Motown singers inspire chic 'Dreamgirls' costumes that could zip up Oscar gold
By Susan Whitall / The Detroit News
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"Dreamgirls" costume designer Sharen Davis saw the Supremes (below left to right, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross and Florence Ballard) wearing these fringed red dresses, and designed a similar dress for the "Dreams," above (left to right, Beyoncé Knowles, Anika Noni Rose and Jennifer Hudson).
For a girl who grew up watching the Supremes swirling around in shimmering, spangled evening gowns on the "Ed Sullivan Show," it was a dream assignment. Sharen Davis was to dress Beyoncé Knowles, Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose for the musical "Dreamgirls," the Cinderella story of three Detroit girls from the projects who ascend to the highest level of show business.
Forget "loosely based on," the film is a mostly overt retelling (with some fictionalizing) of the story of Motown's Supremes, with album covers based directly on Supremes album covers and dresses inspired by frocks that Supremes Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard actually wore.
To research the "Dreamgirls" turnouts, Davis tapped into her own memory of seeing the Supremes on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
"I admired them. I worshiped the ground they walked on," said Davis, 50, last week. "Here were these three beautiful black women who made me believe that I could be whatever I wanted to be."
On Tuesday, the Oscar nominations will be announced, and the buzz is that Davis might receive a nomination for best costume design (she was nominated, but didn't win, for 2004's "Ray") for her work putting Hudson, Knowles and Rose into all of those sizzling '60s dresses and groovy '70s pantsuits for their roles as the Dreams. She also dressed all the other characters, including Eddie Murphy in clothing inspired by Marvin Gaye.
Part of the fun of "Dreamgirls" is seeing the Dreams blossom from the gawky innocence of home-sewn peach silk dresses in the first scene, to wearing the height of '60s and '70s chic.
Like the Dreams, the Primettes (as the Supremes were first called) wore home-sewed dresses for a time.
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Florence Ballard's sister, Maxine, remembers helping Ross' mother, Ernestine, run up outfits for the Primettes. "Mrs. Ross took me up under her wing and showed me how to make the costumes," Ballard said recently.
The Supremes worked their way up from homemade to Jacobson's to Saks Fifth Avenue. Then, as Mary Wilson recalls, the group's high-flying designer period started in the late '60s, when they often played Las Vegas and luxe clubs like New York's Copacabana. "We dressed as glamorously as we could with the butterfly dresses and the swirls. Michael Travis started designing our gowns; he was the Bob Mackie of the day. Later on, Bob Mackie did some sexy things for us."
One "Dreamgirls" dress in particular -- a short red dress with a skirt made of fringe -- was based directly on a mid-'60s Supremes original.
"I really needed something red for that particular song," says Davis. "I wanted the girls to be a bit devilish, so I was looking through my research and saw (the Supremes) had a little fringe dress on, and I thought, 'Oh, that's it!'"
Inspired by Diana, Aretha
Diana Ross inspired some of Beyoncé's fanciful '70s-era outfits in "Dreamgirls" ("Diana was such a fashion plate!" says Davis). When Jamie Foxx croons "When I First Saw You" to Beyoncé, a photo montage of her swanning around in a variety of outfits is a direct homage to a scene featuring fashion model Ross twirling around in '70s couture in the film "Mahogany."
Interestingly, a non-Motown Detroit singer was one of the fashion muses for the scenes when Jennifer Hudson as "Effie" is back home in Detroit in the '70s and sports a short Afro and outfits made of African prints in earthy colors.
"I had a little inspiration from Aretha Franklin," Davis says of Franklin's look at the time. "Jennifer has such a beautiful face, the short Afro looked amazing on her."
While each of the "Dreams" started out wearing the same clothes, Davis' designs evolved with each character's story arc. Beyoncé as "Deena," lead singer of the Dreams, was "understated but with a lot of class. With Effie (whose story in some ways follows Florence Ballard's), I used anything that looked fun to me, a lot of fur, vivid color. She was a free soul in her youth. She had a lot of confidence."
Giving '60s style a 2006 feel
For "Ray," the 2004 biography film about Ray Charles, she used 100 percent vintage clothing. "It definitely has a different feel. It's not as sexy," Davis says.
The reason why: The cut of clothing in the '60s was far different than it is now, and to our modern eye, it doesn't always look quite right, Davis believes.
"The neck is higher; they used a lot of jewel necks back then; and the breasts were placed a lot higher than they are now. The waists were also pinched higher," Davis says. "The clothes were worn on the real waist, and we don't do that now. ... It almost looks empire to us now, a little too high. I had to change things like that. I did different scaling but I kept the silhouette the same."
Herb Jordan, a native Detroiter (Mumford class of '71) with a book out, "Motown in Love: Lyrics from the Golden Era" (Pantheon; $23), about the romance of Motown lyrics, believes that the Supremes' ladylike yet sensuous style was key to their appeal.
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"I'm a big fan of a certain approach to sexiness," Jordan says. "If you think of Audrey Hepburn or you think of the Supremes, it was about style, not just presenting as much skin as you can. The Supremes had appeal across generations, race and regions. They projected class through fashion and style."
As for Davis, she most loved dressing the Dreams in those orange leather miniskirts. Clearly she had big fun with the wild '70s fashions. As for her Oscar chances, the costume designer laughs.
"Of course, I'd be very honored, but I'm trying not to think about it," Davis says. "I went through this before, although I didn't think I would ever be nominated for 'Ray.' That was a complete shock. This one is getting so much press, one gets her hopes up. It would be great."
You can reach Susan Whitall at (313) 222-2156 or swhitall@det news.com.