a moving picture

Coco Chanel once said that “Fashion is not simply a matter of clothes; fashion is in the air, born upon the wind; one intuits it… it comes from ideas, manners, events…”

I am finding more and more these days it also comes (in)directly from film.

Little did you know, this happens to be the subject of interest of my senior thesis and so I am spending the duration of this summer delving into pages and pages of non-glossy gorgeousness. This may come as a surprise to you, but there has not been a whole world of research done on this topic. Yes we all know who Edith Head was (most influential Hollywood costume designer EVER) and yes we all have our favorite fashion films but in the scholastic sense...not so much.

Now, fashion and glamour have always gone hand in hand. A sub clause in being "rich and famous" is that one must saturate oneself in sumptuousness and fur or (play the Alicia Silverstone card) and be simply naked against it. The film producers want to lure the public into the seats so obviously we need something pretty to look at.

In my opinion, the beauty of dress is its power to send a message to the world without the said wearer saying anything at all. It can be a disguise, true, but we as digest with our eyes, we internalize the beings around us and interpret them as such. Whether on the street or on the silver screen...fashion is the most discernible form of communication without a single syllable needing to be uttered. Street style (when there is a vision behind) acts as a moving picture as it encapsulates the mood, the essence, and the spirit of an era on a body. (one of the foremost reasons why Dior's New Look of the 50s was so à la mode was because women were so damn starved of fabulosity during the war.)

Now, in recent times, I imagine namely since the 90s with Versace having put the supermodel on the public pedestal and Anna Wintour's mega-commercialization of Vogue...we-not voguettes like us but the masses in general-just cant get enough of the fashion world. It's mysteriously magical, alluringly aloof, and gravitationally gorgeous. To most it seems so unattainable and yet one portion of our life is inadvertently dictated by it.

So all of the sudden, much to our delight, fashion films are seemingly a new genre in cinema. As is the advent of the fashion film festival, no not the trashy red carpet types US Weekly goes mad over that can make-or-break a celebrity stylist's career, no bona fide celebrations i.e Diane Pernet's A Shaded View on Fashion Film in Paris and the La Jolla Fashion Film Festival in California. Now some of you might be wondering...wtf is a fashion film...all movies have costume designers but i wouldn't exactly channel my fall look after Final Destination IV!

Good for you! Well, for me, a fashion film is not merely a treat for the eyes but it is one that breaches the barrier between the pretty and the public, bringing it three clicks closer to the divine world of mode. Voilà some ABC's of Fashion Films.

(darling i suggest you mute the music at the bottom of the page for your viewing pleasure)

A Fashion Film can:

• Advertise. (Just about EVERY designer these days has its own youtube feed: backstage videos, campaign supplements, filmed lookbooks, etc. this way we associate a certain lifestyle and image with the company rather than just x model)

The Miu Miu Woman's Tales: MUTA F/W 2011

If only we could all communicate by a fluttering our lashes behind glittering glasses.

The Row F/W 2007

The Olsen's debut line as styled by Vanessa Traina.

I would do just about anything to have that white funnel neck rabbit piece.

The Wang Gang by Interview Magazine, 2010.

As if his unitary braided nymphet-cum-footballer collection didnt have us salivating enough... this proves that life as a wangster is a perennial party.

• Bewilder. Where the clothing does all the talking and ultimately enhances the mystique.

• Critique. Aside from the frivolity and the fabulosity...there are plenty of aspects worthy of criticism. Therefore it come as no surprise that there are films that satirize the rag trade. Many of these come from people who take part in the fashion industry which makes it more authentic and horrifying.

Qui Etes-Vous Polly Maggoo, 1966.

William Klein's a cult film satirizing the industry through a surrealistic portrayal of a Brooklynite who moves to Paris and her televised life story. He was a fashion photographer himself, and the actress Dorothy McGowan was an actual fashion model from Brooklyn.

Makes the irony even better.

Blow-Up, 1966

For those of you who adore foreign films as I do...Michelangelo Antonioni's italian series: L'Aveventura, La Notte and L'Eclisse are cinematic masterpieces. With Blow-Up however, he mocks David Hemmings (David Bailey) a fashion photographer during London's Swinging Sixties who gets himself wrapped up in a murder mystery.

A very young Jane Birkin, and a very drugged Veruschka also appear in this film.

• Designer Directed. Occasionally fashion designers feel the need to outdo there already over-glammed selves and sprinkle their midas touch on a new medium. (I find that these films tend to be the most stylized, juxtaposing the fluidity of fabrics with the motion of film)

A Single Man, 2009.

Tom Ford stepped down from heading Gucci to follow his dream of directing.

