Dallas Styles – Dallas Decoder

Dallas Styles: Pam’s ‘Pants Dress’

April 13, 2012 by Chris Baker 3 Comments

Up close …

Pam Ewing becomes one of television’s most stylish women during “Dallas’s” second season, but she misses the mark with the wacky “pants dress” she sports in “Black Market Baby.”

… And not-far-enough away!

Victoria Principal is first seen wearing the outfit during the episode’s third act, when Pam walks into The Store. She then wears it in the next two scenes, when Pam sits in her friend Liz Craig’s office and when she runs into Sue Ellen in the maternity department.

The just-past-the-knees dress appears to be a purple floral print worn over solid mauve pants, which match the vest Principal wears. The style is reminiscent of something Bea Arthur might have sported on “The Golden Girls” in the 1980s, so you have to wonder what “Dallas’s” wardrobe designers had in mind when they chose it for someone as young and sexy as Principal.

In “Black Market Baby,” Pam takes a job at The Store over the objections of Bobby, who clings to the old-fashioned idea that married women shouldn’t work.

Maybe the outfit is supposed to represent the balance Pam is trying to strike? Perhaps the pants symbolize how she wants to be on more of an equal footing with her husband, while the dress shows how she is holding onto her femininity?

Whatever the reason, let’s be thankful Pam reclaims her good fashion sense later in this episode, when she pairs jeans with a tie-front blouse. It’s a much more chic look for a character whose sense of style is one of “Dallas’s” hallmarks.

Filed Under: Dallas Styles, Dallas Styles (Classic), Features Tagged With: Black Market Baby, Victoria Principal

Dallas Styles: J.R.’s Safari Shirts

April 9, 2012 by Chris Baker 2 Comments

The shark wore epaulettes

When “Dallas’s” wardrobe designers were figuring out how to dress the Ewings, I suspect J.R. presented the toughest challenge.

I’m not referring to his office outfits. Those were easy. Put Larry Hagman in a conservative business suit and send him off to do his scenes. Done.

But J.R. wasn’t all business, all the time. How would he dress when he wasn’t at work?

“Dallas” answers this question during the second season, when J.R. begins wearing what becomes one of his signatures: the safari shirt.

The look was popularized more than a century ago by western hunters, who wore multi-pocketed jackets and vests during expeditions to Africa. The clothing was usually made of cotton or poplin and often came in muted colors – beige, brown, khaki – that allowed the adventurers to blend in with their surroundings.

This made safari shirts ideal for J.R., a character who was always on the hunt – for deals, for money, for women. The shirt’s military-style epaulettes also remind us J.R. is always at war with his enemies, while all those pockets are perfect for a man who has lots to hide.

J.R. is first seen in a safari shirt in “Reunion, Part 1,” the second-season opener, when he begins secretly plotting against his brother Gary. In later seasons, J.R. wears the shirts when he and his brothers venture into the South American jungle to search for the missing Jock and when he breaks out of an Arkansas jail. (Don’t ask.)

We also see J.R. wearing the shirts during lighter moments. In the eighth-season episode “Shadow of a Doubt,” the Ewings spend an afternoon at a waterpark, where Sue Ellen catches a safari-shirted J.R. checking out two shapely women in revealing bathing suits.

It’s one more reminder that no matter where J.R. goes, the game is on.

Filed Under: Dallas Styles, Dallas Styles (Classic), Features Tagged With: Larry Hagman, Reunion Part 1, Shadow of a Doubt

Dallas Styles: Bobby’s Leather Jacket

April 2, 2012 by Chris Baker 8 Comments

‘Digger’s Daughter’

Bobby Ewing’s leather motorcross jacket isn’t as well known as J.R.’s Stetsons or Miss Ellie’s sack dresses, but it’s every bit as durable.

Patrick Duffy is sporting the snap-collared jacket when we meet Bobby in Act I, Scene I of “Dallas’s” Episode 1, “Digger’s Daughter.” The jacket, like the red convertible Bobby is driving, lets the audience know this is a cool young dude.

Bobby Ewing, Dallas, Decline and Fall of the Ewing Empire, Patrick Duffy

‘The Decline and Fall of the Ewing Empire’

The jacket is metaphorical in other ways, too. We hear Pam’s famous line in this scene (“Your folks are gonna throw me right off that ranch”) and we wonder: Are the Ewings going to tan Bobby’s actual hide when they discover he has married a Barnes?

The jacket pops up periodically after “Digger’s Daughter,” including during the sixth-season episode “Caribbean Connection,” when Bobby sneaks into a motel room to gather dirt on one of J.R.’s cronies. This is a very un-Bobby thing to do, so the leather jacket becomes the perfect prop to telegraph his rebellious streak.

Interestingly, even after Duffy leaves “Dallas,” the jacket doesn’t.

Dack Rambo seems to sport the same brown leather during the Duffy-less dream season, a subtle hint to the audience that Rambo’s character, cousin Jack Ewing, was supposed to fill Bobby’s role as “Dallas’s” resident hero.

Duffy wears a leather motorcross in “Dallas’s” final two episodes, “The Decline and Fall of the Ewing Empire” and “Conundrum,” including in the latter’s last freeze frame. The color of this jacket isn’t warm, so I’m not sure it’s the same one Duffy wore during the previous seasons.

The color change is fitting: By the time “Dallas” ends, the show has faded considerably. Why shouldn’t Bobby’s jacket do the same?

Filed Under: Dallas Styles, Dallas Styles (Classic), Features Tagged With: Caribbean Connection, Conundrum, Dack Rambo, Decline and Fall of the Ewing Empire, Digger’s Daughter, Patrick Duffy