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RetroFit: A Forties Fashion Revamp [ Contents ]

Anna May Wong

Screen Legend and Fashion Icon

Anna May Wong

By Ji Hyun Lim

Glamour and grace in the silent screen era seem necessities, not accessories. When East meets West, exemplifying non-status-quo beauty can be an art form. Anna May Wong (1905-1961) was an Asian American pioneer of style and statement on the silver screen.

Wong was born Wong Lui Tsong on Jan. 3, 1905, to parents who ran a laundry in Los Angeles’ Chinatown. Her beauty and grace were so apparent at a young age that she became a photographer’s model as a student at Hollywood High School. Wong became drawn to the movie industry almost instantly. When she was almost 14, her actor cousin showed a photograph of her to a director who offered her a small part in the film Dinty in 1918. In 1921, Wong appeared in Shame and Bits of Life. The latter film gave her billing before the public. These movies jumpstarted her career as a silent screen actress, and by the 1930s, Wong made the successful move into ‘talkies’, which made her a legend as a glamour icon.

Wong’s lithe figure and sleek style expressed composure, restraint, and sophistication. In many of her movie roles in the 1920s, she used every tool available to express her uniqueness without compromising the depth of her characters. Her clothes echoed many of the conservative, yet alluring facets of those roles. For example, in The Thief Of Bagdad (1924) she wore a mesmerizing two-piece outfit; in The Bombs Of Burma, Wong made even a plain mandarin-collared dress look elegant. Her mannerism and ability to entrance the audience became assets that helped turn Wong into a star.

Our models recall the elegance and personality of Anna May Wong. Click image for larger version

Hollywood dressed Wong’s characters with gowns that left lasting impressions of 1920-40s style. Her gowns were adorned with both Eastern and Western influences. The form-fitting silk bodices, embellished with beading and embroidery, would impress any designer today. She wore a variety of styles ranging from elaborate gowns with sequins, intricately woven into floral designs to short-sleeved, plain cotton dresses with mandarin collars. Her delicate features and dark hair complemented Asian clothing and contrasted well with a bolder Western style.

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It is important to note that during the 1920-40s, Asian American actors were rare. Although audiences delighted in the exoticness of non-Western actors like Wong, Caucasian stars such as Marlene Dietrich, who starred in Shanghai Express (1932) with Wong, were the icons of beauty and style. Wong was predominantly typecast in “ethnic” roles of mystery and other-worldly allure, in movies such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931). But in her struggle to break through the glass ceiling of Hollywood, she showed that an Asian American could carry the stage and screen. Ideal beauty would have remained sadly homogenous without Wong. Even today, she is an image of style and sophistication. She has strongly influenced designers such as Vivian Tam who uses East/West fusion in her designs. In retrospect, Wong epitomized the most beautiful women on screen.