![]() ![]() John Travolta honors ‘Grease’ co-star Olivia Newton-John in Super Bowl ad Olivia Newton-John’s final song released - a duet with Dolly Parton “I have never heard such shrieks of joy.‘Grease’ actors were ‘too old’ say critics - casting director fights back ![]() “She thought she was getting a puppy opened a big pink box,” he says. He organised the surprise of giving the jacket back. “She called the jacket her ‘baby’ and kept it all her career,” says Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien’s. An anonymous fan bought the jacket and then given back to Newton-John as a gift. The trousers were bought by Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, and they are framed and displayed on the wall at the company’s offices. Newton-John sold the jacket and trousers for $405,700 (about £335,000) at auction at Julien’s in 2019 to raise money for her cancer centre. “I’ve done Sophie’s Choice, I won an Academy Award for All That Jazz, but this is the one that I’m that I’m known for.” “That will be on my tombstone, that’s for sure,” he says. Wolsky, a costume veteran whose career spans six decades, says it remains part of his reputation. That costume, that breakout moment, that reaction by Danny.” ![]() But, says Bailey, “I don’t think it will ever eclipse Grease. The headband and leotard worn for her 1981 hit song Physical will no doubt appeal to a generation raised on athleisure, while the spacey disco look of the 1980 film Xanadu already has a cult following. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesĪfter her death, other style moments from Newton-John’s career are likely to be rediscovered. Olivia Newton-John donned a headband and leotard for the video of her 1981 hit song Physical. ![]() If she’d had the same hair and that costume, it wouldn’t work.” skip past newsletter promotion “She had to have certain hair, makeup,” he says. “It’s so sleek and can afford to it.” Wolsky says it was crucial that the transformation was total. “It is so bold and classic and simple and sexy that many people can wear it,” she says. The simplicity of the outfit – black trousers, black top, red lipstick – has assisted its staying power, says Bailey. is marking a moment in the story of Grease, but it’s also a fashion statement. “ was a time when women were wearing pinafores and flares. “It throws us into the bold, empowered dressing of ,” she says. Kate Bailey, a senior curator at the V&A in London, who works on costume, believes the outfit was, at the time, a glimpse into the future. “ Newton-John plays that role with a tongue wedged firmly in her cheek … she looks to her friends for directions on how to drop the cigarette, for example.” “You could read that final scene as her moving from one stereotype to ,” he says. Photograph: PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy The simplicity of the outfit – black trousers, black top, red lipstick – has assisted its staying power, says Kate Bailey. “Perhaps there’s something so at odds and so polar opposite about Sandy’s final look that gives us a jolt. But, he says, it also provides dramatic effect. “It feels wrong to me that someone should change themselves for another person to gain their affection,” he says. Colin Richmond, costume designer for the London stage show Grease the Musical, is uncomfortable with this element. “One rip and disaster.”īut there has been feminist critique of Sandy’s transformation, because it is she, not Travolta’s Danny, who changes – he does turn up in a geeky cardigan to show his love, but it is rapidly ditched when he sees the all-new Sandy. “They were so old, and there was just one pair, so there was no room for error,” she wrote. As Newton-John relays in her 2019 autobiography, the zip was broken and she was sewn into the trousers each morning. “The idea was easy because she had been so girlish, so you had to go the other way – totally tight and sophisticated.” While Wolsky made Newton-John’s outfits for most of the movie, the infamous top and trousers were bought vintage. “It was very clear from the beginning that she would have to change,” says Grease’s costume designer, Albert Wolsky. “ transforms from a shrinking violet … just totally becoming a different character, remaking yourself.” “It seems to have a way of representing dreams of everyone,” says Oliver Gruner, who edited the 2019 book Grease is the Word. In the final scene, Sandy – previously painted as a square in the cutesy poodle skirts and pastel colours of the 1950s – is transformed into a “bad girl” in figure-hugging black and leathers. The continued impact is partly thanks to the outfit’s place in the film. In the final scene of Grease, Sandy’s style is transformed from the cutesy poodle skirts and pastels colours of the 1950s. ![]()
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