When it comes to gender fuck, new Hollywood has nothing on old Hollywood. Sure, we’ve got the magnificent Tilda now. God bless her androgynous ways. But then they had Dietrich. Garbo. And, yes, Hepburn. Sure there are two, but only one Kate the Great. Before today’s Great Panted One, Ellen DeGeneres, there was Kate the Greatest Panted One. And that one being Katharine Hepburn. While you can’t beat Marlene for smolder, you can’t beat Kate for fresh-faced, divinely cheekboned tomboy charm. And those pants, how she wore those pants. So today, in honor of one of my all-time favorite actresses and style icons, let’s revel in a woman who knew how to fill out a pair of slacks like second nature. As Kate told fashion designer Calvin Klein in an interview before 1986 Council of Fashion Designers of America Lifetime Achievement Award, her approach to style – particularly pants – was simple:It was really because I couldn’t abide stockings. And I think the short skirt is really fundamentally hideous. I mean, you are breaking the line that should be carried to the ground. I love things that trail. Or I like pants. …. I think some of the style happened naturally – the pants came because I didn’t like stockings and I like low heels. …. Practical. I think this conductor’s jacket that I bought for two dollars and a half is sensational looking. …. I wanted to present something that looked as though it had just come out of the woods or something, and everyone thought, “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Oh, and one more reason to love Kate. When Calvin asked is she was influenced by any of the men she knew at the time:
No! I never dressed up for any man. If I thought he cared how I looked, I would have thought he was a fool. I really would have. The men dressed for me, you know. Nobody ever made a pass at me unless I fully expected them to and welcomed the notion.
Now, that’s one hell of a dame. And a very handsome dame indeed. An ode to Kate the Greatest Panted One.
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