Dressed the History of Fashion is a production of I Heart Radio. Over seven billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common. Every day, we all get dressed. Welcome to Dressed the History of Fashion, a podcast where we explore the who, what, when, of why we wear. We are fashion historians and your hosts April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary. Hello, dress listeners. So for the past five seasons and almost five years, April and I have been bringing you a wide range of stories exploring and celebrating the significance of clothing from throughout history and around the world. We are currently on hiatus, researching away for a brand new season of Dressed. Season six will launch on January, and until then, we want to share with you some of our favorite Dressed classic episodes from the archive of almost four hundred past episodes. Enjoy well. Welcome back, dress Listeners to part two of our two part episode on the history of the relationship between fashion and the show Girl. Earlier this week, we explore this relationships early twenty century incarnations, including the collaboration between fashion designer Lucy a Lady Duff Gordon and the music hall impresario Florence Zig failed that introduced high fashion and the model show girl to the music hall stage. But what we have not yet discussed are the racialized and racist under trappings that really characterize many of these music hall productions of this time, and the mini black show girls who defied these stereotypes to establish and circulate their own standards of American beauty that really challenged the zig Feld show Girls embodiment of the quote unquote all American, all white beauty ideal. The quote unquote glorified American Girl became zig Field's official motto in nineteen twenty two, and in nineteen thirty one he even debuted a collection of textile designs for the Gold Fabrics Corporation entitled Glorifying the American Girl, in which all of the prints were quote inspired directly by some of the Folly's beauties who are considered typically American end quote. And of course, when he says typically American and all American, zig Field is really referring to exclusively white, heterosexual American women. And while performers of color did appear in the Folly reviews, all of the zig Field girls were white. Of course, this fact did not prevent the presence of numerous ethnic masquerades and the zig called volleys with the zig failed girls literally putting on and taking off different cultural identities with any number of overtly eroticized, exotic size and racialized costumes. The same ran true and reviews across America and Europe. And of course, if you want to hear more about the ethnic masquerade, you can listen to our episode with Vicky pass from earlier this year on fashioning White Femininity UM and so you can definitely check that out. So the question is just how did women performers of color carve out a space for themselves in this really overtly racist and exclusionary climate. And I'm actually very grateful test Bronze Humphrey who recently published an article entitled Fashioning the Black Chorus Girl on the Fashion and Race Database, And this article directly speaks to this very topic. And Humphrey Wrights quote, how did black chorus girls claim a black is beautiful aesthetic before the phrase even came into the vernacular? And she answers through intellect, through performance, and most importantly through fashion. Humphrey rits about how pioneering black performers such as Florence Mills helped to define a new standard of beauty for Black women, divorced from that of their white cat our parts. Mills rose to fame and fashion leader status thanks to her starring role in the musical review Blackbirds. According to Humphrey, quote, prior to the rise in fame of Mills, chorus girls existed to further perpetuate the exotic tropes that aided in the subjugation an assault of black women and quote. The nine twenties, however, witnessed and noted shift in the ways in which black women were represented in all black reviews. So take for instance, shows like Irving Miller's smash hit musical review entitled Brown Skin Models, and this review really moved away from racist tropes and stereotypes and instead promoted and celebrated black women in ways only previously reserved for their white counterparts. So this show is really inspired by the Zigfeld follies, and Miller similarly used model show girls to market the latest fashions to audiences. However, where Zigfeld had only ever been glorifying the white American girl, Miller's spectacular production, which actually toured in the United States and Canada for over thirty years, while Miller succeeded in quote glorifying the brown skin girl quote. In her recently published book work, A Queer History of Modeling, cultural theorists Elisabeth Brown writes about the ways in which Miller's review quote brought together two different aspects of modeling, the long established discourse of the artist model, with her relationship to aesthetics, the fine arts, and transgressive sexuality, and the contemporary Turrier's close model, whose performances of stately femininity and opulent costumes had to find Zigbil's model show girls end quote. So, in a series of comedic sketches, Tableau vivant, and dress prominades, Miller celebrated black women's sexuality, beauty, and fashionability in ways that countered, rather than reinforced, the racist, overtly sexualized stereotypes which had been rooted in slavery, and you know that had long been used to devour value and debased them as women. The celebrity of many of these music hall stars, like Florence Miller, were instrumental also in redefining the representation of black women on and off the stage, and no one is perhaps more famous for doing so than one Josephine Baker arguably the most famous show girl in history. And she was actually born Freedom McDonald, which I had no idea that was her real name. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in nineteen o six, and McDonald moved to New York City at the age of fifteen to fulfill her dreams to become an entertainer. And it was there in New York City that she renamed herself Josephine Baker. Upon arriving in New York, Baker appeared in the chorus line of two wildly successful Broadway reviews. The first was Shuffle Along, a groundbreaking musical production with an entirely black cast and creative team. American writer Links and Hues credits the production as representing the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. So Baker left New York for Paris at the age of nineteen, having landed a part in Lave Review Negra, which of course opened at the Chandelise Theater in and Baker's rise to start him was meteoric, to say the least. You know, just one year after arriving in Paris, she was headlighting reviews at the Folly Beer Chair, just one of numerous music halls and performance spaces that she would appear at over the ensuing decades, so Baker really at once embodied and eroticized the show girl esthetic. She's often performing bare chested, her chest adorned and jewels. Her frame is surrounded by huge plumed back pieces. And there's actually really wonderful surviving footage of Baker performing in nineteen thirty one in a review at the Casino de Paris that reveals her to be quite the dancer and acrobat. It's really fun. She flips and dances across the stage, and she herself is surrounded by a cast of beef feathered and be sparkled show girls who really serve as accessories to Baker's undeniable stage presence and charm. Baker obviously enraptured her audiences with her erotic dance performances during what she often, as cast said, performed topless, very scantily clad, and and little else but a sparkling leotard. Are most famously or infamously, depending on how you look at it, her banana skirt um and this costume remains the single most iconic costume of Baker's career, and as April alluded to Baker's banana skirt is as controversial as it is famous. Her career was in many ways built off of portraying racist, colonialist fantasies of hyper sexualized black women and the trope that reviews like brown Skin modelers were working really hard to counter. However, Baker really used and subverted these racist stereotypes and tropes to her own benefit. And Morgan Jerkins actually wrote an article for Vogue in which she talks about this, and she says quote when she swung on stage and that fiercely swinging banana skirt in nineteen twenty six, Baker brilliantly manipulated the white male imagination, crossing her eyes, waving her arms, swing her hips, poking out her backside. She clowned and seduced and subverted stereotypes by reclaiming her image. She advanced her career in ways unprecedented for a woman of that time. And Baker might have been parroting racist stereotypes on stage, but off stage, she most clearly understood the value and power inherent in high fashion. She used fashion to project an aura of glamour and sophistication that she maintained until her death in nineteen, but more on that after a brief sponsor break welcome back. When Baker arrived in Paris, she was reportedly wearing the same rather unassuming clothes she wore while an unknown chorus girl in New York City, and according to Baker, this was quote a checker dress with pockets held up by two checkered suspenders over my checkered blouse. But as Baker star rapidly rose the city of Paris, and most specifically the auvant karte fashion designer who lived there, Paul Parrey and also her one time lover, I should say he really can be credited with transforming her. And in her memoirs, Baker remembered pare sculpting address directly on her body out quote of the most beautiful silvery material I had ever seen. It looked like a flowing river. Monsieur Pare poured the gleaming torrent over me, rolled me up, and it draped it over my body, pulled it tight, ordered me to walk, then loosened it around my legs. I felt like a sea goddess emerging from the phone end quote. Pare was only the first of many designers to participate in what became Baker's lifelong love affair with high fashion. Baker's contemporary and friend Ada Smith recalled that quote. All the great designers, Paul Pare, ever Molineux, Jean Patu, we're fighting to dress her. She had an apartment right around the corner from the nightclub, and one day I went there and the clothes were piled high up on the floor, and I said, Josephine, why don't you hang these clothes up? Oh no, Ricky, She said, they're going to take them away tomorrow and bring another pile. I love that image. It's fantastic. Yeah. After a very public fallout with Pare over reportedly unpaid bills in nineteen twenty six, so Pari sued her for over two hundred thousand dollars, but he lost. So Baker had her pick after losing Pare or breaking up with Pare, who knows. She had her pick from designers eager to work with the sensation of Paris. So she collaborated with people like Madeline Vionna, Jean pet Two, and the luxury for a company for her Max, and all of these really helped to secure Baker's high fashion image, as did her appearances and fashion magazines such as Femina and Vogue. Baker also licensed her name to a variety of beauty products, and Baker's representation in the American fashion press, however, often belies the races which drove Baker to permanently relocate to France in ninety two, bogued assis readers, Was it Josephine Baker who made us all crave brown skins? Or wasn't it? Certainly we can't deny that it was that very summer when she first swang from the roof of the fully bogira and a banana peal and a diamond necklace, that all smart women began furling their parasols and deciding that it would be amusing to be brown. But did the dazzling effect of her savage, young limbs really inspire those first devotes or would they have done it without her? End quote? And this article acknowledges Baker's undeniable influence while simultaneously continuing to evoke these racist stereotypes that would ultimately undermine the transfer of her European success to America, her home country. She just never simply became as famous in the States as she was in Europe. Yeah, and at a certain point, and I think she just refused to perform here because it was like performing in front of segregated audiences and just you know, so much more avert racism um in America, which is a shame so Baker's because of this, Baker's career progressed outside of America, and along without her commitment to high fashion, which really reached his apex in the nineteen forties and fifties when she began wearing and collaborating with high fashion royalties such as Valenciaga and d Or. Towards the end of her life, Baker adopted a more utilitarian practical static in her private life, but her commitment to this really elegant public image really remained undetered until her death. In the nineteen seventies, Baker reportedly agreed to do a documentary with Follies Beerger author Charles Castle, but only on one condition, okacure or bus and Castle recalls quote, I learned that she would require a new order of clothes to be designed by either Jacques faf, Christian Dior or Pierre balma end quote. And really it was the cost of coature combined with Baker's high appearance fee that led to the film's unfortunate derailment. But Castle was quote greatly excited when a year later Baker opened up the London Palladium, but this time with a new act filled with glamor and glitter, feathers and fantasy, her artistry and magic