Much has been written about Etta James‘ pipes, but what about her style?
Beyonce and Etta James are icons in their own right, but it was Beyonce who introduced a new audience to James when she played Etta in Cadillac Records, a semi-fictional retelling of the rise of Chess Records and the early careers of James, Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters in 1950s Chicago.
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The 2008 film was a smash, so much so, that Beyonce was invited to perform Etta’s signature song “At Last” at the inauguration of Barack Obama in January 2009.
For Etta’s style we have to turn, again, to Cadillac. Many of the images we’ve seen of James involves her coif which, reflecting the times, was piled high on her head as a beehive or stood as a mop of curls. James was not a style icon in any way other than in music.
Decades on, as Etta struggled with her weight and other health problems, she would dress in billowing black dresses and sequined jackets. After her gastric bypass surgery, James kept the black but opted for jeans, slacks and blazers on the red carpet and during performances.
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As conveyed by Beyonce for Cadillac, James’ style was described by the film’s costume designer Johnetta Boone as “boozy elegance” in In Style magazine back in 2008.
All of the costumes, were made by Boone and her seamstresses – except for one dress. That dress, a green number, was purchased from a vintage collection in New York.
Wrote In Style:
This green dress, purchased from a vintage collection in New York, was the only dress that wasn’t an original of Johnetta Boone’s. The dress was reshaped to fit on Beyonce’s curves. “She put on a few pounds so she wouldn’t be seen as ‘glam Beyonce’ and more like her character,” says Boone. The green color was chosen purposely to coordinate with the felt on the pool table, which Boone says symbolizes money.
For the look above, she chose tapestry fabric “because the texture and form are symbolic of the time period,” and the teal color because it’s “moody like the blues.”
More of Beyonce and Etta in the accompanying gallery!
