You know them from Greece.

You know, this outfit and this one.

And, of course, this one.

But are they accurate?

We got this fashion historian.

Hi, I'm Rice of Britannia, and I'm a fashion historian to walk us through what the movie got right and what they got wrong about these looks.

First, let's establish the setting.

The movie is set in Southern California during the 1957 1958 school year.

We know this because the opening beach scene takes place at Leo Carrillo State Park in Malibu.

And why, exactly 1958?

We can see another clue in the diner scene where Ritchie Valens rendition of La Bomba is playing Okay, meetings that session and that was released in 1958.

Bridal High is a fictional high school meant to represent the All American ideal, not unlike those featured on American Bandstand.

Anything else you'd like to add?

Grease is based on a Broadway musical, which premiered in 1972 and the film was released in 1978.

This film is a post modern interpretation of the 19 fifties, likely made by filmmakers who were teenagers at the time.

This film prioritizes nostalgia over historical accuracy, and that's because they really rely on these archetypes that were established in the 19 fifties.

Greece is inspired by the teen films of the late 19 fifties like High School, Confidential, Untamed Youth and Teenage Thunder.

Greece is the quintessential teen film, and that's because it was in the 19 fifties that teenagers first truly became recognized as their own subset.

The concept of the teenager was a Postwar invention, and in 1945 The New York Times published the Teen age Bill of Rights, which was a manifesto that outlined howto live the teenage life.

The year 1945 coincides with the end of World War Two, and teenagers were really allowed.

Thio revel in their youth.

Amazing.

Let's get into the looks.

First up is Sandy's summer nights look Look.

Sandy embodies the 19 fifties good girl archetype.

Others were Doris Day and Debbie Reynolds.

The characters full name is Sandy Olsson, but a lot of people think that her name is Sandra Dee, based on the song E.

I'm saying, but actually Sandra Dee was a really American actress who is very famous in the 19 fifties.

This costume represents the ideals established by mainstream fashion, and that was of the new look silhouette introduced by Christian Dior in 1947.

Okay, let's draw Sandy's look from the undergarments up.

First up the underwear way.

Do see a peak of accurate 19 fifties underwear In this sleepover scene.

Undergarments would have consisted of a bruise ear and high waist panties.

Bra's era of the 19 fifties was commonly known as the bullet bra, notable for its pointed cups.

Stockings could be warned by more mature teenagers, but we're often usually just warned by adult women.

Let's move on to the next layer.

1/2 slip could be worn over the panties and underneath the petty coat, and that pretty much just looked like a skirt.

The petticoat of the 19 fifties, sometimes called the Kremlin, could get very, very full, and multiple layers could be warned to create that luminous silhouette.

Sandy is wearing at least one petty coat, and we see the hem of it peeking out right here, so this is actually accurate.

Okay, up next, the shirt Sandy wears a white colored button down shirt, which was a schoolgirl staple rooted in the tradition of the school uniform.

This also sees accurate.

Sandy's casting in the good girl archetype is further reinforced by the Peter Pan collar on her shirt and that is rounded right at the neck.

This is in direct contrast to the pointed popped collar, which was more closely associated with the bad girl moving on to the skirt.

Sandy skirt is entirely accurate because it's cut in a very full circle and nipped at the waist.

Further emphasized by a wide belt, we see these wide waist cinching belts on several characters throughout the film.

Perhaps more commonly, associate ID with teenagers in the 19 fifties is the poodle skirt.

While poodle skirts were certainly popular with teenagers during the 19 fifties, they really became Maur, emblematic of the 19 fifties.

In the decades following, the poodle skirt was invented by Julie Lynch Charlotte, who wanted a festive skirt to wear to a holiday party.

So she cut a circle out of felt a smaller circle on the inside and then made a little festive poodle to stitch on top.

Important to note that it wasn't just poodles, all types of novelty applications were applied to thes skirts such as other dogs or flowers or umbrellas or raindrops as speaker and popularity.

Poodle skirts would eventually be manufactured commercially, however, they were still more commonly regarded as a home sewing project.

We do see Patty Simcox wearing a few discreet in this scene, and she's pretty much a caricature of the 19 fifties teen.

Next up the card again, we see Sandy wearing a cardigan draped over her shoulders, which was a very fashionable way to wear this.

She does remove it later on in the song, but she could wear a sweater clip to help secure it if she wanted to keep it on him.

