The style legacy of Bonnie Parker

When Bonnie Parker, or Bonnie of Bonnie and Clyde, donned a beret one morning in 1933, she would have had little idea of the future fashion implications. Dead a year later, she would have had little idea of much future at all. But, partly thanks to the 1967 film telling of her gang’s 1930s exploits, Bonnie, as played by Faye Dunaway, is now both part of an American folklore – a tough broad, a symbol of rebellion and disruption – and a card-carrying member of the fashion icon gang. The beret, knitwear and scarf alone provide immeasurable inspiration for the current season. Here are five reasons why – 50 years on from the film, 83 years from Parker’s death – her outfit matters now.

The beret

I’m willing to bet that Maria Grazia Chiuri had Bonnie and Clyde playing on loop in the Christian Dior atelier in the runup to the autumn/winter show. It featured berets on every single look. The hat also associated with strings of garlic, Breton tops and bicycles is officially the headgear of the season. See also: Alexa Chung on the cover of June Vogue.

The pencil skirt

Sure, the pencil skirt seems as if it’s not on speaking terms with the rest of fashion right now. But with Raf Simons on its rebranding team,it will only be a matter of time before there is a rapprochement. Bonnie’s tweedy skirt is a bit playing-secretary when you take it out of context. Instead, update the look by perusing Simons’ Calvin Klein collection. An ode to outsiders in America, the block colours of knitted pencil skirts are like Bonnie 2.0 (Beyoncé’s take notwithstanding). Adjust your skirt-thinking accordingly.

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Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty

“This here’s Miss Bonnie Parker. I’m Clyde Barrow. We rob banks,” Warren Beatty famously stated in the iconic Arthur Penn film, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend. What Beatty didn’t add was that Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker was executing these stickups in costumes that would shake the fashion world of the late ’60s and has, for a half century, continued to entrance us.

For an America that was perhaps becoming a tiny bit weary of mod juvenilia and hippie shreds, Bonnie/Fay’s slick ensembles—her snug sweaters, her midi skirts, her slouchy silk blouses, her neckerchiefs, her sexy slips—introduced an alternative vision: a glamorous but tough aesthetic, perfect for a character who never lost her stunning cool even in the film’s famous, and famously bloody, conclusion.

Of course, the real Bonnie (Google Image her and take a fascinating look at the actual woman) was a far more impoverished, scruffier version of the cinematic interpretation, though Dunaway, looking back on the film, saw some real similarities. “I knew it was a great role. I really identified with Bonnie. She was just like me, a Southern girl who was dying to get out of the South. She wanted to take risks, she wanted to live. I knew exactly how she felt—I’d felt that way for years.”

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Iconic Fashion Moments In Film

From Audrey Hepburn's Givenchy LBD, to Faye Dunaway's runaway wardrobe and Rita Hayworth's Gilda moment, the following are some of the most iconic style statements to grace the big screen...

1. Audrey Hepburn In Breakfast at Tiffany’s

So iconic it has a Wikipedia page all of its own. From the moment Audrey stepped out of a yellow taxi cab and stared whimsically into Tiffany & Co’s window in this gorgeous Givenchy creation, our love affair with the LBD began. Audrey and Givenchy met and collaborated on the set of Sabrina in 1954, and a life-long professional and personal partnership was ignited. ‘It was a kind of marriage’, Givenchy would later tell the Telegraph. There was nothing ‘little’ about this LBD – it set a new style standard in Hollywood in direct opposition to Dior’s ‘new look’. A modern icon was born.

2. Marilyn Monroe In The Misfits

Whilst it’s tempting to go with Marilyn’s floaty white halterneck dress made famous in The Seven Year Itch, we’re going to defy convention and opt for an iconic look that doesn’t always top the style polls. Monroe was one of the first Hollywood stars to rock a pair of jeans on screen – and not just any jeans for that matter: Levi’s. As ‘mom’ jeans inundate the high street this year, let’s remember who first styled this high waisted, straight cut denim with a classic white shirt tucked in. Monroe will always be the original blue jean icon.

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