SECRET OF MUSIC: Hollywood's Best Dressed of 1935

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Hollywood's Best Dressed of 1935

The Paris dressmakers had their best-dressed lists - the Hollywood studio designers had theirs… Contemporary reporter Dan Thomas gives us a glimpse of how that list came about in this tongue-in-cheek (?) article from January 30th, 1935:

Women shrieked…fought…kicked…hair fell off by the handfuls…shins were bruised and noses tweaked… eyes blackened! Hollywood’s annual battle to determine its best dressed woman was in full sway. And when the smoke cleared away, revealing scores of exhausted and disappointed girls strewn over the battlefield, six women could be seen in a triumphant march with Carole Lombard at their head. And flanking her on either side to make sure her throne is not usurped are Norma Shearer, Kay Francis, Genevieve Tobin, Joan Crawford, and Claudette Colbert.

The six women were chosen by the top studio fashion designers, who then left it to the actresses themselves to choose their own fashion leader.

And the winner is...

Carole (Image: Dr. Macro)

Perhaps a word of defense should be offered for those experts…Take Adrian, style creator for the MGM studio. Suppose he had named Norma Shearer as best dressed. The next time Joan Crawford came in to have a new gown designed, she probably would wreck his office. Or if he had picked Joan, Norma might have told him that she didn’t think so much of his clothes, anyway. And if he had picked a girl from some other studio, it's quite possible that neither of them would have spoken to him again. Adrian realized this and played it safe. Without definitely selecting anyone, he mentioned that both Norma and Joan dressed with extremely rare judgment.

“If Adrian names you #1, so help me I’ll kick *CENSORED BY THE LEAGUE OF DECENCY*"

Regal Joan

Queen Norma

“The best-dressed woman in Hollywood, and that virtually means the world, as nearly all women now are following Hollywood fashions, would necessarily have to be perfectly clothed on any or all occasions.”

Norma with Gilbert Adrian. Although his slinky bias-cut dresses are largely associated with Jean Harlow today, the designer created many such gowns for Norma Shearer, too (he called them “Norma’s Nightgowns”).

Travis Banton took the bit in his teeth and named Carole Lombard. “She is the epitome of the smart woman of fashion.”

Carole

Carole with Travis Banton. He designed many of her off-screen outfits as well. The lovely Carolelombard.org has an interesting post about Banton’s process for creating a gown for Miss Lombard, here.

Robert Kallock of Colombia chose Colbert “because she always has perfect taste.”

Claudette

Orry-Kelly named Kay “because she never makes any obvious attempts to be smartly dressed. It is her very conservatism, which is extreme, that makes her smart.”

Kay

Kay looks over sketches with Orry-Kelly

Walter Plunkett, stylist at RKO, named Genevieve Tobin. “She dresses conservatively, correctly, and becomingly. In my opinion these are the three requisites for good dressing.”