undiminished. She took London by store glamorous to the very end. Baker performed in a crystal studied body suit and feathered turban just two years before her death at the now famous Battle of Versailles. Of course, that was in nineteen seventy three, and our listeners, of course probably remember from our Battle of Versilles episode with Robin Gavan that this title was given by the press to a charity fashion show event that was created to raise funds restore Versailles Palace. The event slaviely pitted American and French fashion designers against each other, with America famously usurping the world's reigning fashion leader France to become the battle's quote unquote winner. And while Baker might have performed for her adopted country of France, her legacy as a pioneering black performer was on full display in the American fashion shows where an unprecedented ten black models appeared. Robin gavon Um took this event on as a subject of her book Battle of Versailles, in which she wrote that quote, the appearance of this glamorous black woman who had defied American racism to find fame abroad was particularly overwhelming to the young black models who were still coming into their own beauty and their own maturity end quote. And Pat Cleveland was one of these young models who fought up the courage to actually approach Baker, who she described as quote larger than life, near mythic figure. In Cleveland's autobiography, she writes, quote, Josephine was dressed in a nude cat suit, her long legs covered in fishnet stockings with pearls dripping off of them. Her head dress of ostrich plumes was so enormous and high that I figured whatever balance she had came from having to hold up that thing. And apparently her friend came with her and and plucked a couple of Josephine's feathers off of her boa and Pat still has one of those feathers because it was such a special moment for her and Cleveland herself of course would portray Baker numerous times for her modeling career, including and Patrick Kelly's Fall Winter nineteen eight six collection, which was exclusively dedicated to the performer. Like Baker, Kelly abandoned America for Paris. He really made a name for himself in Paris as a playful and innovative designer whose designs have both celebrated his black heritage while also reclaiming racist imagery. Of his nineteen eight six collection Women, where Daily wrote Patrick Kelly wound up the season's collection at Gallery Colbert with the wackiest show. His Oh co Cher parody miniskirt, link furs, and omage to Josephine Baker managed to wrench lass from even the most fashioned, weary buyers end quote, and these laughs were no doubt inspired by Pat Cleveland's joyous impersonation of Baker. Cleveland claimed dancing and twirling down the runway and Kelly's version of Baker's famous banana skirt paired with a hot pink bra top. And Baker's tremendous legacy exists today not just in the iconic imagery associated with history's most famous show girl, but in black performers and models everywhere she has referenced time and time again. In two thousand and six, Fance paid tribute to Baker on what would have been her hundred's birthday, wearing a banana skirt costume on a televised Fashion TV special called Fashion Rocks. And Baker played such a potal role throughout Pat Cleveland's life and career that she was a central theme in the launch party of her memoir Walking with the Muses, and Cleveland performed a song dedicated to Baker and attired all of the models at the event in Vanessa skirts as an homage. And Baker's just one of those show girls that transcended her profession to become a pop culture icon, so you know her legacy will no doubt go on to inspire future generations as well. More Fashion and the show Girl after a brief sponsor break. While many fashion designers have been inspired by Josephine Baker specifically, many others have been inspired by the iconic Showgirl costume of feathers, sequence and towering hills and headwear, and no history of fashion in the Show Girl would be complete without talking about designer Bob Mackie, who has built a fifty plus year career out of a reverence for showgirl aesthetics he sure has, and before venturing into fashion design in the nineteen eighties, Mackie worked for over twenty years as a costume designer for the stage, in screen, and his designs with his life partner ray aayan Um for the film Lady Sings the Blues starring Diana Ross as Billie Holliday, actually earned the duo an Oscar nomination in nineteen seventy three, but really it was the glitz and glamor of the Las Vegas showgirl on which Mackie would really stake his reputation. He designed costumes for two Las Vegas reviews, The Zig Filled Follies inspired Hallelujah Hollywood and Julie, and the latter only recently closed in twenty sixteen after a thirty four year run, which is pretty amazing. And one of Macke's most famous costume designs is not for a show girl, but rather for a comedian who you all might have heard of, Carol Burnett, and I didn't know this. This is the only reason I'm interjecting this here in an episode otherwise about show girls, because he designed Burnett's infamous Scarlett O'Hara curtain dress for the Gone with the Wind parody on the Carol Burnett Show in nineteen seventies six, and this stress has undeniably gone down in history is one of the funniest and most enduring costumes of all time. But of course it's another famed performer to whom Macke's name renamed synonymous, and that performer is Share. Yes mack His collaboration with Share began in nineteen seventy one with the Sunny and Share Show and continues to this day. He can be credited with the most memorable and controversial looks of the Fashion Mavericks career, including the notorious mohawk Warrior ensemble worn to the nineteen eighties six Oscars, and obviously this sort of culturally appropriated look would never fly today, but the duo collaborated so often that Mackie's partner Raymond called Share Bob's Barbie Doll, and Shay says, quote, there was nothing he designed that I wouldn't wear. He'd walk the line between fashion and costume, and that is my favorite place to go end quote. In two thousand one, the Council of Fashion Designers of America or the CFDA, honored Mackie with a special award for his quote fashion Exuberance, and this award was presented to him by another long time client and close friend, Diana Ross. Mackie told The Wall Street Journal in two thousand five that his relationship to Share actually hindered his successful transfer from costume to fashion designer, something he first attempted to do in the eighties. Quote Nobody felt they could discover me since they already knew who I was. I had a lot of wearable clothes in my fashion collection, but what