'Gilligan's Island' star Dawn Wells: Short shorts gave Mary Ann sex appeal
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Before there were Daisy Dukes, there was Mary Ann and her little short shorts.
"Gilligan's Island" star Dawn Wells spoke to FOX411 about her iconic wardrobe as the show marks its 50th anniversary.
"I was very tiny, short, always worried about my weight. Ginger was very tall with long legs. I thought, all right, I'm going to have a hand in this," Wells said. "I worked with a wardrobe girl designing them."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Producers forbid the actress from showing her navel in the shorts to keep her demure image, so Wells worked around it.
"They kind of came up just a little bit of a rise over the navel, but dipped down so my torso looked long," Wells said. "My legs were kind of short, so I curved them up so my legs looked longer."
Wells said the shorts gave her character a bit of "sex appeal," rather than just being the "Goody Two Shoes in the gingham dress."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The famous shorts will be auctioned by Profiles in History from October 17 to 19.
Watch the full interview with Dawn Wells in the video above.