Second Amendment 01d No.2 Brand Shirt

Emancipation through professional activity is one of the connotations of the white shirt as it is picked up by Hollywood in the 1920s. An attribute of the working girl, the egalitarian aspect of the white shirt becomes prevalent when it is adopted by some of the stars that privilege a masculine/feminine look: primarily Louise Brooks, Marlene Dietrich and Katherine Hepburn. The modernity of Brooks is clear from a juxtaposition of her portrait with a portrait of architect and designer Eileen Gray taken around the same period.n other instances, Hollywood sentimentalises or theatricalises the white shirt. Worn by Marlene Dietrich in a more feminine version, in combination with a men’s suit and tie. On Katherine Hepburn in the 1938 film Holiday, it evokes the ingénue and her independent spirit. Visually the white shirt responds well to the lighting used in Hollywood movies. In the 1930s it also serves to promote the emancipatory image of the modern independent and working American woman. Next to the sophisticated outfits created for the cinema, the plain white shirt affects an allure of democratisation of fashion.

Second Amendment 01d No.2 Brand Shirt

Bowie’s version of androgyny evokes Weimar era cabaret life, while Patti Smith claims a literary heritage that is found again at the same epoch in the public persona of young ‘new philosopher’ Bernard Henry Levy. Levy, who, after he publishes La Barbarie à Visage humain in 1977, soon becomes a public figure. His unbuttoned white shirt becomes a uniform that marks a distance from the traditional academic in suit and tie. His sartorial choice – which has remained consistent to this day – identifies a literary heritage (Balzac, encore) while its open buttons and rolled sleeves mark his involvement in public life and independence from bureaucratic institutions and also subtly nods towards the intimacy of the shirt as under garment.