Movie Star Style Icon: Marlene Dietrich

DAHLINGS -



In an effort to share my vast knowledge on fashion and cinema, this is the third in the series of my guides to vintage movie stars (i.e. before 1965). This guide is devoted to another style icon whose career spanned the 1920s to the 1960s: Marlene Dietrich. Such career longevity is almost unheard of in Hollywood. She was a style-setter in her time, in the way she wore her clothes and the way she lived her life. The subject of the previous entry, Joan Crawford existed for one reason: to be a movie star. She signed autographs and answered fan mail to the end of her life. Marlene Dietrich, however, had many other interests than movies. But she spent her last years in seclusion, refusing to let anyone see her in her old age.



Marlene Dietrich (born 1901 - died 1992)



MARLENE DIETRICH (real name: Maria Magdalene Dietrich von Losch)



There are those who think that Marlene Dietrich is at best a campy creation, an exaggerated 30s vamp with perfect legs who swooned about in arty lighting and ridiculous costumes. But how did that creature survive more than thirty years as a top draw in the entertainment business? She succeeded in films, won over audiences in live stage shows, and entertained troops in World War Two. (She is shown below, slogging in the mud with American soldiers in Germany.)



According to many biographers and friends, she was also a born hausfrau who loved to cook and often brought food to sick friends. But when it came to her career, she was a compulsive perfectionist. Designer Edith Head remembers that fittings took hours, as Dietrich scrutinized every fold and bead on her costumes. There were mirrors set up behind the cameras so Dietrich could check her lighting. Nothing was allowed to be less than perfect when Dietrich was on camera.



She was a married, working actress with experience in both stage and screen when Josef von Sternberg cast her as the cabaret singer who causes a professor's downfall in The Blue Angel (1930). von Sternberg saw her as a dangerous temptress, uncaring, erotic, viewing her victims with a jaundiced eye. Always pragmatic, Dietrich lost 20 pounds before she made her first American film, Morocco (1930), in which she famously made her entrance in a man's tuxedo, kissed a woman on the lips, and gave a flower to co-star Gary Cooper.



The star and director made five more films together at Paramount, and Dietrich wore some of the most amazing costumes of the 1930s. The designer was Travis Banton, who costumed all of Paramount's top female stars. In Shanghai Express (1932), she wore one of her most iconic outfits: a full length black traveling suit covered in black feathers, with a feathered black turban and nose veil.

During this period her costumes were often outlandish, increasingly so as she worked with von Sternberg. In contrast, she was known offscreen for wearing trousers, the first star to wear them in public. Slacks were only worn on the studio lot before then.







This was one of the most important fashion innovations of the 1930s, although pants were used mainly for casual wear. It was not lost on Dietrich that her blonde beauty was even more striking in mannish attire.



Their final collaboration, The Devil Is A Woman, (1935) was a box-office disaster. During shooting, von Sternberg announced they would no longer be working together, which came as an unpleasant surprise to Marlene.



But, pragmatic as ever, she moved on. She had remained married to her husband, Rudolph Seiber, in name only and had a daughter, Maria. In 1939 Marlene, along with Joan Crawford and Katherine Hepburn, was named "box office poison" by the Motion Picture Exhibitors of America. So Marlene moved to England, where she moved among the cream of British show business society, including Noel Coward and Cecil Beaton.

It was at this time that Germany's former ambassador to England visited her with a personal offer from Adolph Hitler to make her "The Queen of the Reich Cinema." Marlene listened but showed him the door.



The film that turned her career around was Destry Rides Again (1939). Marlene was cast as saloon singer Frenchy opposite sheriff James Stewart in this Western comedy. It put her back on top, and she remained there until 1943. Marlene had been quietly using her money to get friends out of Nazi Germany, but she wanted to do more. She decided to entertain U.S. troops at home and overseas. Under the auspices of the Office of War Information, Dietrich made broadcasts in German and French that were transmitted to citizens under Axis rule in Europe.





After the war, she made the classic A Foreign Affair (1948), her glamour intact.

(The gown above was designed by Edith Head.)



After that her films were few and far between, but included the classics Touch of Evil (1958) and Witness for the Prosecution (1958). Dietrich was uninterested in television. Except:

On an Academy Awards show, Marlene strode onstage in a high-necked black dress by Christian Dior. The sleeves were to her wrists, and the gown was skin-tight. But it had one large slit, exposing her spectacular legs as she crossed the stage. Dietrich wore no jewelry. She was a sensation.

In the early 1950s, Marlene Dietrich began her international nightclub career. As stated in the earlier guide on Marilyn Monroe, designer Jean Louis created a seemingly "naked" dress, by building the dress over a flesh-colored corset, using flesh-colored netting and plenty of sequins. The photo above is from 1967.



