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Celebrity Fashion: How it all Started

Celebrity fashion. Why are we so fascinated by the subject? Whether we admit it or not, there's no denying the fact that we like to see how famous people dress. As the summer movie season gets in to full gear, it's as great a time as any to look at one of most-requested topics I get: celebrity fashion.

How Motion Pictures Changed Everything

Moving pictures first made their appearance in the 1890's. While Thomas Edison is generally credited with inventing the medium, several men were instrumental in giving birth to this process, including the brothers Lumière, who invented the first portable movie camera, and George Eastman, who created film for motion pictures.

The first movies lasted only minutes and had no sound. Nonetheless, they created a sensation. By 1910, the Eastman Company had perfected the technology of fashioning and developing vast lengths of film. Within a matter of years, going to the movies on Saturday was a part of our culture.

1916 marked the emergence of costume design in cinema. Up until that time, film actors usually supplied their own clothes, if the story was contemporary, or directors rented outfits from costume companies, if the film was a period piece.

But Parisian-born director Louis J. Gasnier had a particular "look" in mind when he was working on a movie with serial queen Pearl White. He summoned a tailor and had him assemble an outfit for the actress consisting of a black suit, white blouse, loose tie, and velour beret. The result? Secretaries of the day made this ensemble standard business dress-which it still is, in varying degrees. It was the first emergence of Hollywood celebrity fashion.

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Diana Pemberton-Sikes is a wardrobe and image consultant and author of "Wardrobe Magic," an ebook that shows women how to transform their unruly closets into workable, wearable wardrobes. Visit her online at www.fashionforrealwomen.com

All articles are copyrighted by Diana Pemberton-Sikes.