Miss Ellie's Sack Dresses

[Kenny Coyote]

Why do you think Miss Ellie started wearing those? She didn't wear them in the first few years of Dallas. Contrary to what many people think, although the sack dress look is quite hard to pull off, it can be done. This is how the sack dress should look:

 

[Swami]

They clearly wouldn’t have worked with either Leslie Stewart or Rose McKay.

Swami

 

[Billy Wall]

I just think they wanted Miss Ellie to portray an old country woman.

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

So what season did that start, when did Ellie start wearing them? I wonder if Barbara complained about it ..

 

[Lastkidpicked]

Growing up around Dallas (the city) I knew a few people like Miss Ellie and I can tell you about the sack dresses from that perspective.

There is a set of people in Dallas who feel comfortable with their wealth, and have no need for "Keeping up with the Jones's" They simply gravitate towards the most comfortable and easy care clothes when they are choosing what to wear.

They clearly wouldn’t have worked with either Leslie Stewart or Rose McKay.

Leslie needs to compete in a male dominated business, so she has to dress up, especially during meetings with clients.



Rose McKay is climbing the social ladder, so she needs to "look the part".

But Miss Ellie isn't competing with anybody, is not interested in climbing the social ladder, and she has the confidence to simply wear what is most comfortable.

I like this picture. No pretense, just a couple having coffee.

 

[Willie Oleson]

But this is television, and eventhough no-one would expect her to prance around befurred and bejewelled from head to toe, I think they could have used a little bit more imagination.
There's a difference between not-fancy and downright hideous.

 

[Swami]

I just think they wanted Miss Ellie to portray an old country woman.

Or perhaps more accurately the fact that she lived on a working ranch, and clearly on a daily basis would dress much differently than a city-dweller.

Swami

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

They clearly wouldn’t have worked with either Leslie Stewart or Rose McKay.

Swami

my ludicrous assertion of the day:

Leslie Stewart would have been a breakout star and lasted the entire run of the show if she’d abruptly started wearing sack dresses and speaking with a Haleyville accent, perhaps at the Texas Senate hearing into the Southeast Asian counterrevolution

 

[Alexis]

A while back I found out that a famous Hollywood costume designer did all of Miss Ellie's sack dresses. Now I cant for the life of me think who it was, it wasn't Travilla. I think they were Barbara's personal choice due to being comfortable for long hours of filming.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

Growing up around Dallas (the city) I knew a few people like Miss Ellie and I can tell you about the sack dresses from that perspective.

There is a set of people in Dallas who feel comfortable with their wealth, and have no need for "Keeping up with the Jones's" They simply gravitate towards the most comfortable and easy care clothes when they are choosing what to wear.

I didn't know that. I've never seen anyone with money do that here in the Washington DC area. They may exist; I just haven't seen them. I think you can wear something comfortable that still looks reasonably nice. The picture of her and Jock in your post shows her wearing a blue blouse. That was before she started wearing the sack dresses. Maybe she started wearing them after he died because she didn't feel like there was anybody she felt like she wanted to look nice for. That's kind of a sad thought.

But this is television, and eventhough no-one would expect her to prance around befurred and bejewelled from head to toe, I think they could have used a little bit more imagination.
There's a difference between not-fancy and downright hideous.

I agree with that. I think a blouse like she's wearing in the picture with Jock and a skirt is not-fancy but still nice, while the sack dress is hideous (unless Marilyn Monroe was wearing it).

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

Why do you think Miss Ellie started wearing those? She didn't wear them in the first few years of Dallas. Contrary to what many people think, although the sack dress look is quite hard to pull off, it can be done. This is how the sack dress should look:

View attachment 21084

Marilyn circa 1951 would have looked fantastic in anything... even the ludicrous getups Lucy wore during her supermodel days!

 

[Swami]

my ludicrous assertion of the day:

Leslie Stewart would have been a breakout star and lasted the entire run of the show if she’d abruptly started wearing sack dresses and speaking with a Haleyville accent, perhaps at the Texas Senate hearing into the Southeast Asian counterrevolution

That is too horrible to contemplate!

Swami

 

[James from London]

She'd had a mastectomy so the shapeless look makes sense.

 

[Barbara Fan]

Absolutely @James from London - both on screen and off and lets not forget that Mastectomies in the 1970s were brutal, nothing was spared it was very invasive and radical surgery and thankfully things have progressed since those days but it was very disfiguring and they took away everything, chest wall, under axilla, the lot.

In interviews she described it as being "mutilated"

Also what BBG wore onscreen she worse off screen, you just need to see pics of her in the 40s/50s the blouses, jumpers its so her!

It was the most important story Dallas ever told and she deserved her Emmy, add to that a heart attack and bypass in 1983 - She had been thro the mill.

One UK critic said BBG doesnt need to wear a designer dress to act, she acts her colleagues off the screen. Another said BBG proves there is more to acting that walking down a staircase in a designer gown. So true!

 

[Toni]

A while back I found out that a famous Hollywood costume designer did all of Miss Ellie's sack dresses. Now I cant for the life of me think who it was, it wasn't Travilla. I think they were Barbara's personal choice due to being comfortable for long hours of filming.

That designer was Jean-Louis, who also was responsible
for the fashions of many stars like Marilyn
(other times dressed by Travilla).​

 

[Justine]

I liked Miss Ellie's outfits - I felt they were very true to her character of earth Mama.

 

[Alexis]

That designer was Jean-Louis, who also was responsible
for the fashions of many stars like Marilyn
(other times dressed by Travilla).​

Thank you! I knew it was someone great! Just couldn't get it and I searched everywhere. Barbara also designed some of her outfits herself along with her dressmaker friend. Some of the gowns she wore to the Oil Barron's Ball. So her sack dresses were of the very fancy variety. I like them. I think they suit her character very well. She was a practical women who wanted to dress nicely but comfortably and wasn't trying desperately to be trendy or dress too young for her age. And she did have her own style which she stuck to.
Here's some of the stuff she designed with her dressmaker for the show.
http://barbarabelgeddes.com/bbg_memorabilia-preview

 

[Willie Oleson]

Also what BBG wore onscreen she worse off screen

Well yes, I've always assumed it was her own choice. It wouldn't make sense if a costume designer would come up with the idea himself.

But then it's still possible to enhance things here and there, like, a pretty sack dress. She was in Dallas, not her own reality show. And apparently it was possible to dress nicer in the dream season?

 

[Alexis]

Well yes, I've always assumed it was her own choice. It wouldn't make sense if a costume designer would come up with the idea himself.

But then it's still possible to enhance things here and there, like, a pretty sack dress. She was in Dallas, not her own reality show. And apparently it was possible to dress nicer in the dream season?

Her dresses were pretty though. Miss Ellie didn't work. She wasn't like Angela Channing or Alexis Colby. You get the sense that Ellie even as a young woman wasn't a glamour-puss. She would have been outdoorsy, earthy and natural. She was at home most of the time in the Dallas heat, she pottered about doing things in the garden etc. I don't get the problem with her wardrobe? Why should she have been dressed up in silly over the top outfits to be at home?

 

[Willie Oleson]

Why should she have been dressed up in silly over the top outfits to be at home?

She wasn't at home she was at Southfork. The place that people watched.