SWEATER GIRLS

Sweater girls ride the wheel of fashion, spinning round but always coming back in style. While sweaters and jumpers have been worn for decades by young women, it was the sexy look of a very young Lana Turner that started the trend in the late 1930s. By the mid 1950s the sweater, combined with the fashion fixation on breasts, led to this look being seen everywhere. Kim Novak and Ava Gardner were particularly stunning sweater models, but the versatility of sweaters made them ideal for stars as diverse as Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe.



Kim Novak in 1956

                                                              
Lana Turner was the first to be given the moniker "sweater girl" by The Hollywood Reporter, after her appearance wearing a tight blue sweater in her first movie They Won't Forget, in 1937. Lana had just been discovered as a 15 year old student hanging out at the Top Hat Cafe across from Hollywood High School.



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Lana Turner in her first movie, They Won't Forget, 1937.

                                                                         



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By the mid-1950s, the Sweater Girl look was hot when worn by beauties like Kim Novak.



The movie star looks of Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardner, and Kim Novak in the late 40s and 1950s created a huge demand for a moulded silhouette emphasizing curves and a prominent bust line. What was achieved through foundation undergarments on film was now becoming available to the average woman consumer. Nylon was making bras lighter and cheaper, and conical stitching was providing that perfect "missile bra" look so desired in the mid 1950s.

                                                          
               


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Martha Hyer is shown here displaying the perfect missile cone bustline in 1957.



The Sweater Girl look became so popular that women competed for the title of "National Sweater Queen" in the 1950s. In the early 50s the tight sweater was worn with the very full circle skirts made popular by the New Look. Later in the decade and into the early 1960s, tight pants were joined with tight sweaters to make the very hot look as shown below by Kim Novak.

                                                                                   


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Kim Novak shows her feline qualities in 1958.

                                                                                   



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Marilyn Monroe shows that sweaters look great worn without pants at all in Lets Make Love, 1960.

                                                                               
Sweaters just keep coming back . Knitwear was big in the early 60s, and turtlenecks in the late 60s. Mohair was as soft as down, and cashmere just as warm. Sweater sets seemed frozen in time until they too came rushing back in style.  And just as the young Lana Turner started the Sweater Girls, a youthful Jessica Alba models a more recent sweater girl look below in the Fantastic Four in 2005.                               

                                                                                      
             Sweater Girls just seem to rule.