1) Audrey Horne, Twin Peaks: No one served smouldering 50s schoolgirl realness quite like the Great Northern Hotel heiress herself, Miss Audrey Horne. While Twin Peaks‘ cancellation after just two seasons left many an unsolved mystery small town Washington state, perhaps the most burning of these unanswered questions is how anyone managed to make printed cardigan sets, pleated plaid skirts, and straight up saddle shoes look so sexy. Whether snooping around One Eyed Jack’s or just sneaking out of class for a smoke, Audrey always looked more fine than Cooper’s cup of coffee. We’ll see how Sherilyn Fenn reinterprets her character’s cult style for the modern era when Twin Peaks returns in 2017.
2) Sailor Ripley and Lula Pace Fortune, Wild at Heart: While Twin Peaks‘ James Hurley might have been Lynch’s most smokin’ jailbird (literally), Sailor Ripley was definitely his best dressed. Stabbin’ and steerin’ down the open highway with leading lady Lula, Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern’s stints as chainsmoking, shit kicking North Carolina troublemakers made for Lynch’s most legendary road movie. Sailor’s signature snakeskin jacket not only represents “a symbol of his individuality and belief in personal freedom”, but also represents him looking like a total badass. But while Sailor’s outerwear might be the prize pig (or python) of Lynch’s costume department, his wild woman’s black bodycon dresses, deep red leotards, cropped motorcycle jackets, and wavy blonde hair blowing through the wind are certifiably “hotter than Georgia asphalt.”
3) Feyd-Rautha, Dune: Lynch is no stranger to outside the box casting choices (he did launch Marilyn Manson’s film career, after all), and his selection for the flame haired antagonist of his adaptation of canonical sci-fi novel Dune was no less surprising. Who better to play an intergalactic sadist than relatively harmless Police frontman Sting? Anyone familiar with the 1984 feature no doubt has a certain skimpy costume choice seared into their memory, but when he was actually clothed, Feyd-Rautha was kind of killing it. His futuristic armor seems as though it walked right off the Hood by Air runway and into a knife fight with a glowing-eyed Kyle MacLachlan.
4) Dorothy Vallens, Blue Velvet: Before Lana del Rey melancholically crooned the Tony Bennett classic, Dorothy Vallens’ take on the wistful ode to velvet “bluer than the night” stole the show at the Slow Club. Lynch tapped Italian bombshell Isabella Rossellini as the knife wielding femme fatale in his neo-noir thriller, arguably the most memorable film role of her dynamic career. The Blue Lady’s iconic velveteen robes and shimmering gowns not only pulled Jeffrey Beaumont into Lumberton’s seedy underbelly, but have us hooked on her hazy nightclub vibes, too.
5) Alice Wakefield, Lost Highway: Played by Patricia Arquette, Alice Wakefield is the scheming, seductive blonde bombshell Lost Highway craved. As the film was released in 1997, it’s no surprise that Alice takes her sartorial cues from the decade’s most YAAAAASS-worthy film looks (think Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct but with the high points of Cher Horowitz’s Alaïa’d out wardrobe). But make no mistake, Alice shrouds her platinum blonde minidress moments in an air of lethal mystery all her own.
Credits
Text Emily Manning
Image via YouTube