not the kind worn on
the playing field. Combining torn sweatshirts (specially cut by
manufacturers) with leg warmers, spandex pants, headbands and hi-tops,
Flashdance fashion made young women everywhere feel as if they were headed
to the nearest dance studio. And the feeling is coming back today as
the ‘80s revival has generated new interest in the film, its leading lady
and her trend-setting look.
Madelyn Miller is a travel and food writer who loves to watch vintage
movies. She collects vintage clothes, or at least saves favorite parts of
her wardrobe so long they become vintage. The film that most influenced her
wardrobe was Flashdance--she still has lots of torn T-shirts. And although
she has been practicing since the film came out, she still can't dance.
Consider her a dance bunny.
Read her stoires on www.travellady.com,
www.carladynews.com,
www.yogayaya.com,
www.cocktailatlas.com,
www.chocolateAtlas.com,
www.coffeeAtlas.com,
www.TeaAtlas.com
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