Trousers a la Katharine Hepburn

July 31, 2015

Last Updated on November 3, 2021 by Dominique de Merteuil

If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.

Katharine Hepburn

Inspiration can be found anywhere and in anything. Mr de Merteuil, usually finds his in art, although he’s rarely satisfied by simply looking through the many books that we have, rather he prefers to see his muses up close and has been known to travel vast distances just to feast upon one particular painting or sculpture which will give him the right direction to shoot an amazing editorial or a beauty campaign. An example of this passion being, when he once hired a car and drove us for three hours from our London pied-à-terre out into the English Cotswolds, just so that he could look at a painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, one of his beloved Pre-Raphaelites, because he wanted to see the colours more clearly.

My inspiration doesn’t usually involve such a drastic course of action, as I usually find what I’m looking for in the writings of my favourite authors or costume styling from old Hollywood films. As it so happens, the last three films that I watched, or rather re-watched, have one thing in common, Katharine Hepburn, who is the star in all of them. The Philadelphia Story, Woman of the Year and Bringing Up Baby, are not only hugely entertaining in their use of caustic dialogue but also visually beautiful and definitely inspirational as far as my wardrobe is concerned. My beloved Adrian is the genius behind the breath-taking gowns in two of the aforementioned films and Howard Greer created the gowns in Bringing Up Baby. It is not the beautiful gowns however that I would like to draw your attention to, but rather the wide-leg trousers that are worn by Kate in many of the scenes.

Katharine Hepburn

A strong personality on and off-screen, beautiful, intelligent and unconventional (for some even eccentric), Katharine Hepburn preferred comfortable wide-leg trousers, loafers and men’s shirts, over ball-gowns.  She made the very masculine look incredibly chic and is one of my greatest inspirations, going head to head with Marlene Dietrich, when it comes to looking casually chic, even masculine and yet bringing it together into an incredibly sexy look, that creates a truly empowered feminine image.

For the Trousers a la Katharine Hepburn look I opted for:

• TRUE VINTAGE FASHION

In the picture, I’m wearing my favourite 1940s blouse paired with 1980s slacks and SPITZ loafers.

• VINTAGE-INSPIRED KATHARINE HEPBURN LOOK

For those of you who are new to the wonderful world of vintage, and are more comfortable with contemporary designers, here is my vintage-inspired look that I believe, Katharine Hepburn would approve of. For this look, I opted for;

• Vivienne Westwood Red Label wide-leg trousers
• Westwood Anglomania top,
• Fendi sandals
• Megumi – O sunglasses

Katharine Hepburn inspired look from The Philadelphia Story.

I wear my sort of clothes to save me the trouble of deciding which clothes to wear.

Finding interesting vintage clothes that will be the right size, in good condition and reasonably priced, is becoming more and more of a challenge now that the general population has caught on to what we insiders have covered for years. So, alternative tactics need to be employed in order to get the look and I can see only two options, which are as follows;

• Buy a vintage sewing pattern and find an excellent seamstress who will be able to create the desired outfit.
•  Look among contemporary designers who are as inspired by vintage fashion as I am.

As I’m still on the look for a skilled seamstress, I have to resign myself for the time being to pair the old with the new. Being so inspired by Katharine Hepburn’s immaculate, stylish look in every film she made an appearance in, especially in The Philadelphia Story, I wanted to find something similar to what her character Tracy Lord wore in one of the first scenes of the film. Very relaxed, casual country chic look that would be suitable to wear when meeting friends for a lunch or for a stroll in the park with the dog. So…

For my vintage look with a modern twist, I opted for the following.

• Ralph Lauren jacket
• Vintage Mansfield Originals-Cache D’or trousers
• Valentino silk top
• Versace reading glasses
• Vintage bowler hat by Lock & Co.
• Janroll shoes