Fashion Influential #94: Irene Castle
Ballroom dancer Irene Castle. Image via Flickr.IRENE CASTLE
Born:
April 17, 1893 in New Rochelle, New York
Died:
January 25, 1969
Couturier:
Lady Christiana, Lady Duff Gordon
Hair Inspiration to:
All bobbed starlets of the 1920s
Beginnings.
Irene Castle, born Irene Foote, was an American ballroom dancer who rose to fame in the 1910s. She and her husband, Vernon Castle, introduced American ragtime dances like the Turkey Trot and the Grizzly Bear to Paris before returning to sold-out vaudeville audiences and picture deals in the United States.
Career Highs.
The Castles starred in a film called The Whirl of Life, a critical and commercial success, in 1915. Irene's thin, elegant, innovative look, which included short bobbed hair, was imitated by thousands of women as Castle's star skyrocketed. Irene claimed to have shorn her hair to enable freer movement while dancing; ten years later, all the trendiest ladies had adopted her boyish "flapper" look.
Mrs. Vernon Castle...set today's fashion in outline of costume and short hair for the young woman of America.
- Emily Burbank, Woman as Decoration, 1917
Castle also popularized shorter hemlines.Career Lows.
Irene suffered an enormous tragedy in 1918, when her husband Vernon died after a plane crash during military training. She wrote a memoir dedicated to him, My Husband, the following year. Their life story was dramatized into a film, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, in 1939. Irene was played by Ginger Rogers; Vernon, Fred Astaire.
Legacy.
Castle was often called "the best dressed woman in America," but she was more than a fashion plate - she was an innovator. She made a daring, edgy look mainstream through a simple act of confidence, and perhaps set into effect the revolution in women's dress that defined the flapper movement of the 1920s.
The bob is still a popular look for many celebrities today.
Get the Look.
Irene Castle may have chopped her hair into a classic bob a century ago, but the look is still very chic. Victoria Beckham, Katie Holmes, and Jenny McCarthy are just a few of the popular celebrities who have sported the look in recent years. For an ultra-modern take on Castle's bob check out our pictures of the inverted bob. - Alicia
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