Blue Jeans Are A Girl's Best Friend

 

Mention classic Hollywood fashion and immediately we think of glamorous red carpet gowns and film goddesses like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's.   She added that essential little black dress to our wardrobes but what about those basics like blue jeans, and nylons?  Ever present in our closets today, I thought you might like to know who to thank for their enduring success.

Before the 1950s, denims were worn primarily for industrial purposes or as cowboy/western attire.  Sorely in need of a new market, they found it when James Dean appeared denim clad in 1955's "Rebel Without a Cause" and Marlon Brando wore Levi's 501's in "The Wild One" (1953).  The rebellious teenager was born and blue jeans became the de rigeur clothing for this new counterculture.  Soon, teenage girls followed suit due in large part to Marilyn Monroe who loved her denims.  In fact, Lee jeans sponsored her film Bus Stop (1956), she wore JC Penney’s brand jeans in River of No Return (1954) and in "The Misfits"(1961), Marilyn wore straight-leg blue jeans and a white button-down shirt.

Marilyn Monroe in The Misfits 1961

Early in her career, Monroe complained it was difficult to find a good fitting pair and claimed she would go to the Army Surplus store, buy men's jeans, put them on and then sit in the bathtub and wear them until they dried to shrink to her proportions.  Lee had created the first women's factory wear "Union-alls" as early as 1914 and Levi's had "Freedom-alls" out by 1918 but it would take several more decades to see traditional blue jeans designed with female curves in mind.  It actually wasn't until the late 1970s that Calvin Klein began designing jeans tailored to women's shapes.  

 

  

Marlene Dietrich

It's no surprise that women's jeans had a rough start when you consider the centuries it took just for women to be allowed to wear pants period.  In the 1600s, an Englishwoman could face execution for wearing trousers and the bloomers of the Victorian era were sure to elicit ridicule from onlookers.  Hollywood stepped in and by the 1930s, social acceptance finally arrived in the forms of Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and Katherine Hepburn.  Known for their aloof and unyielding natures, little wonder the idea of women in trousers always provoked overtones of homosexuality.  Dietrich, who was fond of wearing tuxedos and men's attire, found pants liberating and claimed, "I dress for myself.  Not for the image, not for the public, not for the fashion, not for men."  Good advice!

  

The incomparable Ann Miller

Nylons didn't appear on the market until the 1960s as a convenient alternative to stockings.  The ultra talented dancer/actress Ann Miller, who appeared in musicals like Kiss Me Kate and Easter Parade, complained to the studio's hosiery manufacturer that her stockings were always getting torn during the dance numbers.  The hosiery was sewn to her briefs so the entire garment would have to be removed and resewn leading to production delays.  In the 1940s, Miller requested a one piece garment to be designed for her and so became the first woman to wear the single pantyhose we are familiar with today.  I know I'm grateful because the last time I wore "stay-up" stockings they didn't exactly live UP to their name... 

  

Jane Russel in The Outlaw 1943

This article just wouldn't be complete without mentioning Jane Russell, the brassiere and some myth busting.  Many believe the statuesque actress wore the first kind of underwire bra in "The Outlaw" but in fact the 1930s alone saw three patents for the invention.  The eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes did have an underwired push-up bra specially designed for Russell to wear but she disliked the fit and called it a "ridiculous and painful contraption".  During filming and in all those famous publicity photos of her against a haystack she wore her own with the straps pulled down.  During the 1970s, she was the Playtex spokeswoman for the Cross Your Heart and 18 Hour bras "for us full-figured gals", a far more sensible cry from the torture trap Hughes had envisualized for women!

So the next time you wiggle into your blue jeans or choose pants over a skirt because you didn't feel like shaving, remember the ladies who forever changed how we dress daily.  When Yves St. Laurent said “Fashions fade, style is eternal", he was right because the influences of these iconic women are certainly here to stay.

Falls Avenue Vintage Fashion