The History Of The Capri Pants, The Design That Encouraged The Women Of The World To Forget Skirts And Dresses | The USA Print – THE USA PRINT

75 years ago there was not a trace of pants in the women’s wardrobe. The always irreverent Coco Chanel had managed to introduce certain changes by integrating the pants herself into her outfits as a symbol of emancipation and empowerment. However, this functional garment was reserved for the male public and the fact that a woman wore them was news in itself, if not a provocation or even a crime depending on the country. And if not, ask Katharine Hepburn, eternally remembered for wearing pants, a “milestone” almost more celebrated than her four Oscars. However, also 75 years ago, a German designer unknown to the general public, named Sonja de Lennart, marked a before and after by designing pants for women that have gone down in history as one of the key pieces of every summer wardrobe. . Those pants launched on the market in 1948 under the name of Capri pants, differed greatly from men’s designs. To begin with, the shape of the garment emphasized the feminine forms, it was not baggy like the men’s pants of the time, but rather highlighted the volume of the legs. Its waist rose above the hip and visually narrowed the waist, but its great particularity resided in the hem, located above the ankles and with a small side opening.

Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood in 1960. Photo: Getty

Some pants to change the world

But why have pants designed by a German dressmaker gone down in history with the nickname of an Italian island? The story says that it was Sonja de Lennart herself who gave them that name as a tribute to the bond that her family had with Capri, a place where they had spent some vacation periods. In fact, the capri pants were part of a collection of the same name, which also included blouses and skirts. In a historical context marked by the end of World War II, the German economy was in the doldrums, but Sonja de Lennart managed to position herself as one of the most influential designers in her country and the pieces made in her atelier located in Munich dressed hundreds of women tired of nondescript clothes. One of the first actresses who fell in love with the creative’s proposals was Ingrid Bergman, although her jump to Hollywood from her designs was produced by Edith Head.

In terms of fashion, Edith Head was the most powerful figure in the film industry, recognized with eight Academy Awards and the creator of the outfits of the most established actresses of classic Hollywood, from Grace Kelly to Natalie Wood or Tippi Hedren. for the wardrobe of Holidays in Rome (William Wyler, 1953), the film that would launch a still unknown Audrey Hepburn to stardom, the costume designer chose several garments from the aforementioned Sonja de Lennart Capri collection. Among them, the blouse and skirt that Hepburn’s character wears while she rides a Vespa with Gregory Peck through the eternal city. The most iconic image of Hepburn in capri pants is found, however, in another film. V had not been released yetHolidays in Rome when Hepburn began filming Sabrina (Billy Wilder, 1954). In one of the promotional images for the film, whose wardrobe was devised between Edith Head and Hubert de Givenchy, Hepburn highlighted her slender figure with black capri pants that soon became identified with the actress’s relaxed way of dressing, where the shoes High-heeled shoes were replaced by flat shoes and the corseted dresses of the time that highlighted a cone-shaped chest, by designs where the natural shape of her bust was respected.

It was a matter of time before the garment became fashionable. Professional colleagues like Marilyn Monroe also fell in love with the relaxed elegance of capri pants, a garment that the interpreter wore in the privacy of the home and in her private life. In a report from Magazine Life published in 1953, Monroe appears portrayed in a simple black sweater and white capri pants, a style far removed from the exuberance that characterized her wardrobe in the movies and that Ana de Armas replicated in one of the scenes in Blonde, characterized with an identical wardrobe. The versatile Doris Day, the French Brigitte Bardott or the popular Elizabeth Taylor did not resist capri pants either and championed that incipient female emancipation, also reflected in the wardrobe and the progressive use of pants by women from a large part of the world.

Ana de Armas in ‘Blonde’. Photo: Cordon Press

Housewives and the ‘jet set’: they all love capri pants

Together with the actresses on whom the demanding star system From the cinema of the time, there was a woman who brought capri pants to millions of homes in the United States of the sixties. Mary Tyler Moore, star of the hit series The Dick Van Dyke Showgave life to Laura Petrie, the housewife and wife of the protagonist in the Show. In an interview given in 2004, the interpreter pointed out that the fact of wearing capri pants in fiction was not at all a casual decision: “I asked Laura to wear pants because women did not wear dresses to vacuum (…) We agreed not to I would wear the pants in more than one scene per episode, and we did it for three episodes but in the end I was just wearing pants.” Little by little, the image of the modern woman began to take shape.

The garment’s link to the island of Capri took on new meaning in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as the European and American jet set turned the Italian coast into the epicenter of glamour. When they were not basking in the sun on a yacht anchored in some secluded cove with crystal-clear water, the most powerful women of the moment strolled the cobbled streets, from Taormina to Capri, letting themselves be seen in those summer pants that uncovered their ankles and highlighted their legs. . One of the most assiduous to this garment was Jackie Kennedy. After the abrupt and tragic end of her marriage to John F. Kennedy, the former first lady married the Greek magnate Aristotle Onassis and spent long periods in Greece, although Italy was always a very present country on her summer getaways. . Unforgettable are the photographs of her from the seventies on the island of Capri, where she combines discreet capri pants with maxi sunglasses and a headscarf.

Jacquemus’s proposal.

Throughout the decades, the capri pants have remained one of those wild card garments capable of building an impeccable look with the minimum amount of effort. Meghan Markle or Ivanka Trump opt for the most formal version of the garment. At the opposite extreme we find the transgressive choices of Bella Hadid or Julia Fox. Be that as it may, its versatile character has allowed it to become a constant in the summer collections of all kinds of brands, from ultra-fast fashion stores to most exclusive luxury boutiques. On the current catwalk, the 2000 reminiscences that engulf the most successful trends update the usual capri pants without neglecting their marked summer spirit. we have seen it in the holidaythe capsule collection created by Donatella Versace and Dua Lipa for the Italian label, where the capri pants are printed with butterflies (the favorite insect of the GenZ. Much more classic is the proposal by Jacquemus, a firm that articulates almost all its proposals in around the concept of sun, summer and beach.In his case, the capri pants remain a few centimeters above the ankle and from the firm they propose combining it with a wicker bag and a cropped shirt.The most comfortable and simple version comes from the hand of The Row, with the Lisa pants, an oversize model with which the actress Jennifer Lawrence has been photographed on several occasions recently.Reinterpreted to adapt to all kinds of styles, the capri pants reaffirm one more season as a powerful basic without expiration date in sight.

La Vacanza, the capsule collection created by Donatella Versace and Dua Lipa.