8 Ways Hollywood Changed Fashion

Before there was Sarah Jessica Parker, there was Jennifer Beals
8 Ways Hollywood Changed Fashion
John Travolta is shown in a scene from "Saturday Night Fever" in 1977.   (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures)

Fashionistas rejoice: Mad Men returns tonight! To celebrate the show's influence on fashion—yes, thin-lapelled suits and Peter Pan collars are back—CNN remembers other Hollywood offerings that dominated the fashion zeitgeist:

  • Some say Clarke Gable's bare chest in It Happened One Night caused undershirt sales to plummet by 75% in 1934. Either way, skin was in.
  • The 1970s look for men was crotch-hugging pants, spread-collar shirts, and brash jewelry—and thanks to Saturday Night Fever, we knew how to show it.

  • Jennifer Beals cut the collar off a sweatshirt only to get it over her head, but her accidental off-the-shoulder look in Flashdance made active wear look sexy.
  • What’s a list about Hollywood fashion without Sex and the City goddess Carrie Bradshaw? Simply put: She shopped, and a nation swooned.
Read the complete list—including the influence of Regis Philbin—by clicking the link below. (More Mad Men stories.)

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