Born October 5, 1907 in Paris, France, Jean Louis (Berthault) emigrated to the U.S. where he worked as a designer for New York fashion entrepreneur Hattie Carnegie whose clients included Joan Cohn, the wife of Columbia Pictures mogul Harry Cohn. With her influence, he became head designer for Columbia in 1944, a position he held until 1960.

Jean Louis sometimes worked on all the costumes for a film, and sometimes he worked only on women’s gowns. Throughout his career he designed fabulous gowns for major stars including those for Irene Dunne in Together Again and Over 21 and Rita Hayworth in Tonight and Every Night in his early days at Columbia. In 1946, he designed Hayworth’s sleeveless black gown for Gilda which became the signature design for which he was best known along with the gowns he designed for Loretta Young to wear in the entrances to her 1950s TV show and the concert gowns he designed exclusively for Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe in the early 1960s.

The designer was nominated for an Oscar 14 times, winning just once. The first nomination was for his designs for Judy Holliday’s gowns in 1950’s Born Yesterday. His second was for Hayworth’s in 1952’s Affair in Trinidad and his third for Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed’s in 1953’s From Here to Eternity. His fourth was for Holliday’s gowns in 1954’s It Should Happen to You, his fifth and first for a color film was for Judy Garland’s in the same year’s A Star Is Born. Other major costume designs in the mid-1950s included those for Maureen O’Hara’s gowns in The Long Gray Line, Joan Crawford’s in Queen Bee (his sixth nomination), Kim Novak’s in Picnic, and Holliday’s in The Solid Gold Cadillac for which he won he finally won on his seventh nomination.

Post-win, Jean Louis’ designs included those for Hayworth and Novak in Pal Joey (his eighth nomination), Novak in Bell, Book and Candle (his Ninth nomination), Lana Turner in Imitation of Life, Doris Day in Pillow Talk, Susan Hayward in Back Street (his tenth nomination) and Dietrich in Judgment at Nuremberg, (his eleventh nomination) among others.

In received his twelfth nomination for designing Vivien Leigh’s gowns for Ship of Fools, his thirteenth for Shirley MacLaine’s in Gambit, and his fourteenth and final nomination for those of Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore, and Carol Channing in Thoroughly Modern Millie. Subsequent subjects included Rosalind Russell in Rosie! and Liv Ullmann in Lost Horizon and 40 Carats.

Jean Louis was married three times. He married his first wife in 1954. Several months after her death in 1955 he married his second wife who died in 1989. In 1993, he married Loretta Young for whom he had designed all those gowns for her 1950s TV show which made her the “best dressed actress in America.”

Jean Louis died in 1997 at 89. Loretta Young died in 2000 at 87.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

GILDA (1946), directed by Charles Vidor

Jean Louis had been Columbia’s head costume designer for just two years when he designed the iconic sleeveless black dress that Rita Hayworth wore in the seductive “Put the Blame on Mame” number that everyone remembers. He designed many gowns for Hayworth’s films, beginning with 1945’s Tonight and Every Night and including 1952’s Affair in Trinidad and 1957’s Pal Joey, both of which earned him Oscar nominations. Unfortunately, Academy Awards for costume designs were not given out until 1948 or Gilda would certainly have been a contender for the 1946 Oscar.

BORN YESTERDAY (1950), directed by George Cukor

Jean Louis received the first of his eventual fourteen Oscar nominations for his designs for Best Actress Oscar winner Judy Holliday in this classic comedy. It lost to All About Eve. He worked on designs for Holliday in several other films including 1954’s It Should Happen to You for which he received another Oscar nomination, losing to Sabrina, and 1956’s The Solid Gold Cadillac for which he won his only Oscar over Seven Samurai, The Power and the Prize, The Proud and Profane, and Teenage Rebel.

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953), directed by Fred Zinnemann

Although both Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed appear in gowns, the most iconic design in this classic Oscar winner is Kerr’s swimsuit immortalized in the scene where she and Burt Lancaster clinch horizontally on the beach. The censors had demanded that her swimsuit feature a skirt in its design so as not to be too sexually provocative. The jumps in the scene in theatres showing the film, however, were not the result of censors but of projectionists cutting out pieces of the frame for their own enjoyment. The film’s haul of 8 Oscars tied with Gone with the Wind for the most wins for any film up to that time.

JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961), directed by Stanley Kramer

Jean Louis’ sole contribution to the film was in designing Marlene Dietrich’s gowns for her portrayal of the widow of an executed Nazi general. Her scenes opposite Spencer Tracy as the lead judge are the highlight of the out-of-court sequences in this very intense courtroom drama featuring an Oscar winning performance from Maximilian Schell and Oscar nominated performances from Tracy, Montgomery Clift, and Judy Garland, the latter two in support. Jean Louis also designed Dietrich’s famed nude colored performance gowns for her concerts as well as Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” dress in the same mode.

THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE (1967), directed by George Roy Hill

Jean Louis found himself back in the Roaring Twenties for the film that got him his final Oscar nomination film. Here he provided costumes of four major stars – heroine Julie Andrews, ingenue Mary Tyler Moore, showgirl Carol Channing, and villain Beatrice Lillie in this pastiche given to Andrews by producer Ross Hunter when he was unable to secure the rights to The Boy Friend, Andrews’ first Broadway hit. Moore was fresh from TV’s Dick Van Dyke Show and Channing was fresh from Broadway’s Hello, Dolly! , while Lillie who was already showing signs of dementia was making her last appearance on screen.

JEAN LOUIS AND OSCAR

• Born Yesterday (1950) – nominated – Best Costume Design – Black-and-White
• Affair in Trinidad (1952) – nominated – Best Costume Design – Black-and-White
• From Here to Eternity (1953) – nominated – Best Costume Design – Black-and-White
• It Should Happen to You (1954) – nominated – Best Costume Design – Black-and-White
• A Star Is Born (1954) – nominated – Best Costume Design – Color
• Queen Bee (1955) – nominated – Best Costume Design – Black-and-White
• The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956) – Oscar – Best Costume Design – Black-and-White
• Pal Joey (1957) – nominated – Best Costume Design – Color
• Bell, Book and Candle (1958) – nominated – Best Costume Design – Black-and-White
• Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) – nominated – Best Costume Design – Black-and-White
• Back Street (1961) – nominated – Best Costume Design – Color
• Ship of Fools (1965) – nominated – Best Costume Design – Black-and-White
• Gambit (1966) – nominated – Best Costume Design – Color
• Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) – nominated – Best Costume Design