A fashion sketch by designer, Elois Jenssen for Lucille Ball’s character Lucy Ricardo on I Love Lucy. This particular illustration was recreated by Elois reportedly in the 1970’s. The original sketches Elois drew in the 1950’s are distinguished by darker vellum paper, tanned presumably from age.
The dress and can be seen in four classic I Love Lucy episodes – “Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined”, “Million Dollar Idea”, “Oil Wells”, and “The Black Wig” spanning 1953 to 1954.
Thankfully, many of Elois’ sketches like this exist as it has aided to accurately colorize garments when CBS began doing to a handful of I Love Lucy shows. This dress and other memorable looks were beautifully recreated in 2004 for the official I Love Lucy Paper Dolls book.
