All language subtitles for American.Style.S01E01.720p.AMZN.WEBRip.x264-GalaxyTV_Subtitles01.ENG

Field: How you live
and what your values are,

that's what style is.

Style is
how you surround yourself.

It's each generation
finding their identity.

Have you ever broken any rules,
Selena?

And looking
at the '40s and '50s,

there's a tremendous amount
of change.

Gunn:
The bikini was the biggest thing
since the atom bomb.

It's scandalous.

Hollywood has always been
so influential

in how women
view themselves.

I mean, Katharine Hepburn
made pants happen.

Boyd:
Going against the grain

had become
its own unique identity.

Hey, Johnny, what are you
rebelling against?

Whaddya got?

'40s and '50s were definitely
America finding itself,

a voice for American style.

Tiffany:
In the beginning of the 1940s,

American style was very simple
without a lot of adornment.

Kressley:
Coming out of the '30s,

consumption
was not something you did.

I mean, you know, we all hear
stories of grandparents who say,

"Oh, hold on.

I want to save
that TV dinner foil!

I'm gonna use that again."

That's the mentality
of growing up in a depression.

When you don't have stuff,

you work with what you have.

Most women learned how to sew
at a very early age,

and they would make
their own shirts and dresses

and, you know,
a whole wardrobe.

My mother
had a sewing machine.

I was constantly telling her
what I wanted,

and she would constantly tell me

that it would have to be
something else.

It was a different mentality.

An everyday man would probably
own one suit and one hat.

My grandfather would take
my mother to baseball games.

He always was in a suit and tie
and often a vest,

you know,
on the hottest day.

My mother,
who loved to go with him,

would say,
"Why are you wearing a suit?"

And he would say, "You know,
I'm taking a lady out.

I always wear a suit."

There wasn't a lot of ingenuity
going on in fashion.

Steele: America was still
a remarkably provincial country.

The leading emphasis,

not only on in fashion
but in art, et cetera,

was in France.

Americans felt
very second-rate

when comparing ourselves
to Europe.

We've always seen Europe
as the leaders.

Americans looked, I think,
to Europe as aristocratic.

We had Europe as, you know,
the icon of style.

Before World War II,
we were a nation of copiers.

We've been
a nation of copiers.

Roosevelt:
December 7th, 1941 --

a date which will live
in infamy.

The American people
in their righteous might

will win through
to absolute victory.

During World War II,

everyone was involved
in that war effort.

Man: War ration book #2 --

180 million of them
rolling off the presses.

Coupons that represent

civilian America's
future purchases

of rationed goods.

Truhler:
The government rationing

that happened
as a result of the war

dramatically impacted style.

Gunn:
Textiles are not being used
for apparel purposes,

at least on civilians.

Everything's being channeled
to the war efforts.

Steele: During the war,

extraneous waste of materials
like extra pockets

would be forbidden
by the new rationing rules.

Men's clothing,

which used to be identified

by having jackets with lapels

and pants with cuffs
and pleats,

all that excess fabric
goes away.

Banks: You could not have flaps
on a jacket pocket.

Pants could not be wider
than 19-1/2 inches.

Women were asked to give up
their silk stockings

so they could be recycled
for war purposes.

Woman: Off with the stockings,
girls.

They're due for the discard,

and the war effort needs them.

The stockings will be used
in making powder bags

for firing heavy guns.

Tiffany:
The scarcity of things

pushed people
to be more creative,

like women drawing a line
on the back of their legs

to imitate the seam
of their stockings.

Man: It's just a low-down trick
for the eyebrow pencil.

Legs or eyebrows --
it's all the same.

Only a little difference
in shape.

Girls would turn tablecloths
into skirts, for example.

People at that stage

were very much
behind the war effort.

It was, you know, something that
created a sense of community

and pulling together.

It made people feel involved

in what was going on
around them

because it literally hit them,
you know,

in every aspect of
their home and domestic life.

Pre-war women

were still predominantly
in the household.

It was crazy before

to have women
in the workplace,

certainly not even considered

that women would be
something like a welder.

But when World War II hit,

all of a sudden,
women flooded the workforce.

But it's really not good

to wear a big, puffy skirt

when you're operating
heavy machinery.

