Last Updated:June 23. 2009 5:17PM
Published: June 24. 2009 3:30AM
We love our favorite TV shows and movies and admire our favorite singers and performers, and while we might not admit it or even realize we’re doing it, we’re influenced by the fashion we see there.
Which isn’t always a good thing.
I mean, even the staunchest fan of “Sex and the City” probably would balk at walking down the street in high heels and a tutu as series star Sarah Jessica Parker did in the TV show’s opening shots.
At least, I hope so, anyway.
We all know that a celebrity wearing a certain label or a new designer or a cutting-edge trend can boost sales astronomically. But while most of us have more sense than to run out after the latest thing the latest actress wears, our fashion choices probably are shaped by what we see on screen more than we think.
Me, I grew up with a warped sense of fashion thanks to “Perry Mason.” I loved “Perry Mason.” And not because of the dramatic courtroom battles or the brave detective work (was Paul Drake good or what?), but because of the clothes.
I adored secretary Della Street’s crisply tailored skirts and blouses. I loved the elegant outfits rich women wore when Perry Mason questioned them in their Hollywood mansions. And when they went formal and donned furs and pearls, I couldn’t wait to grow up and do the same.
That’s what Perry Mason fashion did for me: I thought that when I was a grown-up woman, I’d lounge around in gorgeous dresses offering drinks to visitors and being mysteriously sophisticated.
Other movie and TV fashion moments made huge impressions on me, whether I was conscious of it at the time or not.
What about the classic movie scene of Scarlett O’Hara shaking down the velvet curtains at Tara with a determined — demonic? — gleam in her eye and then arriving in her elaborate and tasseled I’m-getting-me-a-man-no-matter-what ensemble? For years after I first saw “Gone With the Wind,” I kept a lookout for dress-worthy draperies everywhere I went.
From hoopskirts to rock ’n’ roll, another fashion influence from the world of entertainment was Stevie Nicks, the singer and songwriter famous for her work with Fleetwood Mac and her floaty, artsy gypsy-goddess style.
I was fascinated with her outfits and wondered if she planned them — the wispy shawl with the beaded top with the twirly skirt with the cowboy boots and the armload of bracelets and the flowers in her hair — or if she just picked up whatever was on the floor that morning and went with it.
The thing is that now, at almost 52, I’m pretty much a normal-looking person who wears normal-looking clothes befitting the grandmotherly-type woman that I am.
But every once in awhile, I get a hankering to wear pearls and pumps with a cardigan set like Della Street, or sweep down a street wearing feathers and fringe like Scarlett O’Hara or twirl around in a lacy skirt and layers of chiffon like Stevie Nicks.
That’s because fashion is partly a chance to reinvent yourself and have some fun and get in touch with your inner sexy secretary or Southern Belle or hippie chick.
