Louise Brooks with Malcolm St. Clair and Adolphe Menjou
Paramount Studios Film Still from A SOCIAL CELEBRITY
1926 · New York City, New York

Louise Brooks embraced the free-spending attitude of the 1920s when it came to her wardrobe—especially when the film studio was footing the bill. She would later remember that she played the manicurist in A SOCIAL CELEBRITY in five hundred dollar dresses. It was the same for her other films at Paramount. Unlike those of bigger and better paid stars of the time, Brooks's wardrobe was chic on and off the movie set. Thus, Paramount's costume designer Travis Banton named her one of 1927's best-dressed women, and her advice to ladies wanting to mimic her celebrated sartorial flair was characteristic: "Don't economize too much on clothes."