So utilitarian needs

required women to suit up
and hit the factories.

The age of Rosie the Riveter
changed women's sense of style,

changed how they
expressed themselves.

Field: It was a change
in the lifestyle of the woman,

and I think that affected
what she was exposed to.

She had new influences,
new environment, new stimulus.

As a child, I was fortunate
to have young aunts.

They went to work.

And they really
paint the picture

of how life
had changed drastically

because of the war.

Von Furstenberg:
It was an emancipation
for the woman.

They had that strength
that women have

when things are tough.

Wearing the pants
and taking on male roles

had a subliminal message

that there could be
a toughness about women

that was never identified
before.

That changed everything.

For men,
certainly in the '40s,

it was considered
not a manly thing

to be even
thinking about wardrobe.

You just wore clothes.

Banks: But there was a style
that started for men,

and it was a very different,
very colorful style.

A very extravagant way
of dressing

that was embraced by minorities.

♪ I want a zoot suit
with a reet pleat ♪

♪ With a drape shape
and a stuff cuff ♪

To look sharp enough
to see my Sunday gal ♪

Steele: Zoot suits
were primarily worn by

African-American
and Latino-American men.

People who were sort of
on the outside edge.

Steele:
The suits were long jackets

and very full trousers

and had various accessories,

like, you know, a watch fob
on a long chain, et cetera.

It was really one of
the first youth cultures.

Some might see
the zoot suit as flashy,

and perhaps it was,

but these are the most
marginalized people in society.

And even though
they may have been treated

as second-class citizens,

when they put on
these zoot suits,

they suddenly had an identity.

They suddenly
could see themself

in a different light.

♪ I've got a zoot suit
with a reet pleat ♪

♪ And a stuff cuff
and the glad plaid ♪

♪ In the latest fad

♪ To see my Sunday gal

Steele:
The '40s were a period

when there was tremendous
panic or paranoia

about youth cultures,

and particularly when they were
minority-youth cultures.

So there were a lot of
racist reactions

against zoot suiters,

most notoriously

in the so-called
Zoot Suit Riots

in Los Angeles in 1943.

Crowds of
white men and servicemen

were beating up
Latino and black men

for wearing zoot suits.

Soldiers who were on leave,
seeing these guys,

and saying you're unpatriotic.

You know, they defied
the war-rationing efforts.

Boyd: The pride of these
individuals wearing the suit

was offensive to a lot of
conservative white males

who were not comfortable
with men of color

asserting themself in any way,

even in the way
that they dressed.

The zoot suit came to be
the kind of lightning rod

of prejudice and fear
and racism.

It was the symbol of conflict
in the United States.

Man: Hollywood --

brilliant tinsel city
of lights and fantasy.

Hollywood --

glorified, glittering,
fascinating mythical kingdom.

Hollywood --

the glamour capital
of the world.

Gunn: Before World War II,

we would head to
the Paris couture collections.

We would sketch.

We'd photograph them.

And then bring back
all of those ideas

and copy them here.

The only place in this nation

where anything was happening

that was creative
and innovative in fashion

was Hollywood.

Parsons School of Design

launched the first program
in fashion in 1906.

Where did those
early graduates go?

They went to the up-and-coming
and then burgeoning

film industry in Hollywood.

Hollywood has always been
America's dream factory,

and that was especially true,
I think,

before the rise of other media
like television.

Americans looked
to Hollywood movies,

and they saw the kind of lives
they wanted to live,

the cars they wanted to drive,

the clothes they wanted to wear.

Banks:
Film was very escapist.

People went to see
Fred and Ginger Rogers

because they wanted
to escape the misery

they were living in
during the war.

Field:
People went to the movies.

It was, you know, exciting.

Man: It's the theory
that also that also sees

the emergence
of glamorous new idols.

Mann: Hollywood was it.

These were
the gods and goddesses

around whom America formed
their dreams and their ideals.

Field: Back in those days,

there were movie magazines,

portraits of movie stars,
one after another.

They're the ones
that are projecting style.

So you had somebody like
Rita Hayworth, Ava Gardner.

They represented, sort of,
the iconic

Doonan: Everyone wanted
to look like Joan Crawford.

