Thursday, September 22, 2011

Fashion Trends in Film

Fashion is defined as "a popular trend, especially in styles of dress, ornament, or behavior". Of course, with movies being popular as well, they're bound to have an influence on some people. Here are a few trends over the years.

  • 1934: Clark Gable exposes his bare chest to unsuspecting audiences in It Happened One Night. Bear in mind, the norm back then was that men wore undershirts. After the release of It Happened One Night, allegedly undershirts sales dropped 50%.
  • Early 1940's: Women style their hair to resemble Veronica Lake's "peekaboo" haircut. But when World War II rolled around, Lake had to persuade them to wear their hair up since it continually got caught in the machinery.
  • 1953: You know the "aloha" shirts, those tacky shirts with the big flowers plastered all over them? Well, you can thank From Here to Eternity for them because after several of the actors wore them in the movie, they became more popular.
  • 1967: Along with it being her big break, Bonnie and Clyde also made Faye Dunaway a symbol of fashion with her 1930's wardrobe she wore in the movie.
  • 1977: Like Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde, Diane Keaton would spur a fashion trend for women with her wardrobe in Annie Hall.
Those are the notable ones I can think of. I'm sure there are other ones out there.

The Hollywood Revue

11 comments:

  1. So true. Haha...ofcourse the undershirts sales dropped. I think women were behind it :P

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  2. Great post! When I think of fashion in films, Katharine Hepburn comes to mind. She wore trousers more often than dresses.

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  3. This is fantastic! Somehow, I didn't know that we can thank From Here to Eternity for popularizing Hawaiian shirts. Thanks so much for participating!

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  4. What? No mention of Janet Leigh's black bra in PSYCHO??

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  5. About the undershirts thing, I read in "L.A. Exposed: Strange Myths and Curious Legends in the City of Angels" by Paul Young that that's more of an urban myth (probably created by the studio publicity campaign. He looked into it and found no evidence of anything like. Still it makes a good story and after all, this is Hollywood, baby!

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  6. Though I was never ANNIE HALL's biggest fan, I loved Diane Keaton's clothing in it.

    IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT has always been a fave. Love that scene. I also loved Colbert's little striped suit.

    All great trends. Except the 'aloha' shirt. :)

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  7. Annie Hall was the first film I remember seeing Diane Keaton in and I immediately loved the way she dressed in that film. It reminded my a little bit of a Garbo or Hepburn gender twisting dressing.

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  8. I've always loved the Bonnie Parker look. Not exactly 30s accurate (especially the hair) but so stylish.

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  9. I love Diane Keaton's look. She still goes with that style today.

    Good job.

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  10. Huh. I never knew From Here to Eternity was responsible for those awful Hawaiian shirts! I also love Veronica Lake's hair.

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  11. Love this! This si so much fun. I didn't know about the Hawaiian shirts.

    The Veronica Lake hair safety has always fascinated me (I love Home Front WW2 stuff) so I wanted to share this with you in case you hadn't seen it (but you prob have): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgpvKXLTwr8

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