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From Catwoman to Cookie & Claire: The 9 Most Stylish Divas In TV History
Yahoo Style
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From Catwoman to Cookie & Claire: The 9 Most Stylish Divas In TV History
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Catwoman of “Batman” Played first by Julie Newmar, then Eartha Kitt, on the camp 1960s superhero hit Batman, the conniving Catwoman, designed by Hollywood stalwart Pat Barto, was a purring, hissing vision of mod slinkiness in her sparkly, stretchy jumpsuit, low-slung gold belt, medallion necklace, kitten heels (of course), eye-mask and perky black ears. (She also wasn’t averse to slinging around a fox stole, as evidenced by this hilarious clip.) “I’m surprised they didn’t change the costume from Julie Newmar to Eartha Kitt,” says Ramos. “But I think Julie wins because she’s giving you more hourglass hips.” He also notes, “The bullet bra is late 50s, early 60s, but the hair flip and the belt are mid-60s mod.” One outstanding query, though: “When does she decide to put on the mask? It’s not much of a mask, anyway.”
Nellie Oleson of “Little House on the Prairie”
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TV’s youngest bad bitch was played by Alison Arngrim in the 1970s on the heartwarming-cum-corny 1880s frontier drama Little House on the Prairie. Naughty Nellie was outfitted in no end of garishly colored frills and bows, all meant to signal that she was a big ole spoiled little rich bitch, especially compared to the humble calico frocks of poor-but-decent-hearted Laura and Mary Ingalls. “She’s the reason I watched Little House," says Ramos. "Her big barrel curls were amazing. At the start of the series, she’s wearing the same kind of basic dress as Laura, but eventually she becomes an American Girl doll. There was a scene where she’s coming out of church in a purple dress with deep-contrast black trim and her mother is wearing high-1970s sunglasses.”
Abby Ewing of “Knots Landing”
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In the late 70s and early 80s, primetime soap Dallas had its bad boy in Larry Hagman’s J.R. Ewing, while its sibling show Knots Landing had its scheming, seducing female counterpart in this icy bitch par excellence played by Donna Mills. Telling off sexist men, sacking inferiors or going after competitor’s fortunes, Abby always looked amazing, her giant blue eyes framed by early-80s softly frizzled blond tresses. “She’s very glassy-eyed, classic eighties backlit with scrunched hair,” says Ramos, pointing to Abby in a gold-lamé jacket with a plunging neckline. “How does this outfit belong in suburban California? She’s giving you the designer Fabrice doing Night of 100 Stars.”
Alexis Carrington of “Dynasty”
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“People always tell me Sex and the City was the first fashion-driven TV show, but I think it was Dynasty,” says Field of the glitzy nighttime soap that defined over-the-top excess in the Reagan era. Could the shoulders have been any more padded, the gowns fuller or more luminescent, the jewels more sumptuous? And has there ever been a better-decked-out bad bitch than Alexis Colby, the British business mogul and ferocious mama-bear played by Joan Collins? “She was the first defining fashion character,” says Field. Of course, it helped that the show’s designer, TV legend Nolan Miller, had a $35,000 weekly budget to dream up duds for Colby and her fellow glamazons Krystle Carrington and Dominique Deveraux. Miller’s genius was that he took the sartorial drama of forties film divas like Joan Crawford and translated them to the broad shoulders, nipped waists and bold colors of the 1980s. “ Dynasty was costuming influencing fashion whereas today it’s the reverse, with most TV designers just pulling from store racks,” says Ramos. “Alexis did turbans, fur, fur hats, everything.” But the quintessential Alexis, he says, is definitely in lamé.
Amanda Woodward of “Melrose Place”
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Who in the 1980s could’ve predicted that Heather Locklear’s sassy, trashy Sammy Jo on Dynasty would morph in the early nineties into Melrose Place‘s bitchy, miniskirted workplace tormentor of poor Alison or bed partner of nearly every man (except gay Matt) in the eponymous apartment complex she buys up? Amanda’s look on the show is “high nineties,” says Ramos. “Tight-fitting miniskirt suits with long jackets, lots of crop tops, high pumps, with a very minimal palette of white, red and black. You’ve still got some major shoulder pads. The early nineties were basically the 1980s coming in for a soft landing.” Essentially, Amanda rocked the same highlighted blonde hair and monochrome clothes of the era’s less bitchy TV icons, Ally McBeal and Friends' Rachel, played by Jennifer Aniston.
