Winter is winding down, and many are looking forward to the sunnier and warmer days ahead. With that, our spring and summer fashion favorites are re-emerging to beat the heat. A classic summer garment that people have flocked to for its flattering fit includes Daisy Dukes.
Many younger generations may recognize the iconic name of the denim cut-off shorts from Katy Perry’s 2010 Pop hit “California Gurls,” worn with “bikinis on top”.
The history of the style has lasted decades longer than expected.
It all started on the CBS channel in 1979.
A slapstick buddy comedy called The Dukes of Hazzard debuted and instantly became a classic template for American comedy and action television for decades to come.
Until the show’s end in 1985, the show spanned 147 episodes and nominated for a Primetime Emmy in Outstanding Individual Achievement for Costumers in 1984.
The show follows two troublemaking cousins Luke and Bo Duke (played by Tom Wopat and John Schneider respectively). They drive a 1969 Dodge Charger dubbed “General Lee” around fictional Hazzard County, Georgia.
Audiences followed the Dukes battle with shady local law enforcement: Boss Hogg and Sheriff Coltrane, along with Hogg’s many cronies.
The Duke cousins team up with fellow Duke relatives to fight the corrupt system, notably Uncle Jesse and the now-fashion icon, Cousin Daisy Duke. She is notoriously kind, naïve, and attractive.
Production sold the sex appeal of Daisy, as par for the course of any major female character on television at the time: “Charlie’s Angels,” “Wonder Woman,” “M*A*S*H” and “Three’s Company,” to name a few.
In Mary D. Doering’s historic account of American fashion in “Clothing and Fashion: American Fashion from Head to Toe,” the following was uncovered about the birth of the legendary Daisy Dukes:
Daisy Duke, a waitress at the Boar’s Nest, was originally written to wear vinyl boots and a ruffled skirt that matched the eatery’s tablecloths. Actress Catherine Bach, who played Daisy Duke, brought her own costume on set: a pair of unraveled cut-off denim shorts, a t-shirt, and high heels.
“On the first Dukes of Hazzard episode, Bach wore her high-waisted, high-cut blue denim shorts with a finished hem.”
Different variants of the shorts would make appearances throughout its runtime.
Bach claims to have invented the shorts in a recent episode of Monstrosity Podcast.
“It’s very pop culture…Americana…Heartland…”
Bach explained, “I sat on my bed in high school trying to get those shorts even, and that’s how the Daisy Dukes came to be, because I kept talking to somebody and unraveling each thread. That’s when I had time.”
The first time the shorts were monikered “Daisy Dukes” was in the 1993 Duice hit “Dazzey Duks”.
“Say, look at them girls with the Daisy Dukes on
They really got it goin’ on
Lookin’ all nice and sweet
Showin’ tan and them butt cheeks
I do like it a lot
When they be showin’ some of what you got
Yo, girls that be lookin’ real cute
The way y’all kickin’ them Daisy Dukes”
The lyrics, along with the music video of women wearing said shorts, is the likeliest origin of the phrase.
Subsequently, the show’s popularity and shorts continued into Y2K. A 2005 film adaptation of Dukes of Hazzard, starring Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott and Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke. Simpson continued the legacy in low-rise denim cut-offs for the film.
Beyond Dukes of Hazzard, Perry and Simpson, the spirit of Daisy Dukes stayed on our screens for almost 50 years.
As the days get longer and hotter, there are still classic ways to beat the heat. Ms. Daisy Duke and her hand-altered shorts have made that possible until today and for decades to come.
What's Your Reaction?
