Evolution Of Hollywood Fashion

The decades of 1920s and 1930s marked the initial period of the American fashion recognition. Much owed to the Hollywood, Americans and the rest of the world saw the most recent ideals of beauty and glamour. Exciting dresses and new fashions worn by Hollywood stars mesmerized millions of people around the world, while costumers transformed into acknowledged designers. During and after World War II there was a flourish of American couture design industry. Designers, trained in Paris, promoted purely American styles featured by simplicity, practicality, and casualty so preferred by American women. The creation of American ‘top-of-the-line couture’ presented a serious rivalry to French fashion designs and products. Further, over 1950-1960s, Americans

Silent screen female actors starring in the early 1910s movies were the American costume design pioneers who used costumes from their own wardrobes. Much owing to these first experiences on stage, Hollywood had used the Golden Age of 1930-1960 to generate unprecedented publicity and revenues by promoting new fashion designs. Extra touch by Hollywood created the powerful image associated with luxury, splendor, and mass consumption. The magnificent influence on the 20th century fashion that reached unimaginable heights had turned Hollywood film industry into a powerful social force determining fashionable and glamorous trends for the rest of the world (Balio

In 1914, famous actress Pearl White starred in the popular series called Exploits of Elaine where she wore a costume especially made for this film. The designer of White’s outfit was Louis Gasnier. The black-and-white outfit soon gained tremendous popularity beyond the film industry. Middle-class shop girls and secretaries had adopted it as their informal uniform. From then on, females had associated the same outfit with the image of a working girl. All the forthcoming clothes worn by Pearl White had soon become as a lead trend among female audiences (Desser & Jowett 2000).

These primary experiments with creating clothes that would suit the requirements of the black-and-white film industry generated the need of utilizing contrasting fabrics and colors. That also shows how close the link between the film industry and newest fashions and designs was. This early interdependence further enabled Hollywood to use the entire potential of film industry in making particular fashion trends popular and demanded by millions of customers (Basinger