In 1964, she made a cameo appearance in Paris When It Sizzles, stepping out of a white limo and entering the House of Dior, clad (of course) in a white Dior suit with matching hat.



A few years before her death, Maximillian Schell made the documentary Marlene, interviewing Dietrich in her apartment in France. Dietrich was heard only in voice-over, refusing to be seen on camera. She would not allow friends to see her old; instead she spent hours on the telephone, in bed. To the last, she would not let the legend be sacrificed.

Ciao,

Elisa

copyright Elisa DeCarlo - use of this material is forbidden without written permission

Movie Star Style Icon: Joan Crawford

DAHLINGS -

Today is the second in my series of movie star style guides. Today, we draw our attention to the actress who became known as the Queen of Camp. Her career lasted from the silents until television. She was devoted to her fans above anyone else, and influenced current fashion throughout the 1930s and 1940s.

Joan Crawford (born 1906 - died 1977)

JOAN CRAWFORD (real name: Lucille Le Seur)

Our first sight of Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce (1945) is the Crawford many of us have in mind: Wearing an impossibly broad-shouldered mink swing coat with matching hat, long dark hair, thick black eyebrows and a huge, lipsticked mouth to match her huge, haunted eyes.




But there were many other Joan Crawfords before that: the 1920s cutie, the 1930s clotheshorse, the early 40s grand lady of MGM. All of them had one thing in common...they came from hardscrabble backgrounds and were determined to earn respectability.

Lucille Le Seur was born in Texas, to parents who had divorced before she was born. Her mother remarried a man from who she separated when young Lucille was eight. The family traveled a great deal, and Lucille often changed schools. At the age of eighteen, she won a Broadway chorus job. In 1925, she was put under contract by MGM, the Rolls-Royce of movie studios. Her name was changed through a fan magazine contest. She didn't like it. "It sounds like craw fish," she was quoted as saying at the time.


Her earliest parts involved dancing and playing the wild young "flapper," much like Clara Bow. By the end of the 1920s, Crawford was a bona fide star. During her off-hours she enjoyed winning Charleston contests.

When sound came in, she proved to have a pleasant speaking voice and worked to train it. She was one of MGM's top female stars in the early 1930s, dressed by Adrian, the studio's most important designer. Crawford's shoulders were broad in relation to her hips. So he created the broad-shouldered look she cultivated ever after. Her landmark costume was a ruffle-shouldered gown for Letty Lynton (1932 ).



The dress was a sensation. Immediately copies of it showed up in every dress shop in America.

Sheila O' Brien, president of the Costume Designers Guild, believes Crawford had more fashion impact than any other female star at the time because Adrian did great things with her. O'Brien said: "Adrian used bizarre cuts and different things but they were so right, because she was always the poor girl who married the rich guy and got all the beautiful clothes, or the rich girl who married the chauffeur and still got all the clothes."

She often starred opposite Clark Gable, MGM's top male star, with whom she had an affair. But her parts became too alike, and her box office slumped, so MGM let her go. Crawford was out of work for two years before she made Mildred Pierce (1945) for Warners. It was the first time she played a mother. For this film she wore off-the-rack house dresses. The first time she wore one on the set, the director looked at her and said, "Goddamn shoulder pads!" With that, he ripped the dress open down the front.

Crawford was not wearing shoulder pads.

Joan Crawford won an Oscar for Mildred Pierce. She had a new look, harder and more harshly made up, but it suited the post-war period perfectly. Always she wore ankle-strap shoes, even when times changed and other women stopped wearing them. Joan turned in a number of excellent performances at Warner Brothers, including Possession (1947) and Daisy Kenyon (1947).


Crawford had three failed marriages, all with actors less well-known than she, including Douglas Fairbanks Jr. So she adopted four children and in 1955 married Pepsi-Cola executive Alfred Steele. After his death, she became the first female director of the company, as well as its official hostess, which helped to keep her in the public eye. She was not much interested in the realities of family life, an unpleasant trait she shared with many Hollywood stars. Her daughter published a much-disputed memoir that became made into a campy film after Crawford's death.

Joan Crawford continued to make movies, although the budgets grew lower, the scripts more lurid, her acting more strident. The Western Johnny Guitar, directed by Nicholas Ray, is a camp icon (1954). Towards the end she was making horror films, such as the classic Whatever Happened To Baby Jane (1962) with Bette Davis and the far less classic Strait Jacket (1964). Crawford also developed a serious drinking problem. But she was professional to the end, answering her fan mail personally, every day.