Everyone wanted to look like
Marlene Dietrich.

Audrey Hepburn, you know,
she's the one that owned

the crisp white shirt

and the capri pants
and the flat

and your hair back
and possibly a little scarf.

So many people loved that style

because you don't even have
to say anything.

When you walk in the door,
you look sophisticated.

Rossellini:
My mom, Ingrid Bergman --

she did a film called
"For Whom The Bell Tolls"

where she wore very short hair.

And that hair, she told me,

she had heard a lot of women
going to the hairdresser

and saying, "I want to have
an Ingrid Bergman haircut.

Very short hair.

Orlandi: Today, when we think
about the '40s,

we think about
big shoulder pads.

'40s was the age
of the shoulder pads.

Joan Crawford was very short.

She had hips
that were about the same width

as her shoulders.

She was never going to be
a glamorous goddess

without a little bit of help.

What Adrian, the costume
designer at MGM, did,

he said, "rather than try
to hide her broad shoulders,

let's accentuate them."

And, so,
he creates the shoulder pads.

So she comes into a room,

and it is a powerful entrance,

because she's got these
big, masculine shoulders,

and it helps establish her image

as a powerful woman

who's competing
head-to-head with men

and usually wins.

Von Furstenberg:
She's a working woman,

and she is a pioneer.

It's a woman who is in charge,

and it's a woman
who is independent.

That's what American style
is about.

Mann: Adrian came up with
another solution for her.

He creates it for
the movie "Letty Lynton" --

this dress.

And it's got big, puffy taffeta
on the shoulders.

And what it does is
it creates this illusion

that Joan has tiny, little waist
and tiny, little hips.

This glamorous impression
of Joan Crawford,

it goes on to become
the first Hollywood design

that is copied and mass produced

and sold in department stores
all across the country.

Steele: And so, they would
have it in the window

with a picture of Joan Crawford,

which sold many, many
tens of thousands of copies.

Hollywood has had
an effect on the public,

wanting to live that lifestyle

or wanting to emulate the stars.

You say it's the same
as Joan Crawford wears

in her new picture?

It's styled the same,

and it definitely reflects
the Hollywood influence.

Dad, may I have it?

It's yours.

were a gorgeous period of time
to watch.

When they all talked like that.

They all talked very fast,
and they had that voice.

I don't know what it was,
but I liked it.

Have you ever broken any rules,
Selena?

Of course, you're right.

Shall we make an exception
in her case?

Why don't we make up
a rule of our own?

Katharine Hepburn
was a gender outlaw

from the time she said
being a little girl is a torment

and she insisted that everybody
call her Jimmy.

She wore boys' clothes,

and that was pretty much still
the worldview she had

when she went to Hollywood.

She didn't want to start playing
the game of Hollywood --

you know,
put on your prettiest dress.

I mean, Katharine Hepburn
made pants happen.

Steele: It was seen as being
a very tomboy-ish look,

often with mannish jackets.

So it was a glamorization

of that androgynous look
for women.

Gunn:
She did it beautifully,

and I think
in a very feminine way.

She didn't look as though

she was trying to be a man
and fool all of us.

She was Katharine Hepburn,
and she is saying,

"Here I am, and I'm me."

And I loved that about her.

Mann:
There was a huge pushback

against Hepburn
wearing pants.

Gossip columnists would spend
the entire column

writing about how she wasn't
living up to the standards

of what people expected
a woman to do in public

and how they expected her
to be and act.

It certainly gave women

who had never worn pants
and thought,

"Oh, this is something I simply
can't do in my real life",

it gave them
a lot of confidence about

"This is okay, I can do it.

Katharine Hepburn does."

Mann:
She successfully stood up to

what Hollywood
expected her to be,

and she won.

Man:
The world still looks to Paris

as the historic source
of creative fashion,

a position it has maintained
for centuries.

Tiffany: Before the war,

American fashion wasn't even
registering on the map.

There were only two magazines

that controlled fashion
in America for women,

and it was Harper's Bazaar
and Vogue,

and they didn't really
care about American fashion.

It was very boring for them.

But Eleanor Lambert
changed everything.

Gunn: Eleanor Lambert
was a trailblazer.

