Question about Jeannie's harem costume

[andress_jade]

In Season 1, Jeannie's harem costume is different than in later seasons. Her top is different. In Season 1 she had one whole piece as her top, in season 2 and beyond, it was two pieces. Why is that? I just happened to notice that. I wonder why they changed that part of her costume and nothing else. If anyone can answer this please do!

Also I noticed that her skirts seemed to get shorter in later seasons as well. In Season 1 her dresses and skirts were longer but as time went on they got shorter. In Season 5 from what I have seen on You Tube, they are very short. I also noticed that she wore her harem costume less after she and Tony got married. The costume designers had her in some really cute outifts. When you saw Barbara in those, you almost forgot that she was playing a genie because she sure didn't look like one.
I remember what Barbara has said in numerous interviews about the show. She has said that Jeannie wasn't a real woman, she was an entity. She was a genie. But she thought she was real. When we see her in those outfits we thought she was real too. It was kind of hard not to think of Jeannie as a real person. She may have had powers and lived in a bottle but in every other aspect she was a woman. LOL. That's why the censors had such a problem with a "woman" and a man living together and not being married. The truth was, Jeannie wasn't a woman; not techinically anyway.
Anyway, to get back to the subject of my thread. If anyone can tell me why they changed Jeannie's costume after season 1, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[CAJeannieFan57]

There were a number of things that were changed for season 2, according to an article I read in an old TV Guide. That's when IDOJ went from black & white to color (the last NBC show to make that change, and I believe the last prime time network show to make that change too). Jeannie's outfit, and her bottle, changed. They really didn't talk about the differences in the style, only the color, but it sounded like it might have to do with the costume designer.

As for why Jeannie's "civilian" (human) outfits got shorter....well, that's what happened to skirts in the 60s...fashions change. I'm sure that the costume designers figured, Barbara had it, why not flaunt what they could? Also, from what one of the female guest stars (Judith Baldwin) in the 5th season told me, Barbara was very pro-active about what she wore vs. what other females on the show wore. She wanted to be the center of attention, and since she was the star of the show, nobody argued with her. Judy was brought in front of Barbara when deciding on costuming, and several dresses that really flattered Judy were discounted because they would have had people looking at Judy instead of Barbara.

[Carrie]

They were very clever with the way they disguised her pregnancy in the first season too. You wouldn't even realize she was pregnant if you didn't know it. It didn't notice the change in her costume until I watched through season 1 again. If she was facing the right direction, you could tell she was pregnant under the pink scarf. They did a very good job with that.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...Gwen Wakeling {a veteran of Hollywood costume design, who retired in 1966} , originally designed Jeannie's "harem look" (and was only credited on screen in the pilot episode). Originally, those billowing pants were supposed to be "see-through", but later lined with silk so you couldn't see Barbara's legs [NBC was a bit nervous about Jeannie's appearance after seeing the pilot episode], and designed so that her navel would NEVER be seen. During Barbara's pregnancy, when episodes 2 through 11 were filmed in the spring of 1965, the costumer {whom I believe was Joie Hutchinson at the time} had to drape that outfit with layers of silk, especially around Barbara's ever-expanding tummy, so no one would notice that Jeannie was getting "fatter"...Gwen also desgined a green outfit with a long "skirt" of green and white strips, and pale green "bolero jacket" with matching brassiere, for Barbara to wear in episodes 2 and 4- it was decided at the end of the first season, as two color episodes were produced for airing during the second {"Fastest Gun In the East" and "Jeannie Breaks the Bank"} that Jeannie's "standard" harem outfit would also be redesigned along the lines of the "green outfit" for season two {apparently, NBC decided that nobody was going to be offended by seeing more of Jeannie's upper anatomy sticking out "in living color"}. The slightly redesigned green costume was retained as her "travelling outfit" during the second season, and it wound up being Jeannie's "rotten sister's" outfit from season three on....for Jeannie's "civilian outfits" towards the end of season two, Joie Hutchinson began creating some interesting designs {including the "Mod Party" ensemble Barbara wore at the end of season two}, and eventually, a LOT more in seasons four and five.
Of course, the irony was, whenever Jeannie wore her "harem outfits", SHE didn't consider herself "sexy looking" while wearing them! Like the blue jeans and shirt she wore in "How To Be a Genie In Ten Easy Lessons" [10/31/66], they were just "casual" things she wore around the house...her "uniform", so to speak.

And I can understand Barbara's insistance on looking better than other "attractive" girls in several episodes towards the end...it was HER series, and she KNEW people were tuning in to see HER looking gorgeous {Lucille Ball was the same way, yet she helped Barbara with the outfit she wore during her appearance on "I LOVE LUCY" in April 1957}. That was an extension of Jeannie's "jealous fits" as well...

[catlover79]

I love Jeannie's harem outfit - I'd like to dress up like her for Halloween this year.