CINEMATIC FASHIONABILITY AND IMAGES POLITICS
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Table 1
Iconic Movie Stars (1910s-1980s)
Decade
Actor/Actress portraying fashion trends
in films
Notable iconography
1918 Theda Bara in Salome Black eyes and red lips.
Mid-1930s Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind
Fitted business suit (Gone with the Wind).
When Clark Gable changed clothes in It Happened One Night (1934),
he was not wearing an undershirt; immediately following release of
the film, undershirt sales dropped dramatically. Later, in Idiot’s
Delight (1939) he appeared in an undershirt to help improve sales.
1930s Fred Astaire in Top Hat Tuxedo.
1930s
Marlene Dietrich /Greta Garbo/Joan
Crawford
Unisex, geisha, dancer.
Female body as a lethal weapon.
1930s
Jean Harlow/Claudette Colbert/Carole
Lombard/Loretta Young
Gentlewoman and the Lady.
1940s-1950s
Gary Cooper/Humphrey Bogart in
Casablanca
Unruly and dissoluted (Gary Cooper).
Trenchcoat (Humphrey Bogart).
1950s
James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause
and Marlon Brando in The Wild One
501 T-shirt, leather jacket, chinos, jeans (James Dean). This style was
the originator of street fashion and the prolocutor of rebellion; it also
symbolized self-realization and a longing for freedom.
Levi Strauss jeans, Perfecto Bronx jackets originating from WW2
military uniforms (Marlon Brando).
1950s
Veronica Lake/Katharine
Hepburn/Grace Kelly/Marlyn Monroe
High-waisted pants, mixed masculine-feminine style (Katharine
Hepburn).
Females appeared more masculine.
1960s
Gregory Peck/Aubrey Hepburn in
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Grey business suit (Gregory Peck).
“Little black dress”, glasses, hat, pearls, trench coat (Audrey
Hepburn).
Lighter lips and darker eye makeup.
Hubert de Givenchy, the most celebrated costume designer in
Hollywood history, created the costumes under the supervision of
Edith Head.
1960s Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde
Bob-style hair, beret, midi, bra-free (Faye Dunaway). This style was
chic, as well as a distinctive symbol of women’s liberation, sex
appeal, female independence, and boldness.
1960s Yippy Culture in Easy Rider
Long hair, dyed handkerchiefs, inwrought collars and wristbands,
shiny accouterments, edging fanon.
Suffering from the ongoing trauma of the Vietnam War, most
American youth escaped from and protested against the social system
by pursuing alternative cultures and life styles; yuppies also advocated
for nature.
1970s
Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in
Annie Hall
White shirt, cloth pants, white shoes (Woody Allen), to create a
preggy-style sagacious New Yorker.
Vest, hat, baggy pants, men’s shoes, ties (Diane Keaton). This image
of masculine-and-talented women was already a classic.
Ralph Lauren was the costume designer.
1970s
John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever
(1977) and Grease (1978)
Black leather jacket, as well as “bad-girl style” (Grease).
Origin of the upsurge in glam rock and disco styles in the 1980s.
1980s Jennifer Beal in Flashdance
Leg warmers, leggings, leotards, cut-off sweatshirts with studding.
Michael Kaplan was the costume designer of Flashdance.
1980s Punk Culture in Jubilee
Originated from the fashion shop Sex by Vivienne Westwood and
Malcolm McLaren, and further promoted by The Sex Pistols.
1980s Mod Culture in Absolute Beginners
Mod culture.
Paul Jobling and David Crowley called the mod subculture
“fashion-obsessed and hedonistic cult of the hyper-cool” young adults
who lived in metropolitan London or the new towns of the south.
Note: Cheng Cheng (n.d.), edited by Sun Yuanshun (1998).