Every now and then, a piece of pop culture will capture the perfect storm of talent, story and style to withstand the test of time. One such example is the 1985 comedy-drama “Desperately Seeking Susan,” starring Rosanna Arquette as bored housewife Roberta and Madonna as the titular Susan, an enigmatic downtown punk who captures Roberta’s attention through personal advertisements in a newspaper.
When Madonna was cast, ahead of filming in the summer and early fall of 1984, she was a fledgling pop star with only modest hits such as “Borderline,” “Holiday” and “Lucky Star” to her name. Studio executives had to be convinced of her role in the movie, director Susan Seidelman recalled, on a Zoom call But, during filming, a rare phenomenon occurred: Madonna became a superstar after the release of her second album, “Like a Virgin”, and suddenly, “Desperately Seeking Susan” became largely viewed as “the Madonna movie”. Studio executives then rushed to release the movie to capitalize on the singer’s success, which they thought would be a flash-in-the-pan (little did they know that Madonna would go on to create 18 multi-platinum albums and wield cultural influence 40 years later).
Madonna became an influential figure in pop culture, in part through her style, which included headscarves, heavy costume jewelry and wearing underwear-as-outerwear — all of which became synonymous with her character in “Desperately Seeking Susan”. Despite the film’s 40th anniversary this year, it still feels modern. And while ’80s fashion can easily veer into costume-like territory, the simplicity and effortless cool of Susan’s outfits wouldn’t look out of place today.
The film’s costume and production designer Santo Loquasto pulled garments and inspiration from across several decades, including his own mother’s wardrobe for Susan’s black bustier, which was actually two pieces: a corset and a longline bra. “(Madonna) put it on and looked at her bust and said, ‘your mother is some lady’, in her best Mae West delivery!” laughed Loquasto as he spoke to CNN via Zoom. One can’t help but wonder if the seeds of the iconic Jean Paul Gaultier cone bra, which Madonna would go on to wear in the music video for her song “Vogue” and on her “Blonde Ambition” tour in the ‘90s, were planted here.
Loquasto explained that his approach to creating the looks for Susan in the film was guided by Madonna’s own approach to fashion, which made for an “organic” and “harmonious” amalgam that he simply “embellished” with his own touches.
“I’m going to exploit your sensibility totally because we’re all fascinated by it and you’re comfortable with it,” Loquasto recalled telling her.
“I would shake a baggie of jewelry onto (Madonna’s) couch in the trailer and say, ‘I’ll be back in an hour, have a ball.’ And she would go at it,” he continued — layering chunky beads, crucifixes and rubber bangles that she would later become known for.
However, there was one item of clothing that wasn’t gleaned from Madonna’s personal tastes but was included in the script written by Leora Barish — a 1950s olive green tuxedo jacket with a golden pyramid embroidered on the back, which was so often worn by Susan that it became not only one of her character’s key identifiers but also a major plot point. (Though, Madonna herself wasn’t a fan of the jacket, according to Seidelman.)
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