The posture upright, the movements graceful, the smile charming: Even at 86, Alice and Ellen Kessler radiate an elegance that is reflected in the glittering costumes around them.
The glamorous pieces of clothing are companions from several decades in which the two stood on the world’s major show stages as the Kessler twins. There they not only enchanted Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Harry Belafonte as absolutely synchronous dancers, as singers and actresses. Now the two have parted ways with part of their past: they have more than 50 costumes auctioned off in aid of the flood victims in the Ahr Valley in western Germany.
When she saw the shocking pictures last summer, she said to her sister: “We no longer perform, we can no longer use the costumes, they hang around unnecessarily – let’s donate them,” Ellen recalled Kessler at the opening event of the charity auction on Wednesday in Munich. The costumes can now be bought online at auction house Neumeister until October 30th.
A mermaid costume from 1956
Although the two ladies are still willowy and fit into at least some of the costumes in XS size 34, their advanced age made it easier to decide to finally part with the individual pieces. “They’re too low-cut and we don’t wear that anymore. One should do justice to one’s age,” emphasized Ellen Kessler, referring to the deep décolletés and revealing cuts that perfectly accentuated the long legs of the identical twins.
For example, there would be a mermaid costume. “We wore that at the Lido in 1956 – we were only 20 then,” Ellen Kessler recalled. “I loved that.” The hand-sewn piece also inspired Sabine Resch, professor of fashion journalism. “It’s an iconic piece,” she said, noting the scalloped seams, flowing color gradient and chiffon train. “That would be really priceless today.”
Or some sort of pants suit from 1966 that the twins had made for a TV show in Las Vegas. They chose the color especially for host Frank Sinatra. Orange was his favorite color. The highlight of this unique piece: “Everyone wanted to see our legs. So we made all the costumes that we had with pants to take off with a mini top so that you can see the legs,” Ellen Kessler remembered the dual use .
Also revealing is a mini halterneck dress in bright pink with diagonally sewn-on fringes that swing even with the slightest movement. The back reveals deep insights: slit lengthwise, the fabric is only sewn together again over the buttocks.
Fashion expert Resch was impressed by the costumes tailored in Rome, Paris and Munich, which each picked up on the fashion influences of the time. “They are all in fantastic condition. They are real treasures hanging here.”
Even if the Kessler twins seem inseparable to this day and have spent their whole lives together – the unity ended with the costumes. “What was mine was mine. We embroidered an A or E if it was the same so I could always wear my dress,” Ellen emphasized.
They never expected that they would one day be world stars, said her sister Alice. “We just wanted to work, earn our money, we slowly grew into this.” They would have criticized each other harshly in order to do their job as well as possible. Criticism from third parties that they showed no soul, only perfection, rejected Ellen: “As a twin you have to have it, otherwise we would not have been in sync, and that was our trademark.”
The unit with the twin sister also helped in the macho showbiz. “We never had a ‘me too’ problem. No!” Ellen emphasized. Probably nobody dared to do that, “we were always together”. They would also have had a “don’t touch me” charisma.
However, male admiration was not entirely unwelcome. When asked about her fondest memory of 70 years of stage career, Ellen Kessler remembered the Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni. He made his appearance on a television show dependent on being able to dance with the two beauties there. He practiced the steps for a week, then his dream came true. “He was overjoyed and sent us 100 red roses as a thank you for letting him dance with us.”
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