they thought of me was what I put on Share end quote. Of course, Share can't be entirely to blame for these associations, because Mackie would never completely divorce himself from his showgirl aesthetic. The Wash Street Journal also writes that quote, when Mr Mackie finally opened a design studio on Seventh Avenue in his fashion shows with themes such as Viva Las Vegas in made him the most theatrical designer of New York's Fashion Week. Mackie is only one of several prominent contemporary designers who have towed this line between fashion and costume design and their reverence for the show girl, and the show girl, you know, makes repeated appearances in the collections of designers like John Galliano during his tenure at Christian Dior and for the fall two thousand to Coltro collection, women's were a daily notes that Galliano sent quote skimpy show girl dresses and hugely extravagant feathered headdresses down the runway, and he did it again in his two thousand three fall winter collection. So you know, both of these collections really embody this over the top display for which you know, Galiana remains known today, of course, alongside his anti Semitic comments, which is the other thing that he remains stown for today. We're not going to get into that. But in two thousand six, Galiano was chosen by performer Kylie Minogue to design the costumes for her Showgirl tour. So like Galiano, any number of Terry Mugler's designs fine precedent in the showgirl costume. Vogue actually wrote about how for his fall winter collection, when Mugler needed to transform model Eva her Sagova into a show girl with a vast color of scarlet plumes, he went to none other than Madame Nicole, who holds court at Maisons. Favrier. Galiano similarly employed Favrier, the esteemed feather smith of the theater trade, and his first show girl extravaganza for Dior the same year. Vogue writes, quote, when Naja's arm was transformed into the head of a circus pony, it was Favre who supplied the ostrich Main and Igriant headdress. End quote. In the same article, Madame Nicole reveals her special connection to fashion, quote, I really specialize in shows, the Litto, the Mulan Rouge, the Folies Bergere. Normally it's La Marrier for fashion, but when they need very specific things, very spectacular things, they come to me. Well. Many fashion designers have found inspiration in the show girl tradition. It is no more deeply ingrained than in the work of Jean Paul Gautier, whose admiration for the performers began when he was a very small child. And Gautier has told women's were daily in quote, I dreamed of working on a review ever since I was a little boy, and I saw the opening night of the Folly bearg Air on my grandmother's TV. I got in trouble at school the next day because I was sketching girls and feathers and fishnets, and as a teacher apparently attempted to humiliate him by spanking him in front of the entire class. But I mean it didn't do anything. He was under teared after this incident. He said that he went home and then I did a review with my teddy bear at home. I pretended he had breasts. The first combra I did was for my teddy Bear, not for Madonna. I had a strawberry box for the stage, and I put a lot of feathers on my teddy bear. For the head dress, I used feathers from my cleaning brush for the finale. And Gautier landed his first job in fashion at the age of seventeen after sending in golden sequence covered fashion sketches to Pierre Cardan, as indicated by collections such as Paris and Its Muses for his Oatcatua Fall Winter to thousand, two thousand and one collection, and also punk can Can, which was his Coatra collection for a spring summerleven. You know, this sort of glitz and sparkle have remained a staple ever since his teen's Time memorial. Yeah exactly, and I'm also in perhaps the most highest exemplar of his showgirl admiration, Gautier created his very own review Um Gotier's Fashion Freak Show opened in at that very place that ignited his young passion at the fully Beers Air the show which is directed um, I think he has a co director, so he co directs it, and of course costumed it. Gotia costumed it, and it's really a celebration of the designers incredible life, his love affair with fashion and the show girls that inspired it all. Naturally, Gautier turned to his extensive fashion archive to design the costumes. Many fashion shows populate the performance, featuring Godier's signature designs, including, of course know the famous cone raw corset and the white and blue striped sweater with which he remains synonymous today. Also, there are familiar show girls and showgirls tropes throughout which makes appearances, including Josephine Baker, who, in a gender bending expression, is portrayed both by a man and none other than Anna Cleveland, Pat Cleveland's daughter. So really, the Cleveland Baker legacy continues, and no doubt it's heart of force of imagery and imaginations. We do find fault with one small element of the show's marketing. The show bills itself as representing a new type of entertainment that merges a music hall review with a fashion show. So fashion friends, we think Lucille and Florence Ziegfeld, Josephine Baker, and Irving Miller all might have a little something to say about that. So you know, Gautier has certainly built upon, an expanded upon this relationship between the stage, the show girl, and fashion that has been in the making for over a century. And in these unprecedented times, the show Girl and all that she represents escapism, unbridled fantasy, really she remains more important and more relevant than ever as a much needed respite from the unbelievable horrors that this year has brought. And we really hope that because of this you enjoyed this episode and will join us and continuing to revel in the on sparing beauty and charms of the show Girl as seen throughout history and will continue to be seen today and into the future. And with that dress listeners, we bid you ado until next year. We will be back in January to launch season four. Until then, when you contemplate the legacy of fantastical fashions and sparkling show girls in your closet next time you get dressed, and remember, we love hearing from you, so please write to us at dress at i heart media dot com or you can also d m us on Instagram address Underscore podcast. We post images and reels to accompany each week's episode, and as always, a special thank you to our producers Casey Pegram, Holly Fry, and everyone else at iHeart Radio who helps make the show possible each and every week. Dress the History of Fashion is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcast in my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or where where else you listen to your favorite shows.