Wilhelmina Slater of “Ugly Betty”
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Field herself designed or styled the costumes for Vanessa Williams’ imperious fashion editrix on the 2000s-era series Ugly Betty. Based on a wildly popular Latin American telenovela, the show could often be genuinely moving about the American immigrant experience, but most of the time it was just good, campy fun, and Wilhelmina’s costumes reflected that. Field says that creating her look was all about finding the “parallel line” in Williams’ real-life story. “They took Vanessa’s Miss America crown away for posing for nude pics, which was strictly racism, but she said 'f*** you’ and overcame that and built a career on top of it,” says Field, “and to me, that’s a bad-ass bitch.” With a wardrobe that was sleek, mostly monochromatic and generous with the decolletage, Wilhelmina offered a cartoon version of a cutthroat fashion-mag titan. “Her look was exaggerated and outspoken,” says Field.
Fish Mooney of “Gotham”
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Jada Pinkett-Smith just announced she was leaving Gotham, Fox’s Batman-origin-story series, after one season, but her character, the smoky gangster Fish Mooney–a fashion mash-up between Sharon Stone in Casino and Tina Turner in Mad Max–will leave a lasting impression. “Her hair tipped in those red streaks makes an immediate impression, because the first thing you look at is the upper portion of the body,” says Field.
Claire Underwood of “House of Cards”
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Historically dowdy Washington, D.C. has never looked so lethally chic as it does in the guise of Robin Wright’s icily scheming nonprofit head turned First Lady in the Machiavellian Netflix hit House of Cards. Dressed mostly in too-busy-to-accessorize black or white business wear and a menacingly immobile blond pageboy that frames razor-sharp cheekbones, Claire represents contemporary corporate careerism taken to nefarious extremes. “She typifies the zeitgeist,” says Field. “Chic, understated, tasteful, expensive.” Says Ramos: “It’s clean, contrived simplicity. The skirt is always narrow and past the knee. She’s giving you a Washington version of a noir villainess, non-for-profit executive realness.”
Cookie Lyon of “Empire”
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Valentino, Louboutin, Philip Treacy, Gucci, Chanel, Balmain. Those are but a few of the designers whose duds Empire costume designer Rita McGhee–who gets up to $20,000 per episode to play with–has bought or borrowed to create the glitzed-out, badass bosswoman look of Taraji P. Henson’s sexy jailbird momma on the show. Expertly, McGhee mixes furs, animal prints, metallics and big statement jewelry to create a look for Cookie that’s both luxe and ghetto-fab. “It’s a mixture of all class, beauty, elegance and the 'hood,” McGhee has said of the formula. “It’s high-end; it’s low-end.” Of course, today, there’s less of a firewall between TV costumes and retail fashion, which is why Cookie’s look is equal parts over-the-top and accessible. “Her wardrobe to me is more trendy than badass,” says Field. But in a current TV landscape where most dangerous woman dress with the monochrome, minimal 9-to-5 sleekness of House of Cards' Claire Underwood or Scandal's Olivia Pope, it’s no wonder that Cookie’s riot of furs and prints has people calling her TV’s most outrageous dresser since the Dynasty days.
On TV, it’s been a long time since there’s been a bad bitch–and that is to say, a seriously stylish, scheming siren–like ex-con matriarch Cookie Lyon on Fox’s monster hit Empire. But Cookie is but the latest in a long line of bad TV bitches who were seriously helped by take-no-prisoners wardrobes in signaling come-hither deviousness. And while we wait for the second season of Empire, let’s look back all the way to the 1960s and work our way up to the Cookie Monster! Along for the ride are two costume designers who know how to dress a bad bitch. First, there’s Broadway’s Clint Ramos, who created costumes for “Here Lies Love,” David Byrne’s recent discofied stage biography of 1980s Filipino First Lady (and genuinely bad bitch) Imelda Marcos. Then there’s the legendary Patricia Field. As the woman who dressed both the dames of Sex and the City and The Devil Wears Prada’s Miranda Priestley, she also knows a thing or two about how clothes help make a dangerous woman.
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