Sweater clip was a functional piece of jewelry that basically consisted of two individual clips connected by a decorative chain, and that was used to hold the sweater on your shoulders.

And for that reason, it was also called a sweater guard.

Another fashionable way to wear your cardigan sweater in the 19 fifties was actually backwards, with the buttons going up the back, and that brings us to the shoes.

Here we have Sandy, wearing a sensible pair of shoes with a low heel, perfect for a day at school.

The style of shoe more commonly associated with the 19 fifties schoolgirl, however, was the two tone saddle shoe, often warned with white bobby socks onto the hair.

Sandy's hair isn't glaringly inaccurate, but it does seem to more closely resemble 19 seventies hair styles.

It's really the short bangs that ad, that definitive 19 fifties touch.

These things were especially popular for younger women and teens in the 19 fifties.

Women often set their hair and curls overnight, as we can see in the sleepover scene.

Thes styles can be seen on the characters Frenchy and Marty, and this is probably a bit more accurate.

The decorative clips that she wears are pretty accurate and were often used to tuck the hair behind the ears.

And finally, the jewelry we can see.

The sandy doesn't wear any earrings in the scene, and that's because Frenchie hasn't pierced her ears yet.

Actually, having pierced ears was far less common in the 19 fifties than it is today.

Because of this, most earrings were actually clip ons or screw backs.

Especially fashionable were larger styles that featured pearls and lightweight plastic.

Overall, this look is pretty accurate, so Here's what Sandy's Summer night's outfit would have looked like compared to the one in the film.

Because they go together.

Let's talk about Danny's look.

The character of Danny Zuko takes inspiration from 19 fifties rebel heart throbs like Marlon Brando and James Dean, researchers were part of a 19 fifties youth subculture that was born out of the working class.

With the rise of the teenager in the 19 fifties, Counterculture actually became widely acknowledged in popular mainstream culture, and this is where we start to see the difference between fashion and anti fashion.

Anti fashion actively subverts the standards set up by the fashion system.

The character of Danny Zuko romanticizes counterculture and anti fashion.

As we can see in this look, the individual layers that Danny wears are easy enough to replicate.

But really, this look is based not on the clothes themselves, but the attitude with which their warrant That's cool.

You know how it is rock in the road and what Kenny, Let's break down Danny's look.

First step the underwear.

As is the case today, there was variation in men's underwear.

Boxer briefs during this time were shorter and more fitted.

A sleeveless cotton single.

It could also be worn as an undershirt.

This is another style of undershirt except warn as an outer garment.

Let's look at the next layer Here.

Danny is wearing a white T shirt, but later he's often shown wearing a plain black T shirt.

This was likely a choice by the costume designer to help distinguish him as the romantic male lead amongst a group of actors essentially wearing the same thing.

Next stuff pants.

Blue jeans would have been the norm in both the mainstream youth culture and the grease or subculture, as we can see in many scenes.

Throughout the film, he may have been wearing Levi's 501 genes, which were a longstanding classic.

The featured a button fly and a straight leg, and in the 19 fifties, thes genes would have typically been worn cuffed at the ankle.

Men typically war their trousers closer to the natural waistline rather than the lower hip line.

Next Step three iconic T bird leather jacket, black leather motorcycle jacket is the paramount feature of the Great Sir Look.

This iconic style was introduced by Harley Davidson.

It is recognizable by it's off center zipper closure metal fastenings, diagonal pockets and a belt at the bottom.

Of course, what makes the strike it unique degrees is the T Birds logo on the back.

This could be a nod to the racing club jackets worn by teenagers in the 19 fifties, which is the perfect foil to the pink ladies jacket.

Moving down to the shoes, Danny wears black Oxfords with white socks, which is an obvious reference to the shoes worn by 19 fifties rock n roll sex symbol Elvis Presley.

The obvious desire to equate Danny with a teen heartthrob is a conscious choice made by the filming.

Elvis's cultural influence was unparalleled, and we can see Danny style of singing and dancing closely resembles that made popular by Elvis Danny.

More likely would have been wearing Converse high tops or very durable motorcycle boots.

Like those we see on Nikki, these sturdy boots harken back to the greasers working class roots and last, but certainly not least, the hair grease or look would not be complete without that hairstyle.

The pompadour style, also made famous by Alvis, featured slicked sides and a lot of volume at the top.