Dressed the History of Fashion is a production of I Heart Radio. Over seven billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common. Every day, we all get dressed. Welcome to Dressed the History of Fashion, a podcast where we explore the who, what, when, of why we wear. We are fashion historians and your hosts April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary. Hello, dress listeners. So for the past five seasons and almost five years, April and I have been bringing you a wide range of stories exploring and celebrating the significance of clothing from throughout history and around the world. We are currently on hiatus, researching away for a brand new season of Dressed. Season six will launch on January, and until then, we want to share with you some of our favorite Dressed classic episodes from the archive of almost four hundred past episodes. Enjoy well. Welcome back, dress Listeners to part two of our two part episode on the history of the relationship between fashion and the show Girl. Earlier this week, we explore this relationships early twenty century incarnations, including the collaboration between fashion designer Lucy a Lady Duff Gordon and the music hall impresario Florence Zig failed that introduced high fashion and the model show girl to the music hall stage. But what we have not yet discussed are the racialized and racist under trappings that really characterize many of these music hall productions of this time, and the mini black show girls who defied these stereotypes to establish and circulate their own standards of American beauty that really challenged the zig Feld show Girls embodiment of the quote unquote all American, all white beauty ideal. The quote unquote glorified American Girl became zig Field's official motto in nineteen twenty two, and in nineteen thirty one he even debuted a collection of textile designs for the Gold Fabrics Corporation entitled Glorifying the American Girl, in which all of the prints were quote inspired directly by some of the Folly's beauties who are considered typically American end quote. And of course, when he says typically American and all American, zig Field is really referring to exclusively white, heterosexual American women. And while performers of color did appear in the Folly reviews, all of the zig Field girls were white. Of course, this fact did not prevent the presence of numerous ethnic masquerades and the zig called volleys with the zig failed girls literally putting on and taking off different cultural identities with any number of overtly eroticized, exotic size and racialized costumes. The same ran true and reviews across America and Europe. And of course, if you want to hear more about the ethnic masquerade, you can listen to our episode with Vicky pass from earlier this year on fashioning White Femininity UM and so you can definitely check that out. So the question is just how did women performers of color carve out a space for themselves in this really overtly racist and exclusionary climate. And I'm actually very grateful test Bronze Humphrey who recently published an article entitled Fashioning the Black Chorus Girl on the Fashion and Race Database, And this article directly speaks to this very topic. And Humphrey Wrights quote, how did black chorus girls claim a black is beautiful aesthetic before the phrase even came into the vernacular? And she answers through intellect, through performance, and most importantly through fashion. Humphrey rits about how pioneering black performers such as Florence Mills helped to define a new standard of beauty for Black women, divorced from that of their white cat our parts. Mills rose to fame and fashion leader status thanks to her starring role in the musical review Blackbirds. According to Humphrey, quote, prior to the rise in fame of Mills, chorus girls existed to further perpetuate the exotic tropes that aided in the subjugation an assault of black women and quote. The nine twenties, however, witnessed and noted shift in the ways in which black women were represented in all black reviews. So take for instance, shows like Irving Miller's smash hit musical review entitled Brown Skin Models, and this review really moved away from racist tropes and stereotypes and instead promoted and celebrated black women in ways only previously reserved for their white counterparts. So this show is really inspired by the Zigfeld follies, and Miller similarly used model show girls to market the latest fashions to audiences. However, where Zigfeld had only ever been glorifying the white American girl, Miller's spectacular production, which actually toured in the United States and Canada for over thirty years, while Miller succeeded in quote glorifying the brown skin girl quote. In her recently published book work, A Queer History of Modeling, cultural theorists Elisabeth Brown writes about the ways in which Miller's review quote brought together two different aspects of modeling, the long established discourse of the artist model, with her relationship to aesthetics, the fine arts, and transgressive sexuality, and the contemporary Turrier's close model, whose performances of stately femininity and opulent costumes had to find Zigbil's model show girls end quote. So, in a series of comedic sketches, Tableau vivant, and dress prominades, Miller celebrated black women's sexuality, beauty, and fashionability in ways that countered, rather than reinforced, the racist, overtly sexualized stereotypes which had been rooted in slavery, and you know that had long been used to devour value and debased them as women. The celebrity of many of these music hall stars, like Florence Miller, were instrumental also in redefining the representation of black women on and off the stage, and no one is perhaps more famous for doing so than one Josephine Baker arguably the most famous show girl in history. And she was actually born Freedom McDonald, which I had no idea that was her real name. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in nineteen o six, and McDonald moved to New York City at the age of fifteen to fulfill her dreams to become an entertainer. And it was there in New York City that she renamed herself Josephine Baker. Upon arriving in New York, Baker appeared in the chorus line of two wildly successful Broadway reviews. The first was Shuffle Along, a groundbreaking musical production with an entirely black cast and creative team. American writer Links and Hues credits the production as representing the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. So Baker left New York for Paris at the age of nineteen, having landed a part in Lave Review Negra, which of course opened at the Chandelise Theater in and Baker's rise to start him was meteoric, to say the least. You know, just one year after arriving in Paris, she was headlighting reviews at the Folly Beer Chair, just one of numerous music halls and performance spaces that she would appear at over the ensuing decades, so Baker really at once embodied and eroticized the show girl esthetic. She's often performing bare chested, her chest adorned and jewels. Her frame is surrounded by huge plumed back pieces. And there's actually really wonderful surviving footage of Baker performing in nineteen thirty one in a review at the Casino de Paris that reveals her to be quite the dancer and acrobat. It's really fun. She flips and dances across the stage, and she herself is surrounded by a cast of beef feathered and be sparkled show girls who really serve as accessories to Baker's undeniable stage presence and charm. Baker obviously enraptured her audiences with her erotic dance performances during what she often, as cast said, performed topless, very scantily clad, and and little else but a sparkling leotard. Are most famously or infamously, depending on how you look at it, her banana skirt um and this costume remains the single most iconic costume of Baker's career, and as April alluded to Baker's banana skirt is as controversial as it is famous. Her career was in many ways built off of portraying racist, colonialist fantasies of hyper sexualized black women and the trope that reviews like brown Skin modelers were working really hard to counter. However, Baker really used and subverted these racist stereotypes and tropes to her own benefit. And Morgan Jerkins actually wrote an article for Vogue in which she talks about this, and she says quote when she swung on stage and that fiercely swinging banana skirt in nineteen twenty six, Baker brilliantly manipulated the white male imagination, crossing her eyes, waving her arms, swing her hips, poking out her backside. She clowned and seduced and subverted stereotypes by reclaiming her image. She advanced her career in ways unprecedented for a woman of that time. And Baker might have been parroting racist stereotypes on stage, but off stage, she most clearly understood the value and power inherent in high fashion. She used fashion to project an aura of glamour and sophistication that she maintained until her death in nineteen, but more on that after a brief sponsor break welcome back. When Baker arrived in Paris, she was reportedly wearing the same rather unassuming clothes she wore while an unknown chorus girl in New York City, and according to Baker, this was quote a checker dress with pockets held up by two checkered suspenders over my checkered blouse. But as Baker star rapidly rose the city of Paris, and most specifically the auvant karte fashion designer who lived there, Paul Parrey and also her one time lover, I should say he really can be credited with transforming her. And in her memoirs, Baker remembered pare sculpting address directly on her body out quote of the most beautiful silvery material I had ever seen. It looked like a flowing river. Monsieur Pare poured the gleaming torrent over me, rolled me up, and it draped it over my body, pulled it tight, ordered me to walk, then loosened it around my legs. I felt like a sea goddess emerging from the phone end quote. Pare was only the first of many designers to participate in what became Baker's lifelong love affair with high fashion. Baker's contemporary and friend Ada Smith recalled that quote. All the great designers, Paul Pare, ever Molineux, Jean Patu, we're fighting to dress her. She had an apartment right around the corner from the nightclub, and one day I went there and the clothes were piled high up on the floor, and I said, Josephine, why don't you hang these clothes up? Oh no, Ricky, She said, they're going to take them away tomorrow and bring another pile. I love that image. It's fantastic. Yeah. After a very public fallout with Pare over reportedly unpaid bills in nineteen twenty six, so Pari sued her for over two hundred thousand dollars, but he lost. So Baker had her pick after losing Pare or breaking up with Pare, who knows. She had her pick from designers eager to work with the sensation of Paris. So she collaborated with people like Madeline Vionna, Jean pet Two, and the luxury for a company for her Max, and all of these really helped to secure Baker's high fashion image, as did her appearances and fashion magazines such as Femina and Vogue. Baker also licensed her name to a variety of beauty products, and Baker's representation in the American fashion press, however, often belies the races which drove Baker to permanently relocate to France in ninety two, bogued assis readers, Was it Josephine Baker who made us all crave brown skins? Or wasn't it? Certainly we can't deny that it was that very summer when she first swang from the roof of the fully bogira and a banana peal and a diamond necklace, that all smart women began furling their parasols and deciding that it would be amusing to be brown. But did the dazzling effect of her savage, young limbs really inspire those first devotes or would they have done it without her? End quote? And this article acknowledges Baker's undeniable influence while simultaneously continuing to evoke these racist stereotypes that would ultimately undermine the transfer of her European success to America, her home country. She just never simply became as famous in the States as she was in Europe. Yeah, and at a certain point, and I think she just refused to perform here because it was like performing in front of segregated audiences and just you know, so much more avert racism um in America, which is a shame so Baker's because of this, Baker's career progressed outside of America, and along without her commitment to high fashion, which really reached his apex in the nineteen forties and fifties when she began wearing and collaborating with high fashion royalties such as Valenciaga and d Or. Towards the end of her life, Baker adopted a more utilitarian practical static in her private life, but her commitment to this really elegant public image really remained undetered until her death. In the nineteen seventies, Baker reportedly agreed to do a documentary with Follies Beerger author Charles Castle, but only on one condition, okacure or bus and Castle recalls quote, I learned that she would require a new order of clothes to be designed by either Jacques faf, Christian Dior or Pierre balma end quote. And really it was the cost of coature combined with Baker's high appearance fee that led to the film's unfortunate derailment. But Castle was quote greatly excited when a year later Baker opened up the London Palladium, but this time with a new act filled with glamor and glitter, feathers and fantasy, her artistry and