What’s new on the horizon for lovers of costume dramas as Downton Abbey winds down and Mad Men is now only available in reruns? Reportedly, an Aaron Sorkin biopic on Lucille Ball starring none other than Cate Blanchett, who channeled Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator.
Ball was not only one of the most powerful women in television—having formed Desilu Productions with husband Desi Arnaz, she bought him out when they divorced, becoming the first woman to run a television studio—she was also one of the most-watched actors of her generation, and her costumes contributed both to her comedy and to her influence.
A onetime model for the New York designer Hattie Carnegie, Ball acted on stage before heading to Hollywood, where she became known as “The Queen of B Movies.” She segued into radio and vaudeville before landing a contract for CBS. Her starring role belied her behind-the-scenes power. As Lucy Ricardo on I Love Lucy, Ball played a ditzy postwar Everywoman, scheming for pin money and some husbandly TLC. Her wardrobe, whipped up by costume designers Elois Jenssen and Edward Stevenson, was that of the archetypal suburban housewife.
On-screen and off, Ball favored the casual American look. Under her aprons were collared fit-and-flare dresses, the watered-down legacy of Christian Dior’s seismic high fashion New Look, or cuffed jeans and flats. Ball’s job was to reflect, and to send up, popular culture, including fashion. But did she influence fashion as well? In “Lucy Gets a Paris Gown,” which aired in 1956, a year before The New York Times heralded the appearance of the sack dress at Balenciaga and Givenchy, Ball was wearing one on the small screen. (And later, a Lucy Barbie would too!)
In the episode, the dress-mad Lucy stages a fake hunger strike to try to get husband Ricky to buy her a French robe. He retaliates by presenting her with a burlap sack that he pretends was made by the designer Jacques Marcel. She wears it out, where she’s seen by the tony Frenchman. When Ricky tells Lucy the truth, she runs home and burns her dress only to walk by a shop window and see that Marcel has already copied it. The subtext? Don’t put on airs—and stick with American standbys.
In anticipation of the biopic and its sure-to-be influential costumes—what doesn’t look good on Blanchett?—we take a look back at American fashions past, as worn by Lucy and Lucille.
The post Comedian, Studio Head, Fashion Pioneer—Lucille Ball Is Getting the Biopic Treatment appeared first on Vogue.