She saw an opportunity
for American fashion.

She was really the first
American fashion publicist,

an incredible
public-relations powerhouse.

Tiffany:
Eleanor was an art student
at Chicago Art Institute.

She came to New York,

and she got a job
working for a publicist,

and at that time,

opera stars were the biggeststars of the day

and she was promoting them.

Her boss noticed that she was
quite a good publicist,

so he said,
"I'll give you a desk,

and I'll give you a phone,

but you cannot represent
opera singers.

You have to find
another kind of client."

And she said,
"Well, what should I do?"

And he said,
"Well, what do you like?"

And she said, "I love art".

She went up to 57th Street,

and she signed up five artists,

and she became a very successful
publicist for artists.

She was the first publicist
for artists.

She represented
Salvador Dalí

and the photographer
Cecil Beaton

and on and on and on.

Adele Simpson,
who was a fashion designer,

came to her and said,

"Hey, you know, American fashion
is really strange

because
the garment manufacturers

don't promote the designers.

They don't even know
their names,

and we need to be promoted, too.

And the French designers
get a lot of attention,

but we don't.

It gave her an idea,

and her idea was

contact the publishers
from newspapers across America,

invite them to New York

to write about collections
of these designers.

And, you know, the publishers
sort of pushed back a little.

They said, "We don't even have
fashion writers."

And she said,
"Send your women's writers."

And just like that,

Eleanor Lambert created
the first Fashion Week,

which took place
in New York City

during war time.

Twice a year,

the Dress Institute
welcomes to New York

the visiting editors
and writers

of 150 leading newspapers.

On parade during press week

are the collections
of every noted designer

in the wholesale market.

Tiffany:
The first fashion week --

it was just
American designers.

And how Nettie Rosenstein
is handling her evening gowns

are minutely reported
by ladies of the press.

Truhler:
The fact that Fashion Week

started in the midst
of World War II

is shocking.

It shows you the escapism
aspiration of fashion.

Tiffany:
Editors from across America

didn't have to write about
cooking and cleaning anymore.

They got to write about fashion.

Well, of course,
it was a slam dunk.

It changed everything.

And Eleanor Lambert became

the most powerful person
in fashion,

and she used that power

to raise the visibility
of American designers

like Lilly Daché,
Hattie Carnegie,

Norman Norell,
Nettie Rosenstein.

Gunn: And then,
you have Claire McCardell,

who is attributed with having
created American sportswear,

by that,
I mean casual clothing.

Woman: One of the most exciting prints we've ever seen

is designed
by Claire McCardell.

She shows it here
with tapered slacks.

Truhler:
Claire McCardell's making,
for the most part, separates.

It's ready to wear.

It's not couture.

She wanted to design
for the everywoman --

outdoors, athletic.

Function was very important.

The dress had to work
with a woman's lifestyle.

Banks:
She used common gingham.

She used calico.

And they were very affordable
for women to buy.

Gunn: McCardell also was
a champion of denim,

a textile that is associated
with all things America,

and she brings them
into the fashion arena.

Truhler: Fashion was taking
a shift from

"what are
the Europeans wearing"

to "the fashion industry
is now designing for me."

Gunn: It was a startling moment
for America.

It was a big deal.

Claire McCardell led the way

for many American designers --

Anne Klein,

Donna Karan,

Michael Kors,

Norma Kamali.

They all have
this American style.

Friedman:
Claire McCardell stopped going
to the European shows,

and she said,
"I'm not going anymore

because my creativity
has to be original."

She never went back to Europe.

She was making stuff in America
for Americans.

You see this independence
in America

kind of carving out
its own unique identity.

Sportswear became

the defining style of
the United States.

Man #1:
Throughout the world,

throngs of people
hail the end of the war.

It is five years and more

since Hitler
marched into Poland.

Man #2: Reporters rush out

to relay the news
to an anxious world

and touch off celebrations
throughout the country.

Man #3: The dawn of peace.

Two million New Yorkers
jam Times Square.

Man #4:
All the pent-up emotions

of three years and eight months of war,

and to the victors,
the spoils.

Peace is wonderful.

Bryant:
There was a real optimism
after the war ended.

People were excited about,
like, what was to come.

