Peggy Hamilton: Queen of Filmland Fashion

Abstract

Charismatic West Coast designer and fashion impresario Peggy Hamilton often cited Marie Antoinette as her primary source of inspiration. She was so enamored of the historical monarch that her home boasted a bed formerly owned by Antoinette and she often had herself photographed in eighteenth- century-inspired wigs, face patches, and garments for her fashion pages in The Los Angeles Times. Hamilton likened the French queen’s use of “affluence and power to make France recognize its own designers” to her own crusade to promote native Hollywood design through her fashion columns and fashion shows of the 1920s.¹ Hamilton, whose early career involved working as a costume designer for Triangle films, was firmly ensconced in the dream-like world that is inextricably linked to both fashion and film.