Achieving this hairstyle required a lot of hair product like pomade or wax or grates revere e ations in rockabilly hairstyles worn by musicians at the time.

And we can see that in Danny's hairstyle with that signature little curl in the front, Danny's hair is super accurate.

Super on point, Danny's looking Greece helped to solidify the Rebel without a Cause archetype that was established by Marlon Brando and James Dean in the 19 fifties.

So here's what Danny's outfit would have looked like compared to the one he Warren film.

Because we know this is the one that you want.

Let's move on to Sandy's finale.

Transformation Thing is undoubtedly the most iconic look in the film, but it's actually the least accurate and most problematic.

Tell me about it.

Let's move past the fact that she has to change herself to keep her man and focus on the bad girl archetype that dominated 19 fifties film.

Here she embodies the female teenage rebel, further emphasized by her entrance with a cigarette that she quickly puts out.

This look is actually heavily influenced by the 19 seventies, and the line between seventies fashion and fifties costume is blurred.

When I live in Newton, John Where's a very similar look to the premiere of Greece.

Some actresses that embodied this 19 fifties bad girl archetype were Mamie Van Doren, Joan Collins, Ava Gardner and Elizabeth Taylor.

Let's see what this look would have looked like.

First step the undergarments.

Thea Undergarments would be similar to that warrant in her first look, except this time probably black instead of white.

Additionally, her bra may have been strapless to accommodate the open neckline again.

The bullet bra style featured severely pointed cups, and these things, called falsies, were these little triangular foam pieces that were placed inside the broad to fill in the point.

This'll leads us to the shirt.

Sandy wears a black off the shoulder top, and that was a style worn by the bombshells and bad girls of the 19 fifties.

Another iconic variation of the same type was the sweater Girl.

The sweater girl trope was established in 1937 with Lana Turner, but she would remain a cultural fixture throughout the 19 forties and fifties, especially in film.

The sweater girl became synonymous with the bad girl because the body hugging mitts that she wore showed off her dangerous curves, especially over that bullet bra.

Next up, those pants, while pants still weren't widely accepted as workwear for adults.

They were a staple in sportswear for teenagers at this time sports, where it was distinctly American in style, which is perfect for this film because it celebrates both Americana and youth culture pants at this time, we usually cropped and fitted, but not nearly as tight as they are in this scene.

Sandy wears shiny black spandex pants that were reportedly so tight that she had to be sewn into them on set pants.

This tight would have required spandex to achieve that level of stretch.

However, Spandex wasn't invented until 1959 by DuPont UN American chemical company.

Women in the 19 fifties were eager to wear pants, and one of the biggest supporters of this movement was famed actress Kate Thompson and also author of The Elouise book.

She wanted to wear pants so bad that she actually started her own line called Fancy Pants.

And now, of course, the jacket.

This leather jacket is first and foremost a visual storytelling device used to align her with Danny's greaser style.

The idea of a lady in a leather jacket was not as firmly established, however.

Harley Davidson did release a style in their 1954 catalog called The Lady's Companion Jacket.

This could be another nod to the racing club jackets worn by both male and female teenagers at the time.

Let's look at those shoes.

Sandy wears saucy red mules with a high heel and somehow impressively navigates both the grass and a moving funhouse, all while doing choreography.

How there may be some movie magic keeping that shoe on her foot, but there's actually a unique feature built in to help keep it on.

This was called the Spring No later invented by American shoe designer Beth Levine.

The spring later was a special insole that featured an elastic panel that hugged the arch of the foot and kept the shoo in place, moving on to the hair.

This is 19 seventies hair.

This is Olivia Newton John's hair.

In the 19 fifties, hair was usually warn shorter above the shoulders.

We can see that Sandy's hair is pretty long here.

Additionally, we see that her curls are pretty teased out, and in the 19 fifties those would be a lot more contained.

A popular bad girl hairstyle was short and cropped with face framing curls, not unlike the one we see on Rizzo.

This was called the Italian Cut and became especially popular in 1953 and finally the jewelry.

Now that Sandy has her ears pierced, she wears a pair of gold hoops.

Although clip on gold hoops did exist, These air totally accurate to the bad girl archetype.

It makes sense that the best known costume in this film is one that would appeal to audiences in 1978.

This look is so iconic that it's become closely tied to Olivia Newton John's own star persona.

So here's what Sandy's finale transformation outfit would have looked like.