Man: Welcome home.

Truhler: Women certainly enjoyed
the end of the war,

and all that that meant
from a fashion standpoint.

Man: Well, cut off my legs
and call me shorty.

Look what's here, girls --
nylon.

For four years, you've been waiting for nylons.

Four years of painted legs,
bare legs,

tattooed legs,
and mosquito bites,

but all that
and the war is over.

See?

Don't they look like
the real thing?

I mean, the nylons.

The legs are the real th--

Gentlemen, have you ever seen
a lovelier, uh, smile?

Gunn: When rations were lifted
after the war,

there was an inching forward
towards normalization.

Now, all of a sudden,
women had options,

so if they wanted to dress
in the girliest of girly ways,

they could do so.

Gunn: The bikini,
in the words of

the great fashion editor
Diana Vreeland,

was the biggest thing
since the atom bomb.

The bikini was
named after

Bikini Atoll,

which is where we tested
the atom bomb.

Gunn: Louis Réard,
the French fashion designer,

created this in 1946,

and this midriff was never
exposed before.

It's scandalous,

and, in fact, Réard had to

find a woman of the night
to wear it

because regular models
wouldn't touch it.

They thought
it would ruin their career

to be seen in this bikini.

Scandaleuse.

Steele:
It didn't really catch on

for a long time in America

because it was too shocking.

People were arrested
on American beaches

for wearing bikini-like
two-piece garments.

You know, at that point,
we have to remember,

women never even
showed their ankles.

Gunn:
It's a huge, huge phenomenon.

Its influence on customs
and perceptions

of what's socially acceptable

is profound.

Man: Since the war,

10 million families

have moved into new homes
in the suburbs.

After a hard day's work,

the man looks forward
to a home he can be proud of.

The transition
from the '40s to the '50s

was really the move
from post-war recovery

into a period of stability
and prosperity.

During the war,
people worked six-day weeks,

and then, all of a sudden,
life changed.

They were living in the suburbs
for the first time.

You had vacations
for the first time.

The economy was booming,

and there was a lot
of disposable income.

Let's buy stuff!

We start to become
a nation of consumers.

Kressley:
And we start buying televisions

and hi-fi stereo systems

and maybe you even buy a car
or two -- shocker.

Truhler:
Car culture was very important
especially in the suburbs.

You know, you needed a car now.

Just even the artistry
of those cars,

the paint job and the lines.

Those cars became
really a symbol of

America's prosperity
and American style.

Doonan: Once people
started buying things,

then you have to design things,

Then a whole industry
is built around that

that grows very quickly.

These exploding
catalogue businesses,

department stores --

J.C. Penney, Macy's.

Keeping up with the Joneses
became a new consumer ethic,

defining your identity

through the material goods
that you possess.

Kressley: It's great times,

and people are buying
a lot of stuff

to buy a lot of stuff.

Boyd: After the war,

I think there's, perhaps,
more confidence

and a better understanding
and identification

of what qualifies
as American.

Avila: Art, for example --
the abstract expressionists

revolutionized ideas
of modern art.

Popular music, jazz,
the invention of fast food,

American architecture,
the shopping mall --

it was
American cultural dominance

on a global stage.

But there's this tension
of the 1950s.

There's more prosperity
and optimism,

but there's this sinister
undercurrent going on.

Avila: Mass conformity

cast a very long and dark shadow
over American culture.

Man: In California,

the FBI rounds up 12 more
of the nation's key Reds.

They are arraigned
on charges of conspiracy.

Avila: During the 1950s,

the United States began

its Cold War
with the Soviet Union,

which led to an intense climate
of repression at home

and an emphasis upon conformity.

Man: The Communist Party
in the United States

should be outlawed!

It's a conspiracy to take over
our government by force!

If I had my way about it,

they'd all be
sent back to Russia.

"Communist" was a label
that was thrown around

to label anything foreign
and strange and threatening.

Anybody who was
dressing different,

if you were a Beat guy

and you were wearing your beret
and your dark glasses,

somebody was going to accuse you
of being a Communist.

Boyd:
So there was this attempt

to make everyone
in the society

act the same way,
talk the same way,

and dress the same way.

Steele: Clothing advertisements
become downright paranoid.