His adaptation of A Single Man is a beautiful story both aesthetically and conceptually.

Here we have model Aline Weber in all her smoldering 60s finest.

The Tale of a Fairy Tale

Chanel Cruise 2012

Lagerfeld loves to get his fingerless gloves in everything, and cinema is no exception. These vignettes of his are hauntingly gorgeous, which compensates for the wretched acting. Perhaps it is all part of his humor, he is Karl after all. Or perhaps some models are just better with their mouths pouty yet hushed.

• Educate. Many more people go to the cinema than read Women's Wear Daily.

Bill Cunningham New York, 2010

A documentary about a man who needs no introduction.

Before Tommy, before Garance before Phil there was Bill. Still in theaters. Go.

The September Issue, 2009.

The post Devil Wears Prada look into the real Vogue.

The elusive and exclusive glossy in its most influential issue of the year.

• Flaunt. Beauty. Provocation. Fur. Sex. Repeat.

Et Dieu Crea La Femme, 1956.

Brigitte Bardot as the ultimate sex pot in the French Riviera.

The inspiration of at least 12 editorials annually.

See Magdelena Frackowiack's own homage to Bardot in Lagerfeld's Remember Now (another beauty).

La Dolce Vita, 1960.

Fellini was clearly way ahead of his times.

(see cat-as-a-headpiece trend for Fall 2011)

• Glorify. the lackluster of the world by glamming it up.

Act da Fool, 2010.

Proenza Schouler F/W 2010 collection

How You Look at It, 2010.

Poppy Delevigne for nowness.com

• Honor. Paying homage to the countless souls who have left a footprint on mode through their occupation in the industry or role as a style icon.

Nick Knight's ethereal tribute to THE visionary Alexander McQueen

L'Amour Fou, 2010.

Beautiful love story between Yves Saint Laurent and his beloved partner Pierre Bergé as well as their noteworthy art collection.

This would also be the documentary sector.

The multitude of Coco Chanel biopics, Lagerfeld Confidential, Marc Jacobs Louis Vuitton, YSL: His Life and Times, the upcoming Vidal Sassoon film etc.

• Inspire. The most important of them all so i'll stop here. Now this list goes on forever.

They started the trends, serve as habitual muses to contemporary designers today and will forever be inscribed in fashion history. Do you really think Nicolas Ghesquière came up with the lariat bag and the perfectly worn in motorcycle jacket-white tee-denim combo on his own visionary doing. Non. We can thank James Dean and Marlon Brando for that one. The current model off duty uniform brings out the Rebel Without a Cause in all of us.

My list also goes on forever. But there is one paramount film that stands out above the rest. Can you guess what it is?

Surprise surprise:

Breakfast at Tiffany's. 1961.

If you've never seen this film stop reading. call in sick. halt whatever it is you are doing and sign up for netflix. now. Not only is Audrey Hepburn one of the most gracious, giving, compassionate individuals I will unfortunately never have the opportunity of meeting, but her character, Holly Golightly has had a significant influence on who I am and how i consciously present myself today. Her love of life, nonchalance, elegance, eloquence, and all that jazz. My attraction towards the french language, handwritten notes, typewriter nostalgia, necessity to move to new york, acceptance of spontaneity and interest in decorum all came from this girl.

In a nutshell ( i truly hope none of this is new) Hepburn stars as Holly Golightly, this gorgeous little waif from Tulip, Texas who moves to manhattan and plays up a jazzy life with a cat named cat; she is a young broke and très fabulous call girl. She hasn't a cent on her and yet her fervor for life is as luminous as the dazzling earrings from her countless johns. She is fragile yet charming; she falls in love with the boy next door and yet is so terrified with letting herself belong to someone else that she is ultimately beside herself.

Not to mention she is dressed entirely by Hubert de Givenchy (as his personal muse, on could conclude that some of Tisci's current archival inspiration thus comes from her). AND in a broader sense, Breakfast presented a "new woman" at the start of the Sexual Revolution with a non-vulgar female protagonist who had her sterling silver lined cake and ate it too. Givenchy wisely liberated the woman from the constraints of Dior's New Look by slipping her into the only slightly fitted little black dress (that would later be auctioned for ~$923,000) . AND in terms of the silhouette of choice think about how the 50s girl was all curves: all the Betty's and the Marilyn's of the pin-up party. Then all of the sudden here is gorgeous gamine named Holly Golightly and suddenly bones are better than busts...paving the way for the (mod)ernized 60s clothes hanger of a Miss Edie Sedgwick and Twiggy etc.

my rant ends here. sorry for the length loves.

be your own fashion in film critic.

xx,

mlle. mode