magic undiminished. She took London by store glamorous to the very end. Baker performed in a crystal studied body suit and feathered turban just two years before her death at the now famous Battle of Versailles. Of course, that was in nineteen seventy three, and our listeners, of course probably remember from our Battle of Versilles episode with Robin Gavan that this title was given by the press to a charity fashion show event that was created to raise funds restore Versailles Palace. The event slaviely pitted American and French fashion designers against each other, with America famously usurping the world's reigning fashion leader France to become the battle's quote unquote winner. And while Baker might have performed for her adopted country of France, her legacy as a pioneering black performer was on full display in the American fashion shows where an unprecedented ten black models appeared. Robin gavon Um took this event on as a subject of her book Battle of Versailles, in which she wrote that quote, the appearance of this glamorous black woman who had defied American racism to find fame abroad was particularly overwhelming to the young black models who were still coming into their own beauty and their own maturity end quote. And Pat Cleveland was one of these young models who fought up the courage to actually approach Baker, who she described as quote larger than life, near mythic figure. In Cleveland's autobiography, she writes, quote, Josephine was dressed in a nude cat suit, her long legs covered in fishnet stockings with pearls dripping off of them. Her head dress of ostrich plumes was so enormous and high that I figured whatever balance she had came from having to hold up that thing. And apparently her friend came with her and and plucked a couple of Josephine's feathers off of her boa and Pat still has one of those feathers because it was such a special moment for her and Cleveland herself of course would portray Baker numerous times for her modeling career, including and Patrick Kelly's Fall Winter nineteen eight six collection, which was exclusively dedicated to the performer. Like Baker, Kelly abandoned America for Paris. He really made a name for himself in Paris as a playful and innovative designer whose designs have both celebrated his black heritage while also reclaiming racist imagery. Of his nineteen eight six collection Women, where Daily wrote Patrick Kelly wound up the season's collection at Gallery Colbert with the wackiest show. His Oh co Cher parody miniskirt, link furs, and omage to Josephine Baker managed to wrench lass from even the most fashioned, weary buyers end quote, and these laughs were no doubt inspired by Pat Cleveland's joyous impersonation of Baker. Cleveland claimed dancing and twirling down the runway and Kelly's version of Baker's famous banana skirt paired with a hot pink bra top. And Baker's tremendous legacy exists today not just in the iconic imagery associated with history's most famous show girl, but in black performers and models everywhere she has referenced time and time again. In two thousand and six, Fance paid tribute to Baker on what would have been her hundred's birthday, wearing a banana skirt costume on a televised Fashion TV special called Fashion Rocks. And Baker played such a potal role throughout Pat Cleveland's life and career that she was a central theme in the launch party of her memoir Walking with the Muses, and Cleveland performed a song dedicated to Baker and attired all of the models at the event in Vanessa skirts as an homage. And Baker's just one of those show girls that transcended her profession to become a pop culture icon, so you know her legacy will no doubt go on to inspire future generations as well. More Fashion and the show Girl after a brief sponsor break. While many fashion designers have been inspired by Josephine Baker specifically, many others have been inspired by the iconic Showgirl costume of feathers, sequence and towering hills and headwear, and no history of fashion in the Show Girl would be complete without talking about designer Bob Mackie, who has built a fifty plus year career out of a reverence for showgirl aesthetics he sure has, and before venturing into fashion design in the nineteen eighties, Mackie worked for over twenty years as a costume designer for the stage, in screen, and his designs with his life partner ray aayan Um for the film Lady Sings the Blues starring Diana Ross as Billie Holliday, actually earned the duo an Oscar nomination in nineteen seventy three, but really it was the glitz and glamor of the Las Vegas showgirl on which Mackie would really stake his reputation. He designed costumes for two Las Vegas reviews, The Zig Filled Follies inspired Hallelujah Hollywood and Julie, and the latter only recently closed in twenty sixteen after a thirty four year run, which is pretty amazing. And one of Macke's most famous costume designs is not for a show girl, but rather for a comedian who you all might have heard of, Carol Burnett, and I didn't know this. This is the only reason I'm interjecting this here in an episode otherwise about show girls, because he designed Burnett's infamous Scarlett O'Hara curtain dress for the Gone with the Wind parody on the Carol Burnett Show in nineteen seventies six, and this stress has undeniably gone down in history is one of the funniest and most enduring costumes of all time. But of course it's another famed performer to whom Macke's name renamed synonymous, and that performer is Share. Yes mack His collaboration with Share began in nineteen seventy one with the Sunny and Share Show and continues to this day. He can be credited with the most memorable and controversial looks of the Fashion Mavericks career, including the notorious mohawk Warrior ensemble worn to the nineteen eighties six Oscars, and obviously this sort of culturally appropriated look would never fly today, but the duo collaborated so often that Mackie's partner Raymond called Share Bob's Barbie Doll, and Shay says, quote, there was nothing he designed that I wouldn't wear. He'd walk the line between fashion and costume, and that is my favorite place to go end quote. In two thousand one, the Council of Fashion Designers of America or the CFDA, honored Mackie with a special award for his quote fashion Exuberance, and this award was presented to him by another long time client and close friend, Diana Ross. Mackie told The Wall Street Journal in two thousand five that his relationship to Share actually hindered his successful transfer from costume to fashion designer, something he first attempted to do in the eighties. Quote Nobody felt they could discover me since they already knew who I was. I had a lot of wearable clothes in my fashion collection, but what