They'll have things like
"Dress carefully.

You can't afford not to.

People are watching you."

Orlandi: When men came back
after the war and they went
back into business,

they adopted
the gray flannel suit.

It was a new uniform.

They had their Army uniform
or their Navy uniform,

and now they had
their business uniform.

Steele:
The image there is someone

who's just dressed for
the corporation, the machine,

and his role
as a cog in the machine.

Doonan: Business attire began
to get very specific rules

of what you could
and couldn't wear.

Guys all wore
a very similar style --

lapel on their suits,
they were gray flannel,

skinny ties, a hat.

Hats were huge
at that period of time.

If your boss is wearing
a gray flannel suit

and a white shirt and a red tie
and wingtips,

you should probably do the same.

Kressley: You didn't want
to rock the boat,

and that meant very austere,

limited colors,
limited patterns.

It was about fitting in,

and everybody wanted
to look the same.

But if men had a job

where the gray flannel suit

was part of
their everyday lives,

I think
they were actually grateful.

The soldier version
of wartime masculinity

shifted to the
suburban father/breadwinner.

Friedman:
It was seen as a good thing

to be part of
that great endeavor,

which was rebuilding
post-war America

and the prosperity of
those years that followed.

Truhler:
Women were strongly encouraged

to go back to the home
in the 1950s.

Some of the women
wanted to keep working,

but then some of the women

did want to go back
and just be mothers again.

For men, it was, like, "okay,
things are back to 'normal.'

Your executive husband
is back home now.

You need to become
the housewife."

To have been included
in the workplace for a time

and then being, in essence,
kicked out,

this is a hard thing to digest.

Orlandi: But it was almost
un-American for them to think

that they should keep their job

when servicemen
were coming home.

Their style of dress
was then tailored

to what was thought to be
appropriate for a housewife,

and there were books like
Anne Fogarty's "Wife Dressing",

which explained
how you had to dress

to help your husband
succeed in his career.

Well,
whenever we cook inside,

Mom always does
the cooking.

But whenever we cook outside,
you always do it.

How come?

Well, it's sort of traditional,
I guess.

You know, they say
a woman's place is in the home,

and I suppose
as long as she's in the home,

she might as well be
in the kitchen.

Oh.

You had to wear nice clothes
so that your children,

particularly your daughter,

would model herself
on a feminine mom.

You shouldn't even
clean the house or vacuum

wearing blue jeans

because your daughter
would get the wrong idea.

Truhler: There was much
more pressure in society

to make sure that
the family looked perfect.

Mann: It became a time where
that very white-bread,

conservative
nuclear family ruled.

And the minute
we see it on television,

this was the kind of
"Leave It To Beaver" family

that becomes the image

that popular culture
is trying to say

is the image
we need to aspire to.

But, in fact,

there was a movement
in the 1950s

who rebelled against that,

and said, you know,
this is not natural,

this is not
the way people live,

and this is
an artificial construct

that you are
trying to put on us

to try to live up to

when no one can live up to that
kind of focus.

Friedman:
The '50s came to a head

when the kids started
to rebel against

the strictures of
their parents' generation.

Man:
If you think rock 'n' roll

won't diminish
in popularity,

what do you think sustains
its popularity?

Well, sir, rock 'n' roll
has been around for many years.

Uh, I personally don't think

it will ever
die completely out

because they're gonna have to
get something mighty good

to take its place
as far as the young
people are concerned.

What about --
what about improving it morally

and maybe taking
the wiggle out of it?

Well, sir,
you take the wiggle out of it,

it's finished.

Steele: The '50s really sees
the birth of the teenager

as a phenomenon.

Truhler:
During the Great Depression,

if "kids" could be working,
they were working.

In the '50s,

most teens
no longer had to work,

so they were no longer
being forced to be an adult.

Tiffany:
They had allowances.

Gunn:
There was idle time.

There was time
to get in trouble.

Steele:
The '50s had its radical side

in as much as young people

started to create
their own culture.

You have dating,

which was a semi-new phenomenon
with less supervision.

Along came, like,
rock 'n' roll.

Steele:
Rock stars like Elvis

were seen as being
terrifyingly sexual,

the new dances were all seen
as being so sexual.

