Looks from Books: Fashion Inspired by On the Road
A Fashionable Literacy
As early as 1957, the year the book was first published, Jack Kerouac wrote a letter to iconic rebel Marlon Brando in a push to persuade him to play the “Dean Moriarty” to the author’s own “Sal Paradise,” in a single-camera style film. Unfortunately, the plan never came through, as Brando never replied to the letter, and further plans for adaptation were derailed with problems involving Kerouac’s agent. Additional plans made later, with Francis Ford Coppola helming production in the ’90s, as well as interest expressed by indie filmmaker Gus Van Sant, never came to fruition.
The most recent film adaptation of On the Road premiered in 2012, starring Sam Riley, Garret Hedlund, Kirsten Stewart, Amy Adams, and Kirsten Dunst. It received mixed critical reviews, and currently has a 44% “rotten” rating on popular movie-reviewing site, Rotten Tomatoes. However, aspects of the movie were deemed as notable by some critics, including the time-accurate costuming.
While walking down the street in true-to-late-1940s-Americana isn’t necessarily recommended, there are aspects of the style you can integrate into your own outfits, like saddle shoes, tweed skirts, and buttoned-up blouses.
How to Add Sal to Your Wardrobe
By integrating key elements from the novel into your own style, you can find a little bit of the Road into your everyday life, without having to travel cross-country to do so!
Run On and On
Product Information: Hat – Charlotte Russe, Top – H&M, Bangles – Forever 21, Skirt – H&M, Earrings – Charlotte Russe, Boots – J.C. Penney.
Kerouac reportedly wrote this novel in three weeks, continuously typing on a long scroll of typewriter paper, and sustaining himself with endless amounts of coffee, while reading through small journals into which he had scribbled notes throughout his own journeys on the road. Reading the frenetically hectic, bumpy, and excessively long, run-on sentence structures used throughout the novel, you can believe it! While the style has been reviewed as both beautifully lyrical and overly-complex, it is, without a doubt, one of the most recognizable elements of the novel.
