Priscilla Presley, although best known for her marriage to Elvis Presley, has proven to be a style icon.
With the release of Sofia Coppola’s 2023 film “Priscilla” this Friday, all eyes are on Presley and her daring fashion moments as she transitioned from being a 14-year-old girl in love into one of the world’s most famous women.
Here is a look at some of Presley’s most iconic looks over the years.
1959 – Bad Nauheim, Germany
The first time Priscilla Beaulieu met Elvis Presley was at a party in 1959. While out with her brother, another service member invited her to accompany him and his wife to meet Presley and after her stepfather spoke to the man’s commanding officer, he gave her permission to attend.
On that November night, Beaulieu walked into Presley’s home in Bad Nauheim she was wearing a navy-and-white sailor dress.
Priscilla Presley was only in the ninth grade at the time, which she said didn’t seem to bother Elvis. Presley recalled him saying to her, “Why, you’re just a baby.”
1960 – Frankfurt, Germany
In 1960, when she was only 16 years old, Priscilla Beaulieu was photographed waving goodbye to her then-boyfriend Elvis Presley at the Frankfurt Airport in Germany after his time in the service had come to an end and he was headed back to the United States.
“I dreaded this day very much because I didn’t know, actually, if I was ever going to see him again,” Presley told Vogue for its “Life in Looks” series in June 2022. “One request that he asked, that I not be teary-eyed, so you see me smiling here. There are other pictures where I am down and looking away and knowing that I may never see him again.”
1963 – Memphis, Tennesse
In 1963, Presley was photographed at the Memphis International Airport wearing a dress, matching cape and leather gloves.
“People back in the day dressed up, and I mean really dressed up, because being on an airplane and flying was quite the thing. You never saw anyone undressed,” Presley told Vogue. “I loved capes at the time. I still love capes.”
Presley said that the poodle she is seen carrying in the infamous photo is her poodle which Elvis had gifted to her for Christmas in 1962, which she named Honey and took everywhere with her.
1967 – Las Vegas, Nevada
A few years later, on May 1, 1967, the Presleys tied the knot at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas with a very intimate ceremony.
While shopping for her dress, Presley found herself with an interesting dilemma; how would she buy her wedding dress without drawing attention from paparazzi?
“This was a well-kept secret because we wanted it to be our wedding with our friends and not to be loaded with paparazzi,” Presley told Vogue. “I went to places like Neiman Marcus in disguise. I went with a [blonde] wig and everything just to keep it private.”
Presley, along with friend and musician Charlie Hodge, finally found the perfect dress at the Westwood department store in Los Angeles.
The dress was white, with long lace sleeves and pearl embellishments and topped with a rhinestone tiara and three-foot tulle veil.
“It wasn’t extravagant, It wasn’t extreme – it was simple and to me, beautiful,” Presley told Vogue. “I didn’t have time to stay there forever and look at dresses; I had one fitting for this dress and that was it, I was out of there.”
Before the reception began, the couple pleased the waiting press by cutting their six-tier, five-foot-tall cake. A moment that was captured with one of the couple’s most iconic photographs, one that Jacob Elordi and Cailee Spaeny recreated for Coppola’s film.
1968 – Memphis Tennesse
On Feb. 1, 1968, Priscilla and Elvis Presley welcomed baby Lisa Marie Presley into the world.
In an iconic photograph of the family from a room in the Baptist Hospital in Memphis, Tennesse, Presley wore a simple pink dress from Neiman Marcus, that she said was one of the most beautiful dresses from one of the most beautiful moments in her life.
Presley recalled the joyous day, saying it was funny and amazing to watch Elvis become a father that day.
“He was looking at her like, oh my gosh, I have child,” Presley told Vogue. “He was so afraid to hold her. He was so frightened that he would drop her.”
1974 – Beverly Hills, California
It was the 1970s, denim was steadily becoming one of the hottest trends of its time, and Priscilla Presley wasn’t one to shy away from the world of fashion.
