The Pope of Trash, John Waters, turns 78 today and with the news that he is finally returning to the director’s chair after a twenty year absence with an adaptation of his novel Liarmouth, we can hardly contain our excitement! Waters’ films have revolted and inspired audiences for over fifty years and in paying tribute to him we’ve decided to take a distinctly sartorial angle. For his entire career, Waters worked with Van Smith (1945 – 2006), a costume designer and make-up artist responsible for all the wild outfits and freaky make-up that have become synonymous with Waters’ world.

So this is our tribute to John Waters through some of his film’s best outfits, a vestiary descent into his weird world.

Divine as Jackie O…

Waters’ earliest short films, such as Hag in a Black Leather Jacket (1964), Roman Candles (1966), Eat Your Makeup (1968), are holy grails to Waters fans because it is next to impossible to watch them. They were never released commercially and only at rare occasions (usually at galleries) are they shown with John’s approval. The most intriguing short film has to be Eat Your Makeup, which saw John recreating the JFK assassination with Divine playing the role of Jackie O. All we have of it online is a single still of Divine in her best knock-off Halston pillbox hat, waving to her adoring crowd. Even in these early days, Divine looks like a star.

Sacrilege never looked so good!

In the film that Waters considers to be his first actual feature project, Multiple Maniacs (1970) is a carnivalesque rampage through the Baltimore suburbs. Divine stars as the owner of the Cavalcade of Perversion, a sort of travelling circus that lures respected citizens in, only for Divine to then rob them all at gunpoint. As often happens in Waters’ films, Divine has to go on the run, but naturally looks absolutely flawless doing so. At one point, she teams up with Mink Stole who she meets in a church and, subsequently, has an orgy with amongst the pews. Naturally, they team up as lesbian lovers — Mink as a turbaned, bejewelled nympho and Divine in her finest leopard prints and angora sweater, giving Elizabeth Taylor a run for her money.

The most iconic outfit of them all…

Waters’ first feature in colour was the infamously tasteless, repeatedly outlawed, eternally beloved Pink Flamingos (1972). We have Divine playing Babs Johnson, the filthiest person alive, with Edith Massey playing her mother Babs, who lives in a baby’s cot and rejoices about her love of eggs. In the film’s climactic scene, Divine dons her most iconic outfit, a red body-fitting, fishtail dress. As journalists gather around Divine to witness the execution she is about to enact, she proclaims her famous political beliefs — “Kill everyone now! Condone first-degree murder! Advocate cannibalism! Eat shit!” Truly words to live by.

(Also, convince us that Demna wasn’t directly referencing Divine’s dress with this Isabelle Huppert Met Gala look)

A nod to Diane Arbus…

It’s difficult to pick just one look from Female Trouble (1974), given the plethora of outfits and styles Divine flaunts in the film. A little-known fact, however, is that Divine’s look in Female Trouble was actually directly copied from a Diane Arbus photograph called “A Young Brooklyn Family Going for a Sunday Outing, N.Y.C., 1966“. The young mother in the photograph sports the exact same hairstyle and eyebrows that Divine dons as Dawn Davenport.

The one without Divine…

Desperate Living (1977) rarely gets the dues it deserves because it’s the one major Waters’ film from the 70s that didn’t have Divine in it. However, what it does so successfully is give a spotlight to the rest of Waters’ troupe of regulars. Here we have Mink Stole in the starring role as a suburban housewife who goes on the run with her housemaid and ends up being banished to Mortville, a dumpster town ruled over by Edith Massey’s despotic Queen Carlotta. Desperate Living was Waters at his most fantastical and the outfits are genuinely some of the most insane of any of his films. The whole cast and set looks like a panto on uppers.