Let them wear pants.

We discussed significant female actresses in fashion history today, and their roles as trendsetters in American society. I never realized how many famous ladies enjoyed the look of men's clothing. Katherine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrech, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford...all of which apparently have questionable sexual orientation but nonetheless, they wore pants. Even Audrey Hepburn is most noted for her khakis, turtle necks and loafers look.

Let's look at this contextually. The 30s, 40s and 50s were not the most masculine times as far as ladieswear is concerned. The 30s did not allow for creativity and sweeping trends to be economically benign (unless you were in Hollywood), the 40s went a bit more masculine because the boys were not home but hemlines were still in style, and forget about the 50s. These women were dressed glamorously all the time, when they were off the set they probably wanted to be comfortable, be anything BUT glamorous. We see that with celebrities even today. It takes a lot to look good, and when you work 10, 12 or 16 hour days even, who has the strength and the patience to put on makeup and a fancy dress?

Unlike celebrities of today, these women did not set out to be trend setters. In fact, I would say most of them had no impact on the fashion of the day at all; they are viewed as being polished and stylish in their own right but look at the photographs of normal people, none of them wore the wide-leg trousers of Hepburn or the tuxedo of Dietrech. If they did, it was a merely passing fad over all. This was a time when the celebrities looked incredibly good, but did not dictate fashion like they do today.

What does this say about our current fashion culture then? Are we so underdeveloped that we rely on a few key famous people to tell us what to wear? If Beyonce walked around with a pineapple on her head, would others follow suit? Were women back then so radically different in fashionable thought that they could think and wear for themselves? Or was it another source telling them what to wear? Perhaps the massive ready to wear lines displayed and accessible to the overall working class population?

It can be sure that women of the times wore clothing probably based off of costumes, not the everyday clothing choices of celebrities. So technically, film producers set the trends, not celebrities themselves.

More on this later.