'Elvis: The King of Fashion'

Elvis: The King of Fashion

by Lorraine Gibson

Pen & Sword/White Owl Books, 2024, Hardback (dj) (15.6 x 23.4 cm), 204 pages, Illustrated (color/b&w), Index, Elvis Filmography, Bibliography & Sources

Reviewed by Nigel Patterson , October 2024

As with anything to do with Elvis, the Elvis fashion catalog has a shelf to itself in the library, with diverse and substantive books including:

• The American Bandana: Culture on Cloth from Washington to Elvis (Hillary Weis, 1990)
• Elvis Fashion: From Memphis to Vegas (Julie Mundy, 2004)
• Elvis Jumpsuits All Access (EPE, 2007)
• My Freedamn!: 50s Rockabilly Hot Rod Elvis Fashions (Rin Tanaka, 2007)
• Elvis Your Personal Fashion Consultant (Michael Feder, 2008)
• Lansky Brothers: Clothier to the King (Bernard J. Lansky and Lansky Brothers staff, 2010)
• Elvis Presley: Fashion for a King (Pal Granlund, FTD, 2011)
• Elvis Style: from zoot suits to jumpsuits (Zoey Goto, 2016)
• Blue Suede Shoes: The Culture of Elvis (Thom Gilbert, 2017)
• Elvis Presley Iconic Stagewear – From the Graceland Archives (EPE, 2017)
• Elvis The King of the Rings Volume 1 (Paul Belard, 2021)
• Elvis The King of the Rings Volume 2 (Paul Belard, 2022)
• Elvis Gold & Silver Watches (Paul Belard, 2023)
• Elvis The King of Bling (Paul Belard, 2024)
• Jumpsuits os Macacoes de Elvis – Volume 1 (Waldenir Cecon, 2022)
• Jumpsuits os Macacoes de Elvis – Volume Completo (Waldenir Cecon, 2024)

Most books already published about Elvis' legendary and iconic fashions have had an emphasis on image, or balance between, text and image. Lorraine Gibson's new book breaks the mold with it being narratively focused with two photo sections b&w (16 pages) and color (8 pages). In addition, the story of Elvis’ iconic fashion is told within the context of his life story, undoubtedly begging the question for some readers, biography or fashion story?

Promotion for the book is engaging:

Elvis' extraordinary story  - told through a fashion lens - celebrates the shy, lonely boy who awakened an entire generation to forbidden fruits.

The defiant hair, the sultry good looks, the gender-ambivalent outfits - even the famous sideburns of the man who would be King - are all considered in loving detail.

From impoverished scamp and teenage anti-heroin pink, through Hollywood heartthrob  and sensual leather-clad rock star, to caped superhero in Vegas jumpsuits, the author describes his clothes with as much joy as she does his journey through the decades.

The book includes interesting interviews with Hal Lansky (Lansky Brothers, Clothier to the King) who also provides the Foreword, and the man behind Elvis' 68 Comeback Special, Steve Binder.

One of Binder's comments is instructive:

In my mind, I've a room full of Elvis's best outfits through the decades. There are a lot, since from his early days, even before he was performing, he instinctively, possibly subconsciously at times, wanted to stand out.

In this context, Gibson notes about the young Elvis:

By now, the naturally blond fringe is already starting to flop over his eyes and necessitates being slicked back.

Telling the Elvis story through a fashion lens is a novel idea, but with only 204 pages, the story necessarily lacks the depth of the Guralnick two-volume biography or Jerry Hopkins', Elvis The Biography. Nevertheless, the author succeeds in conveying both the essence of Elvis' life and the function of fashion in it in a coherent and clever way: 

Those old loose britches that he wore ... they had lots of material and pleated fronts, you shook your leg, and it made it look like all hell was going on under there. (quote from Scotty Moore)

As a seasoned, award-winning, author, Gibson has a strong, engaging writing style and is adept at providing context and color, as these excerpts about Memphis circa 1954 when Elvis was about to explode onto the music scene, illustrate:

Memphis and the airwaves were now jumping with the reverberations of a previously underground scene in all its raw, down-and-dirty glory.

Suddenly, Elvis and his 1950s peers had access to a new wave - make that tsunami - of music, a feast of definitive styles that are still regarded as iconic today. And they had money to buy it.

As well as the home of rhythm and blues, Memphis was the motherlode of white gospel music, too....

There are also moments in the story which will anger some readers and surprise others, such as this passage about the Presley's taking up residence in Graceland:

The family was also compared to the Beverly Hillbillies, and later to trashy lottery winners. I smell jealousy there and hope that they were blissfully unaware of being judged.