they thought of me was what I put on Share end quote. Of course, Share can't be entirely to blame for these associations, because Mackie would never completely divorce himself from his showgirl aesthetic. The Wash Street Journal also writes that quote, when Mr Mackie finally opened a design studio on Seventh Avenue in his fashion shows with themes such as Viva Las Vegas in made him the most theatrical designer of New York's Fashion Week. Mackie is only one of several prominent contemporary designers who have towed this line between fashion and costume design and their reverence for the show girl, and the show girl, you know, makes repeated appearances in the collections of designers like John Galliano during his tenure at Christian Dior and for the fall two thousand to Coltro collection, women's were a daily notes that Galliano sent quote skimpy show girl dresses and hugely extravagant feathered headdresses down the runway, and he did it again in his two thousand three fall winter collection. So you know, both of these collections really embody this over the top display for which you know, Galiana remains known today, of course, alongside his anti Semitic comments, which is the other thing that he remains stown for today. We're not going to get into that. But in two thousand six, Galiano was chosen by performer Kylie Minogue to design the costumes for her Showgirl tour. So like Galiano, any number of Terry Mugler's designs fine precedent in the showgirl costume. Vogue actually wrote about how for his fall winter collection, when Mugler needed to transform model Eva her Sagova into a show girl with a vast color of scarlet plumes, he went to none other than Madame Nicole, who holds court at Maisons. Favrier. Galiano similarly employed Favrier, the esteemed feather smith of the theater trade, and his first show girl extravaganza for Dior the same year. Vogue writes, quote, when Naja's arm was transformed into the head of a circus pony, it was Favre who supplied the ostrich Main and Igriant headdress. End quote. In the same article, Madame Nicole reveals her special connection to fashion, quote, I really specialize in shows, the Litto, the Mulan Rouge, the Folies Bergere. Normally it's La Marrier for fashion, but when they need very specific things, very spectacular things, they come to me. Well. Many fashion designers have found inspiration in the show girl tradition. It is no more deeply ingrained than in the work of Jean Paul Gautier, whose admiration for the performers began when he was a very small child. And Gautier has told women's were daily in quote, I dreamed of working on a review ever since I was a little boy, and I saw the opening night of the Folly bearg Air on my grandmother's TV. I got in trouble at school the next day because I was sketching girls and feathers and fishnets, and as a teacher apparently attempted to humiliate him by spanking him in front of the entire class. But I mean it didn't do anything. He was under teared after this incident. He said that he went home and then I did a review with my teddy bear at home. I pretended he had breasts. The first combra I did was for my teddy Bear, not for Madonna. I had a strawberry box for the stage, and I put a lot of feathers on my teddy bear. For the head dress, I used feathers from my cleaning brush for the finale. And Gautier landed his first job in fashion at the age of seventeen after sending in golden sequence covered fashion sketches to Pierre Cardan, as indicated by collections such as Paris and Its Muses for his Oatcatua Fall Winter to thousand, two thousand and one collection, and also punk can Can, which was his Coatra collection for a spring summerleven. You know, this sort of glitz and sparkle have remained a staple ever since his teen's Time memorial. Yeah exactly, and I'm also in perhaps the most highest exemplar of his showgirl admiration, Gautier created his very own review Um Gotier's Fashion Freak Show opened in at that very place that ignited his young passion at the fully Beers Air the show which is directed um, I think he has a co director, so he co directs it, and of course costumed it. Gotia costumed it, and it's really a celebration of the designers incredible life, his love affair with fashion and the show girls that inspired it all. Naturally, Gautier turned to his extensive fashion archive to design the costumes. Many fashion shows populate the performance, featuring Godier's signature designs, including, of course know the famous cone raw corset and the white and blue striped sweater with which he remains synonymous today. Also, there are familiar show girls and showgirls tropes throughout which makes appearances, including Josephine Baker, who, in a gender bending expression, is portrayed both by a man and none other than Anna Cleveland, Pat Cleveland's daughter. So really, the Cleveland Baker legacy continues, and no doubt it's heart of force of imagery and imaginations. We do find fault with one small element of the show's marketing. The show bills itself as representing a new type of entertainment that merges a music hall review with a fashion show. So fashion friends, we think Lucille and Florence Ziegfeld, Josephine Baker, and Irving Miller all might have a little something to say about that. So you know, Gautier has certainly built upon, an expanded upon this relationship between the stage, the show girl, and fashion that has been in the making for over a century. And in these unprecedented times, the show Girl and all that she represents escapism, unbridled fantasy, really she remains more important and more relevant than ever as a much needed respite from the unbelievable horrors that this year has brought. And we really hope that because of this you enjoyed this episode and will join us and continuing to revel in the on sparing beauty and charms of the show Girl as seen throughout history and will continue to be seen today and into the future. And with that dress listeners, we bid you ado until next year. We will be back in January to launch season four. Until then, when you contemplate the legacy of fantastical fashions and sparkling show girls in your closet next time you get dressed, and remember, we love hearing from you, so please write to us at dress at i heart media dot com or you can also d m us on Instagram address Underscore podcast. We post images and reels to accompany each week's episode, and as always, a special thank you to our producers Casey Pegram, Holly Fry, and everyone else at iHeart Radio who helps make the show possible each and every week. Dress the History of Fashion is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcast in my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or where where else you listen to your favorite shows.