Vintage Style Icon: Priscilla’s Presley style

With what would have been Elvis Presley’s 75th birthday coming up soon, the original King of Pop is once again making headlines. Both his daughter Lisa Marie and ex-wife Priscilla will be marking the celebration with a cake-cutting ceremony in Graceland, so what better time to look back at Priscilla’s style during the Fifties and Sixties. Jodie Kharas reports.

Every fashion icon has their golden period. Priscilla Presley may have spent her golden period twinkling in her husband’s shadow, but as we reflect upon the most explosive era of her life, it is clear that her style was not only fit for the King. Flamboyant, individual and always glamorous, the Queen of Rock n’ Roll’s dress sense remains instantly recognizable today and is often emulated by current icons, including Amy Winehouse.

When Priscilla Beaulieu’s stepfather was transferred to Wiesbaden, West Germany in 1959, the fourteen-year-olds fate was sealed when a handsome stranger approached her and asked if she’d like to meet Elvis Presley, who was also in Germany at the time. Thrilled when her strict parents gave her permission to go and meet him regularly, an ecstatic Priscilla would tear through her wardrobe- and sometimes her mother’s- in relentless attempts to appear mature enough to catch the famous soldier’s gaze through the constant congregation of full-figured, glamorous women who hung on his every word.

The first image of Priscilla taken by the press captured a humbly dressed young girl, wearing a dowdy checked-dress and headscarf, as she waved off the Rock n’ Roll star on his return to America. Even at such a tender age, Priscilla fulfilled Presley’s idea of the perfect woman, as a soft-spoken brunette with blue eyes. As the lovesick teenager blossomed into a woman, the fairytale relationship grew under Presley’s strong influence. On a spontaneous trip to Las Vegas, Priscilla eagerly followed Elvis’ lead, permitting a complete style overhaul, even changing her eye-make-up in order to ‘enhance’ her eyes.

Her hair was piled on top of her head apart from a single long curl that fell across her left shoulder. In her account of her life with the singer, Elvis and Me, Priscilla describes her Cinderella makeover; “When I put on my brand-new brocade gown, my transformation from an innocent sixteen-year-old to a sophisticated siren was complete. I looked like one of the lead dancers in the Folies-Bergère.” After copious amounts of negotiating, Priscilla’s parents agreed to her permanent move to Memphis. Consequently, the teenager’s wardrobe had become completely governed by the singer.

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Tags: Elvis, Presley, Priscilla

Category: 1960s, Fashion, Vintage news, Vintage Style Icons