Jean Louis (born Jean Louis Berthault; October 5, 1907 – April 20, 1997) was French-American costume designer.
He won the Oscar Award for The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956).
Before coming to Hollywood, he worked in NY for fashion entrepreneur Hattie Carnegie, where the clientele included Joan Cohn, wife of Columbia studio chief Harry Cohn.
Rita Hayworth: Gilda
He worked as head designer for Columbia from 1944 to 1960. His most famous works include Rita Hayworth’s black satin strapless dress from Gilda (1946), Marlene Dietrich’s celebrated beaded souffle swear for cabaret world tours.
He designed the sparkling gown that Marilyn Monroe wore when she sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to John F. Kennedy in 1962.
The dress was so tight that he actually sewn it while Monroe was wearing it. The idea of a dress being a nude color, with crystals coating it, stunned audiences. It gave the illusion that Monroe was nude, except for discretely placed rhinestones covering her head to toe.
Louis had originally designed version of the dress for Dietrich, who wore it in her concert shows. An impressed Monroe asked Dietrich about it, who told her how the dress’s illusion worked, and sent her to Louis to design a similar dress for her Kennedy appearance. While Dietrich had been seen wearing her version before Monroe, the press coverage surrounding Monroe’s appearance at Madison Square Garden swept the globe.
This robe became—besides the white one from “The Seven Year Itch”—Marilyn Monroe’s most famous robe, selling at auction in 2016 for 4.8 million dollars.
In 1993, four years after his second wife’s wife, Louis married former client Loretta Young; they remained married until his death in 1997.
He had designed Young’s wardrobe for her TV program The Loretta Young Show (1953–61), an anthology show noted for Young’s show-opening and closing scenes that had viewers tuning in especially to view her high-fashion outfit. Young was known as the best-dressed actress in America at that time.
For over 40 years, Louis designed clothes for every star in Hollywood.
Around 60 of his designs appeared in movies, and he was eventually nominated for 13 Oscars.
Some of his clients included Ginger Rogers, Irene Dunne, Lana Turner, Vivien Leigh, Joan Crawford, Julie Andrews, Katharine Hepburn, and Judy Garland.
Some of his film credits included, A Star Is Born, Cukor’s 1954 masterpiece, Ship of Fools, From Here to Eternity, Thoroughly Modern Millie.
He won Oscar for his designs in The Solid Gold Cadillac in 1956.
In 1937, a year after Louis immigrated to the US, he designed the Carnegie suit, a suit that became an icon in the fashion world. The Carnegie suit was one of the first fashions to become very well-liked as an American name design, and its fitted blazer and long pencil skirt was worn by several actresses and society women at the time.
The Duchess of Windsor became one of his most famous clients, as well as the First Lady Nancy Reagan in the 1980s.
Oscar Nominations
1950 – Film: Born Yesterday
1952 – Film: Affair in Trinidad
1953 – Film: From Here to Eternity
1954 – Film: It Should Happen to You
1954 – Film: A Star Is Born
1955 – Film: Queen Bee
1956 – Film: The Solid Gold Cadillac; Won
1957 – Film: Pal Joey
1958 – Film: Bell, Book and Candle
1961 – Film: Judgment at Nuremberg
1961 – Film: Back Street
1965 – Film: Ship of Fools
1966 – Film: Gambit
1967 – Film: Thoroughly Modern Millie
Actresses Designed for:
Rita Hayworth in Tonight and Every Night, 1945, Gilda, 1946, Down To Earth, 1947, The Lady from Shanghai, 1948, The Loves of Carmen, 1948, Affair in Trinidad, 1952, Miss Sadie Thompson and Salome, 1953
Irene Dunne in Together Again, 1944
Claudette Colbert in Tomorrow is Forever 1946
Judy Holliday, Born Yesterday, 1950; Solid Gold Cadillac, 1956
Lucille Ball in The Magic Carpet, 1951
Gloria Grahame in The Big Heat, 1953
Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity, 1953
Judy Garland in A Star is Born, 1954
Joan Crawford in Queen Bee, 1955
Betty Grable in Three for the Show, 1955
Kim Novak in Picnic, 1955, and Bell, Book, and Candle, 1958
Kim Novak and Rita Hayworth in Pal Joey, 1957
Lana Turner in Imitation of Life, 1959
Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959), The Thrill of It All (1962), Send Me No Flowers (1964) and Ballad of Josie (1968)
Loretta Young for The Loretta Young Show, TV series, 1953–1961
Marlene Dietrich in The Monte Carlo Story, 1956, and Judgment at Nuremberg, 1961
Susan Hayward in Back Street, 1961
Marilyn Monroe in The Misfits, 1961, Something’s Got to Give (unfinished), 1962
Vivien Leigh in Ship of Fools, 1965
Shirley MacLaine in Gambit, 1966
Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Channing, Thoroughly Modern Millie, 1967
Eva Gabor for Green Acres Television series, 1965–1967
Barbara Bel Geddes, Dallas TV series, 1978–1984; 1985–1990
