Juli Lynne Charlot, creator of the ‘poodle skirt’ favoured by Queen Elizabeth II – obituary
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Juli Lynne Charlot, who has died aged 101, was an American actress, singer and fashion designer credited with creating the poodle – or circle – skirt, a wide-swing, seamless felt garment in solid colour with a bold design – often a poodle – attached to the fabric; the style became fashionable in the post-war years and the future Queen Elizabeth II wore a “Romeo and Juliet” themed poodle skirt at a hoedown in Ottawa with Prince Philip in 1951.
Juli Lynne Charlot was the newly married wife of an unemployed former Royal Navy officer when she was invited to a Hollywood Christmas party in December 1947. She had “nothing to wear” and no money to buy an outfit. She also described herself as “a big girl – I was just plain fat and frumpy”. Worse, she could not sew.
Her mother gave her a large piece of white felt that she cut into a big circle before creating a hole in the middle for her waist. She then appliqué-ed whimsical felt Christmas trees to the fabric. No seam or hem was needed. A week after the party she sold the skirt “because I needed the money”.
Fellow guests were soon asking her to make skirts for them featuring trees, flowers or dogs. No two were identical. Dachshunds and poodles proved popular and the name “poodle skirt” stuck. Within two months they were being stocked by Bonnie Best, a fashionable store in Beverly Hills.
“A circular skirt, properly constructed, is the most slimming line the average woman can wear,” she explained. “Like the sheath [skirt], it flatters her waist. But better than the sheath, it hides her hips – whether they are too big or too small.”
Between making skirts she went to dress-design school and learnt to sew. She then saved up a little money and opened a factory. But soon “I was in a mess”, she related with cheerful frankness in a 1953 interview, adding: “I can’t do arithmetic … Mother hocked her diamond ring three weeks in a row to help me meet the payroll.” Eventually a New York investor came on board.
Her designs were constantly changing, sometimes featuring flamingos, roses – or water lilies complete with a discreet frog. Playful story patterns featured on her summer 1953 collection, though imitators chose motifs such as slogans, music notes and telephones.
The poodle skirt fad was short-lived, however, and by 1954 it was firmly in the fashion doghouse. According to Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell in Skirts: Fashioning Modern Femininity in the Twentieth Century (2022): “It transitioned out of women’s wardrobes and could only be found in the children’s department.” Yet the poodle skirt continued to be an inspiration for designers for many years to come.
Juli Lynne Charlot remained in the fashion industry, designing bridal outfits, sweaters, hats and handbags. She even created a poodle skirt for Dwight Eisenhower’s 1956 election campaign emblazoned with the words “I like Ike”.
She was born Shirley Ann Agin in New York on October 26 1922, the daughter of Phillip Agin, an electrician, and his wife Betty (née Cohen), an embroiderer, who had emigrated from Eastern Europe. As a young girl she moved to Los Angeles, where her parents’ trades were in demand among the Hollywood studios.
At school she rubbed shoulders with Frances Gumm, later known as Judy Garland. Aged 13 she set her sights on becoming an opera singer, adopting the name Juli Lynne. She sang with the Xavier Cugat orchestra and played “straight man” to the Marx Brothers when they toured American military bases, designing her own stage clothes though hiring a dressmaker to sew them.
In 1945 she appeared as Juliana in Emile Littler and Victor Herbert’s operetta The Red Mill for the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Association, though she appears not to have joined the Broadway cast. She also sang the title song in Arthur Lubin’s fantasy film Night in Paradise (1946).
By her own account an early marriage, to her “first millionaire”, lasted three days. In September 1946 she eloped with Philip Charlot, a former Royal Navy officer, to Las Vegas where they were married in secret. Charlot was the son of the French-born impresario André Charlot and his British wife Florence and was working as a Hollywood film editor for Universal-International. At the time of the fateful Christmas party he had lost his job and was driving a “Good Humor” ice-cream van.
Juli Lynne Charlot was an accomplished curator of her own mythology. She told interviewers that her husband was a viscount and that at his behest she had given up performing to be a post-war wife. He died in 1966, though she claimed to have granted him a divorce some years earlier after her mother-in-law declared: “You are destroying my son... The more successful you become, the less successful he becomes.”
On a visit to Mexico in 1980 she was inspired to create a modern twist on the classic Mexican wedding dress. She bought a workshop in Mexico City and exported dresses around the world, although this enterprise was brought down by the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. She remained in the country, living in Tepoztlán, south of Mexico City. In 2020, aged 98, she created a new poodle skirt depicting President Trump as Vladimir Putin’s poodle.
Juli Lynne Charlot boasted of having had many admirers, including the violinist Isaac Stern and the actors Harold Lloyd and Gary Cooper. She was, she said, married and divorced twice more, though her fourth husband – purportedly the Mexican-born son of a German baron – had failed to finalise the divorces from his previous two wives. She had no survivors.
Juli Lynne Charlot, born October 26 1922, died March 3 2024