I suspect the reference to the "Beverly Hillbillies" (a hugely successful American television sitcom embodying the 'rags to riches" story Elvis and his family enjoyed) was used by the author as a 'device', rather than to be taken literally, as the sitcom did not debut on television until late September, 1962 (by which time the Presley family had been in residence at Graceland for more than five years).

About Graceland the author vividly comments:

In Graceland, Elvis was in control. It was his lighthouse on a storm-tossed sea - and it was where he could be mothered.

Given their transient and specific nature, the author doesn't devote much text to Elvis' film costumes. Two exceptions are interesting, the first about Jailhouse Rock:

The James Dean-esque cable-knit sweater (collar up, of course), pleat-front trousers, which alone would have earned him the 'Pelvis' moniker, and black and white loafers dominate the pool scene, where he absolutely nails 'Baby, I Don't Care'. the striped sports coats, dark with Cuban-collar shirt for the calamitous 'meet-the-parents' scene, and white with a bold stripe and raw-silk, geometric pattern shirt for dates, and the silk housecoat/cravat combo, that somehow works, and would have had Noel Coward green with envy, are all sublime.

For Blue Hawaii, the author comments:

....Elvis, tanned and toned and dressed in tropical-print Hawaiian shirts, or no shirt at all, shimmed in skin-tight white surfing shorts while serenading adoring starlets in conically upholstered swimsuits.

The latter chapters of the book address the '68 Comeback Special and Elvis' years of touring as "the Caped Crusader", of course, including his jumpsuits for the legendary Aloha from Hawaii satellite concert. 

Regarding the Comeback Special, it is interesting to read that Bill Belew had designed a jumpsuit (which would later become synonymous with the 1970s Elvis) for Elvis to wear on the show, only for director, Steve Binder, to nix it.

Gibson comments about the closing number of the TV special:

It's a gut-wrenching performance to behold. Elvis is wearing a meticulously tailored suit so dazzlingly, ecclesiastically white, that it appears to be glowing, its intentional purity interrupted only by a crimson neck tie.
.......................
Watching the footage, it's inescapable to me that, yet again, his outfit, like his singing, did much of the talking.

Many readers will find the author's account of the recording of If I Can Dream, revelatory.

The book also includes discussion of Baz Luhrmann’s film, Elvis. The author’s account on hearing Austin Butler had the titular role is honest and rewarding:

I confess that when news came out that Austin Butler would play Elvis, I couldn’t see it. Trying to capture the essence of The King, is like trying to capture starlight. I think I even said something flippant line, ‘I look more like Elvis that Austin does.’

And then … I watched the film.

Willingly, I ate humble pie, as he became Elvis before my very eyes – a triumph of his fine and intuitive acting and the wizardry of Luhrmann, who fused reality, virtuality and surreality to produce a cinematic fireworks display of a movie that’s also a love letter to the indefinable spirit of Elvis.

 

The Epilogue: The King is Dead, Long Live the King - The Legacy, is a fascinating collection of observations with players including Lana Del Rey, Bono, Liam Gallagher (Oasis), Harry Styles (One Direction) and Bruce Springsteen, plus a further reflection on Baz Luhrmann's film, Elvis, in which we learn that Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin met with Hal and Julie Lansky in planning the costumes for the film.

In writing the direct biographical element for the book, Gibson consulted a variety of published sources ranging from 'usual suspects' - books by Peter Guralnick, Elaine Dundy, Alanna Nash, and Priscilla Presley, to more obtuse tomes - Peter Whitmer's controversial psychological analysis, The Inner Elvis, Thompson and Cole's, The Death of Elvis, and Alistair McReynolds', Kith and Kin: The Continuing Legacy of the Scots-Irish in America.

The two photo sections are presented on high quality gloss paper stock. The images are also high-quality ranging from early candids of Elvis in his younger years through his halcyon period in the mid-1950s to on-stage in the 1970s. While we have seen the imagery many times before, a stand-out color shot shows Elvis in July 1973, with his back to the camera and the cape of his Pharaoh suit fully outstretched. More, and larger imagery, would have added to the book’s impact.

Verdict: I thoroughly enjoyed Elvis: The King of Fashion. It is a well-constructed, entertaining and colorful read. As a combination biography and fashion account of the Elvis story, I was somewhat concerned that the biographical element occasionally overshadowed the fashion component, particularly in the absence of a substantial photo element. However, this was necessary to effectively tell the complex Elvis Presley story.

Amazon links: Amazon US - Amazon UK

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Book Review by Nigel Patterson.
-Copyright EIN October 2024
EIN Website content © Copyright the Elvis Information Network.

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