‘Grease’ fans remember Olivia Newton-John’s iconic outfit: ‘The world changed for me’
died Monday at age 73, was mourned around the world by adoring fans who admired her girl-next-door Sandy Olsson in the hit 1978 movie — but especially her infamous final outfit when she swapped her poodle skirt for skintight black pants, a sultry off-the-shoulder top and leather jacket.For fashion lovers, her costume — complete with gigantic curls, strong makeup and a cigarette dangling from her red lips — had a lasting impact on them, even 44 years later.“This outfit will always be the outfit to me! It has shaped my fashion style since I was about three,” one superfan remembered.“When I was young and I saw Olivia Newton-John come on screen with the black outfit at the end of ‘Grease,’ the world changed for me,” added another.One person described it as “top-notch in my youth,” while another said: “I am 100% certain your leather outfit in ‘Grease’ was a contributor to my future love of powerful, dominant women.”“There was no cooler moment for me as a kid than when Olivia Newton-John walked out in that all-black outfit,” added another.In fact, Newton-John herself felt cool when filming the final scene, telling Vanity Fair in 2016 that she turned heads on set with her transformation as she stepped out of her trailer.“I was always the girl next door,” she told the magazine at the time. “And then I got into that trailer with those guys and they put me into that outfit and the hair and I walked out to show Randal [Kleiser, director of “Grease”], and the whole crew turned around.