Fashionable Films

The 3rd Fashion in Film Festival launches in London this month and it seems to be growing stronger by the year, gaining the support and power that it is worthy of.

What i like about this festival is that it isn’t just about commending films for being fabulously fashionable, it is more of a celebration of it’s use. A critical eye is cast over how fashion can influence the moving image, Fashion in Film encourages experimentation, innovation and using cultural and historic references to make the fashion an integral part of the film.

FFF glorifies fashion in feature, documentary, shorts, you name it, from the start of the twentieth century right up until today. It highlights how heavily styling and costume have impacted our viewing experiences both consciously and subconsciously.

  

In popular culture there are the common references to fashion on screen, such as in Clueless, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the Devil Wears Prada and Sex and the City (bleugh); all of which credibly took styling to the next level with regards to cinema, however, there are other gems, some hidden and some glowingly obvious, that have impressed and seduced me with their styling talent.

My first pick is Factory Girl, OBVIOUSLY. Sometimes i ask myself where i would be without Edie Sedgwick? To be honest, I’d probably be in the exact same place doing the exact same thing but dressed a lot differently. This movie, starring Sienna Miller in the lead role and Guy Pearce as Andy Warhol, portrays how Edie WAS the sixties. I know that every girl who ever even saw the trailer for this film became Edie in some way. Whether it be the big kohl eyes, the black tights or the leopard print madness, we all took a part of her away with us.

The 1974 version of The Great Gatsby with Mia Farrow also has to feature somewhere. The wardrobe in this film really did justice to the most glamorous era. Thanks to the fashion in this film, i still walk around dreaming of being transported into 1920s high-society in my shimmering flapper-dress with a sharp dressed man on my arm…if only.

When Tom Ford directs a film, you know that even if the storyline is deflated he can breathe life into the cinematography through the fashion. Even though A Single Man was breath-takingly beautiful and poetic, at times i actually thought the attention to detail with the styling was a little over baring. Nevertheless, i could not take my eyes of Julianne Moore’s monochrome house-dress; i barely looked at her face the entire time she was on screen and failed to recognise her until her name appeared in the end-credits. Colin Firth and Nicholas Hoult certainly didn’t miss out when it came to hitting wardrobe high-notes, they looked effortlessly chic, even down to Firth’s wide rimmed glasses.

As a young girl, i saw chain-smoking Margot Tennenbaum through admiring eyes and despite the extreme disfunctions she was my idol. I saw her sharp elongated bob, her furs and her dark saddened eyes and she summed up my hormonal moodiness. There are huge parallels between Margot and Edie Sedgwick’s style of dressing to solidify that feeling of the “poor little rich girl syndrome”, but not only that, in general, the styling of The Royal Tennenbaums (2001) was perfect and interesting and made me more aware of the importance of fashion on screen.

I really could list hundreds of films that have made the fashion go hand in hand with every other important aspect of film-making. My fiancé is a director, so i have that amazing opportunity to see how even one little costume change can influence how the film is seen and felt. Not only does it aide the authenticity of creating a time period, culture or social status; it adds magic, imagination and creativity and can be the difference between a good film and a truly great one.