If you want Joan Crawford's quintessentially 1940s look: try for tailored suits (preferably with shoulder pads), ankle strap shoes, large costume jewelry, tailored dresses (not shirtwaists), slim skirts, high-necked 1940s blouses, pinstripes, wide-shouldered fur or wool coats. For evening, dark gowns in rich fabrics, long sleeves, no ruffles. Think grown-up sexy.

Even though it is terribly hot here in New York City, this makes me want to put on a flowing satin evening gown and mink coat. And then pass out from heat stroke.

Ciao,
Elisa

More Delectable Pieces for the Manhattan Vintage Show!

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I am taking a moment from my unending work (I'm nearly hoarse from screaming at my assistant, the fool), to put up a few pictures of some more of the goodies I will have on display at the Manhattan Vintage Show on October 10th and 11th here in New York City!

First, this wonderful Gucci travel bag, with the ORIGINAL sales tag inside! As you can see, poor Bucky has also been working his little paws to the bone (mostly nipping at my assistant's ankles if she doesn't move fast enough).




SOLD!

Second, a vintage wool boucle' coral-colored wool coat with huge pink novelty buttons, size XL:



Third, another amazing reversible coat! This swing coat, from the 1940s, reverses from a plaid double-breasted coat to a solid bright green clutch coat! (Forgive the photos, my assistant took them.) Size M:





This vintage 1980s Michael Kors wool dress, size 4:



And to end with Gucci, this beautiful Gucci lightweight wool coat, also 1980s, with a hidden button placket and impeccable tailoring, size 42:




Remember, dahlings, save the dates!

The Manhattan Vintage Show at the Metropolitan Pavilion
Booth #17/18 MATINEE NEW YORK & THE MAD FASHIONISTA
125 W.18th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues in Chelsea
New York City
Friday: 10/10 1-8 pm
Saturday: 10/11 11am-6pm
Admission: $20*

Ciao,
Elisa & Bucky the Wonderdog

*5 off admission if you go to the website, http://www.manhattanvintage.com/ !

A Multitude of Shins! And Today's Fashion Quote!

DAHLINGS -

It has come to my attention that those in charge of deciding what women will wear have decreed that legs are “the new erogenous zone” (A term I have always despised. It takes all of the mystery out of l'amour and makes it sound like car repair.) Various reasons have been posited, but your faithful correspondent will reveal The Truth:

Legs are the one area that models can expose with absolutely no flesh on them and be considered even semi-normal.

The heroine-addicted little dears gangle down the runways, with hocks like Clydesdale colts and thighs the size of pencils. And this is considered “the new erogenous zone.” Of course, the girls are so thin a man could have sex with them without the girl bothering to spread her legs.

Je n'aime pa ças, to put it mildly. Legs are also one area most women cannot expose with impunity past the age of twelve, but in fashion, ‘twas ever thus.

For instance, on www.style.com, we have Miuccia Prada's explanation for the high heels, bare thighs, ultra-abbreviated duchesse satin skirts, and even shorter shorts displayed on her Spring catwalk: "I just didn't like anything I did below the waist."

So we are to be the victims of this woman's fashion mental block?

For those past puberty who aspire to have those unreal pencils dangling from their hot pants (a fashion item one thought one would NEVER see again!), there are regimes of laser therapy, scelotherapy to reduce varicose veins, and some sort of treatment that has to be done every three weeks to tighten the KNEES, and worn with support stockings!

Pardonnez moi, but I intend to be well past Social Security eligibility age before I wear support stockings. My terribly sensitive skin is much more suited to silk, or nothing at all.

Of course, it is claimed that much of this new look is inspired by the pin-up girls of the 1940s. Ridiculous. No-one has bothered to point out that the sex goddesses of the Second World War actually had some delicious meat on their well-formed bones. Betty Grable's legs were easily twice the size of any runway model working today.

As always, the beauty and fashion industry conspire to make us larger lovelies feel bad about something we had not even thought to feel bad about (I use “we”, although I have a spectacular pair of long, shapely legs and would rather set myself on fire than wear hot pants. But. one needs to keep the common touch. In the current parlance, I feel your pain).

In other words, in addition to every other part of your anatomy, now The Fashion Powers That Be want you to feel bad about your knees.

Well, to that I say Ha! And Ha Again! Yours truly will continue to wear tastefully short skirts, high slits that do not Show All, and of course, high heels. And I encourage all of you to do the same.

Ciao,
Elisa and Bucky the Wonderdog

Today's Fashion Tip:
"Many women are imbued with the strange idea that love and romance are for young girls only, that if a woman does not make a glorious match in her twenties, when she is budding, flowerlike and lovely, she might as well tear this page out of the book of her life. What an insane thought! Why, at thirty and beyond, a woman has just reached the point where she can truly appreciate the real thrills of romance."
Terry Hunt, Design for Glamour, 1941