Hollywood Designer Dresses

From its inception, the Hollywood film industry has set cultural trends, and that includes high fashion. Movie studio costume designers were all about glamour and the top actresses of the 1940s-1960s all became fashion icons

These celebrity icons of Hollywood have helped given public exposure to designers of these high-end dresses. The dresses worn by the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, and Grace Kelly in their movies were widely copied by many fashion designers, to sate customers clamoring to mimic the Hollywood style. In fact, a costume dress worn by an actress in a Hollywood movie had a much larger audience than any fashion magazine photograph of a designer dress from a top couturier—giving Hollywood a huge role in the developing fashion and style tastes of America and the rest of the world.

Studio designers based their styles on classic fashions, but added their own touch because the dresses that appeared in the movies—unless the film was a period piece—needed to be timeless, flattering, and most of all, photogenic. Edith Head, Adrian, Orry Kelly, Royer, Vera West, Helen Rose, Charles LeMaire, and Bob Mackie designed fashions that began fashion trends as soon as their movies were released.

Not surprisingly, some haute couture designers realized the value of films and sought to use Hollywood’s reach. For example, in Breakfast at Tiffany Audrey Hepburn wore a little black dress by Givenchy that soon became the standard for early 1960s cocktail attire.

Hollywood designers excelled at using luxurious materials including sequins, chiffon, satins, and fur. They also specialized in memorable visual details such as low-cut backs, long coats, hats with small veils, gloves, and other accessories.

Thanks to the Hollywood connection, designer dresses were mass-marketed and helped make off-the-rack clothing much more popular in an age where women had been accustomed to knitting and sewing their own clothing. This broad style and fashion exposure gave the general public the unprecedented access to designer dresses and styles that we enjoy today.

Today, not much has changed. We watch for our favorite celebrities as they appear at award ceremonies, and can't help but to gawk at their designer clothing. Whether it's one of Hollywood's leading women or men, or a notable up and comer that happens to have a keen sense of fashion. Perhaps it's just human nature; the fact that we wait to see what others are wearing before we decide to go out and choose an outfit for ourselves.

Hello, my name is Jennifer and I like to write about everything from designer dresses to Rompers.