And having honed the couturier's craft at the prestigious House of Agnes in the Parisian district from which he hailed, by the early 1940's, Jean Louis Berthault (1907-1997) was working in New York for the famed Hattie Carnegie Designs . One of his personal clients and confidantes was Joan Cohn who was married to Columbia Pictures head honcho (and reputed rogue, who once tried it on with a most reproachful Joan Crawford) Harry Cohn, and in 1944, Jean Louis would join the studio as assistant to the legendary costumier Travis Banton - the man who famously trained fellow designer Edith Head, but in no time at all, an ambitious Louis would become the head of the department himself.
Among the actresses whose image he helped cultivate, the most notable was the 'love goddess' Rita Hayworth. With Jean Louis designing for her, Hayworth's style was classy come hither and with a newfangled sophistication - a testament to that was in the case of Charles Vidor's Gilda (1946) where apart from that born to be iconic black low-cut number, (oh yes that's the one where the ginger doll crooned that provocative tune, passing the buck over to Mame as she happily hoofed away), her wardrobe consisted of one sublimely glamorous outfit after another. From that flouncy off-the-shoulder antique-white chiffon frock in which she adorns for her first appearance to the sober pinstriped suit at the end, each of the figure-friendly gowns emphasizing her elegant curves.
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| Rita in Louis' not so simple black dress (Lady From Shanghai) |
For the Lady from Shanghai directed by ex- husband at the time, Orson Welles, Hayworth's Elsa Bannister, a decidedly more ruthless character than as Gilda Mundson Farrell, her ambiguity is paralleled only by her ensembles - one minute overtly sexy, the next completely demure. In one particularly gob smacking outfit that was worn during a semi-chase sequence through the back streets of Acapulco, she combines the two with a collar that would be positively nun-like were it not for the fact that it is see-through.
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| Joan Bennett's sensible suit look in The Reckless Moment |
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| Isn't she pretty in black? Lizabeth Scott in Dead Reckoning |
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| Marlene Dietrich is Jean Louised to the nines (1957) |
In director John Cromwell's 1947 film Dead Reckoning, we find Jean Louis at his most fetishistic, employing the use of several accessories, over-sized belts, gloves and especially flouncy polka-dot bows where Lizabeth Scott proves nice can be naughty. And oh what he could do with thin chiffon, when he took on the Brechtian nightmare that was creating Marlene Dietrich's costume, a gown made of souffle that you could virtually see straight through, and this particular eye-dropper that the actress was garbed in for her Vegas cabaret showdates in 1953, proved just as stellar as the legendary Dietrich herself.
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| Rhinestones are a girl's best friend. |
In 1962, that certain commemorative moment where Marilyn Monroe payed hip service to President John F. Kennedy - it would be Jean Louis at the designing helm for the rhinestone saturated gown that the starlet was verbatim sewn straight into it's seams. It was clear, Jean Louis kept the Golden Age best dressed and would popularize many a trend from angular lines to the well padded shoulder; his gals were cleverly clad in practical power suits by day and shimmied into their saucy strapless numbers by dusk; these styles were but a few of the designer's well-fashioned brainchildren.
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| Love's (Loretta) Young Dream |
And the designer after years of being the personal dresser for her long running television series The Loretta Young Show (1953-61) , Jean Louis, now well into his golden years and recently widowed, at age 86 would wed Lady Young, who was certainly not any such spring chicken, given she was 80 herself, the well-suited for each-other pair remained together until Berthault's passing in 1997.