So suddenly in movies,

there are these voluptuous women
like Marilyn Monroe,

and sex becomes
very front and center.

Truhler:
The role models that they had

were vastly different
than their parents.

Bryant: The Beatniks were really
starting to come up --

poets, artists, the actors,
James Dean.

Have you ever been
in a drag race?

What,
are you kidding me?

So there are
a lot of different influences

inspiring
the younger generations

to really break away
from their parents.

Kressley:
I mean, their parents were
June and Ward Cleaver,

and they were, like,
"this is so square."

I think that's the word
they used back then.

You're totes square.

Avila: The embrace of
new iconic figures

represented that moment

when teenagers began
to define themselves

on their own terms
and not their parents'.

Young woman:
You see, we just like to live
and have a good time.

We don't see why our parents
should find us so mysterious.

Field:
The rebellious teenagers

were making their statements
and being heard,

and they were starting to affect
and determine style.

Gunn: From tough-boy denim
to black leather jackets...

They were looking
towards blue-collar workers

for their inspiration.

Orlandi:
Before it, cowboys wore jeans.

People in factories
would wear jeans.

Teenagers were being inspired
by motorcycle culture.

Tiffany: Teenagers were
influencing the movies,

and then the movies
were re-influencing

a broader culture
across America, as well.

Friedman: When teenagers started
to rebel against the rules

that they had grown up with,

you see this tension

between doing
what you're supposed to do

and being, you know, Brando.

On the weekends,
we go out and have a ball.

And what do you do?

I mean,
do you just ride around

or do you go out on some sort
of a picnic or something?

A picnic?
Man, you are too square.

I'm -- I --
I have to straighten you out.

Now listen, you don't go
any one special place.

That's cornball style.

You just go.

Mann: Marlon Brando
came to Hollywood

rebelling against
the conformity of the 1950s.

He was fortunate in that

he had two roles
at the very start of his career

that allowed him
to be who he was,

so we see him
as Stanley Kowalski

in "A Streetcar Named Desire,"

and then we see him
as the rebel motorcycle rider

in "The Wild One",

and that's the movie

where the young woman
says to Brando,

"What are you
rebelling against?"

And he says...

Whaddya got?

Field: Brando iconicized
the t-shirt.

Mann: Brando starts wearing
this white t-shirt in public,

and the sales of men's t-shirts
skyrocketed at that point.

Field: He made it okay to wear
a t-shirt as a top.

It wasn't underwear anymore.

Varvatos: There was a freedom
hat was coming out

in fashion
at that point in time

that was more individual,

became much more about,
you know,

what their image was

when they walked out
on the street.

Brando --
his clothes seemed effortless.

Mann:
I think it's interesting that

the three iconic
male sex objects of the 1950s --

Marlon Brando, James Dean,
and Elvis Presley --

are very similar on one level

in that they're all rebels.

They're all defiant
of social norms.

They dress to confront.

They're hostile, aggressive.

But they also had
this vulnerability,

this real feeling of
needing to be taken care of.

There's that softness
within the gruff exterior.

That helped define how we saw
masculinity going forward,

and I do think these
three characters in the 1950s

set that trend that has
really gone on ever since.

Banks: In the '40s,

America had an inferiority
complex about their style.

What is so hugely important
about the '40s and the '50s

is that rise
of American designers.

Field: Individual style
started to emerge.

There was a lot of discovery.

Avila:
American style became

globally significant
and globally influential.

Kamali: The '40s and '50s

are as timeless
as you can imagine.

Even today,

every red carpet
is rooted in that period.

Field:
We had Europe as the icon,

but we were developing
our own thing.

Mann:
Old rules were breaking down,

so what was once seen
as completely unacceptable,

now suddenly
they're rethinking that.

Banks:
The big change is that

people stopped hiding
what they wanted.

The '50s came to a head

when the kids started
to express their independence,

their liberation,
their sexuality.

There was a great bifurcation
in American culture

between overt sexuality
and repressed sexuality.

That tension
is what created the '60s.

Boyd: By the '60s,

there are a lot of people
in America

who are no longer interested
in conforming.

The '60s turned a switch,

and that switch
just changed everything.