Jean Louis: Hollywood's Bombshell Designer
Author Roger Padilha and Mauricio Padilha, Foreword by Kim Novak
- Publish Date: September 29, 2026
- Format: Hardcover
- Category: Design - Fashion & Accessories
- Publisher: Rizzoli
- Trim Size: 9-3/4 x 12-3/4
- Pages: 304
- US Price: $75.00
- CDN Price: $100.00
- ISBN: 978-0-8478-7644-0
Reviews
"There are certain images that seem to belong to everyone.Rita Hayworth in Gilda, framed in black satin. Marilyn Monroe, shimmering in crystals beneath the lights of Madison Square Garden. Marlene Dietrich onstage in soufflé silk, beaded to look like nothing at all. These images have been reproduced, referenced and reimagined so many times that they can feel as though they have always existed. Behind them was a designer whose name is far less familiar than the women he dressed: Jean Louis...he brought a remarkable understanding of construction and silhouette to Hollywood...Over the course of his career he worked on 188 films and won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956)...Long before “naked dressing” became a familiar fashion trope, Jean Louis was finding ways to make the suggestion of nudity more powerful than nudity itself...He built images that could stand without him, and they did. And decades later, we are still looking." — IRIS COVET BOOK MAGAZINE
"Here’s another man whose work you’ve almost certainly encountered, whether you realize it or not. Rita Hayworth peeling off a glove in that black satin gown in Gilda? Jean Louis...Marilyn Monroe serenading President Kennedy in a dress that still causes arguments more than six decades later? You guessed it. Jean Louis. Born in Paris in 1907, Jean Louis Berthault trained in French couture before moving to New York, where he worked for Hattie Carnegie, and eventually heading west to become Columbia Pictures’ head costume designer. He dressed everyone from Joan Crawford and Judy Garland to Kim Novak and Lana Turner, helping create the images of movie stars we still reference today. His clothes could suggest sex, money, innocence, or trouble before the actress wearing them had said a word. You thought the naked dress was a new concept? And yet, while those women became household names, his didn’t. Brothers Mauricio and Roger Padilha would like to do something about that...They have a knack for reminding us how much we owe the people behind the images we love. Their new book, Jean Louis: Hollywood’s Bombshell Designer, published by Rizzoli, gives the man behind the dresses a long-overdue close-up. The pair spent two years watching all 188 films he worked on, digging through archives, and tracking down people who knew him." — DEREK BLASBERG, "AND ANOTHER THING", SUBSTACK
"The purpose of this beautiful book published by Rizzoli? To bring back to light this creator who died in 1997, who continued to work, in his sixties, in this constantly evolving cinema. "One could say that Jean Louis was probably the most 'fashionable' of the great Hollywood costume designers. His career was rooted in fashion: he cut his teeth in the fashion houses of the Place Vendôme before coming to the United States to work at Hattie Carnegie, one of the most influential American ready-to-wear houses of the time. In this way, he brought to Hollywood a resolutely fashion-oriented look, approaching costumes with a sophistication and sensitivity that set him apart from his peers," says Mauricio Padilha." — VANITY FAIR
Author Bookshelf: Roger Padilha, Mauricio Padilha