In 1973, Presley, along with long-time friend and fellow designer Olivia Bis, opened the Bis & Beau Boutique, on the corner of Little Santa Monica and Bedford, in Beverly Hills California and in 1974 they designed their own version of the Canadian tuxedo, complete with rhinestones.
Celebrities including Cher, Barbara Streisand and Jane Fonda were avid shoppers at Presley’s boutique, Presley recalled in an interview with Vogue.
1975 – Beverly Hills, California
The denim didn’t end there, in 1975 Presley was photographed in a denim bikini poolside at her Beverly Hills home.
The halter-neck suit featured applique flowers and was complete with the standard jeans fly closure. Presley paired the look with a simple gold chain around her waist and a blown-out highlighted hairstyle.
1978 – Los Angeles, California
Less than a year after Elvis’ death in August of 1977, Presley was seen out in Los Angeles in January of 1978 with her hairdresser Elie Ezerzer. The couple reportedly dated for about a year, but Presley never remarried after Elvis’ death.
During the couple’s short-lived relationship, there was one photograph in particular that became very well-known. The photograph shows Presley holding onto Ezerzer’s arm, sporting an all-white tuxedo and matching golf hat.
Despite being spotted out together on numerous occasions, not much has been revealed about the relationship itself.
1994 – Hollywood, California
Presley first began acting in 1983 when she starred as a recurring character in the popular primetime drama “Dallas.”
In 1994, Presley starred in Peter Segal’s comedy film, “Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult,” a genre Presley is not often associated with.
“My whole life has been a drama. And people kind of associate me with that,” Presley said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “So that’s why I wanted to do comedy because it was so totally unexpected for me to do. No one would ever have thought that I would go from that into something like this.”
Presley attended the film’s Hollywood premiere wearing a silk gown with black details, completed with a short blonde hairstyle.
2001 – Los Angeles, California
In November of 2001, the first Harry Potter film, “Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone,” was released and Presley attended the Los Angeles premiere dressed in an all-red look, seeming to embody the stone itself.
The ruby-red velvet suit was completed with a matching scarf and rectangular red glasses.
2022 – New York, New York
In 2022, while promoting Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 film “Elvis,” Presley attended the Met Gala in a Prada gown, showing her support for Luhrmann and Austin Butler, who played Elvis in the film.
“[It was] so unbelievable it was frightening, both my daughter and I were blown away,” Presley said about Butler’s performance as Elvis in an interview for Vogue.
Presley attended the event in a floor-length Prada gown that featured boning on the bodice and gold sequin cuffs on the sleeves. The look was completed with gold sequin shoes and a thick black headband.
2023 – Venice, Italy
In celebration of the Venice Film Festival premiere of Sofia Coppola’s film “Priscilla” on Sep. 4, Presley and Coppola attended in matching Chanel pre-fall 2021 sheer black designs.
“Priscilla,” Coppola’s latest film recounts the glamorous life of the Presleys through an often forgotten perspective, Priscilla’s.
“I felt like my role was just to explain her experience and always go through [Priscilla’s] point of view,” Coppola said in an interview with NPR. “I thought [of] all the things we have to go through as a teenager [that] she was going through while she was living in Graceland with Elvis.”
One of the most challenging aspects of the film, Coppola said, was finding someone to portray Priscilla in the film.
“The first thing I thought is, for Priscilla, how am I going to find an actress that can play 14 believably, to 28,” Coppola told NPR. “It’s always important to me that that teenager feels authentic and that that’s done right.”
Then comes, Cailee Spaeny, the up-in-coming actress whom Coppola and her team cast for the role.
Spaeny attended the Venice Film Festival for the first time, promoting the film alongside Coppola, Presley and co-star Jacob Elordi.
In a clip from an interview with The Hollywood Reporter shared on Instagram, Spaeny said she felt a wide range of emotions as she sat next to Presley during the premiere.
“I think the thing that was most touching to me, also terrifying [was] to be watching the movie with Priscilla Presley right next to me,” Spaeny said in the interview. “But at the end, I think she felt really moved by it. She looked at me and she said, ‘That was a great performance,’ and that was the first time hearing that, which was – it’s just been absolutely surreal.”