FILM IMPACTING FASHION

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FILM IMPACTING FASHION

As London Fashion Week plods along, I began reflecting on New York Fashion Week, and the Paris Couture before. Fashion shows directly and dynamically filter into our personal style of dress. And periodically these fashion shows have been inspired by current television shows or movies.  We are in a beautiful moment where by there have been some cinematic masterpieces that are rubbing off on the runway. As chance has it, these trends happen to overlap with some of my favorite moments in history.

When we think of fashion, we think of the runway, red carpet events, or everyday street style. The reality is, fashion extends beyond these realms and very often has a starting point in the world of film. Costume design is a critical component to the storytelling visuals of a movie, costumes contribute to the emotion of a scene and the character development. The garments worn by actors become an extension of the character’s personality.  An example being Don Draper’s well-tailored suits. The garments projected strength and success. Let’s take a look at wear (pun intended) this is happening currently.

WESTERNCORE

The first and most widespread theme that we see moving through all tiers of retailers is westerncore. This trend began with the Yellowstone series which embraced the true Americana rugged cowboy/ cowgirl aesthetic. I have seen this trend circulate quite a few times and I think the number one reason is that the key fabric here is denim. Which is classic American workwear fabric. Ralph Lauren has made an entire career out of this trend. It harbors comfort, ease, as well as cowboy sex appeal.

This season on the heels of Killers of the Flower Moon we celebrated Parrell’s Louis Vuitton Fashion Week Rodeo. The collection, with an airtight celebrity front row, featured several head-to-toe ranch wear denims looks and assorted takes on the easy fit barn jacket. He married this with Native American pattern work.  This will easily translate to retail in the form of “workwear” or vintage looking denim ala Carhart, Levi’s, Ralph Lauren. Or in the form of a great barn jacket or denim jacket for spring.

Pairing back to denim will be stripes based of the Native American blankets and small ditsy prints. One can easily top off the look with a plaid or denim shirt and a tooled leather belt.

THE NEW LOOK

A captivating series on Apple TV is The New Look. The show takes place during World War II and tells the heartrending challenges designers faced to survive. I don’t want to say more and spoil it but will say this show is worth checking out!

The key fashion elements here are impeccably tailored suiting. For the women at this time, that meant nipped in at the waist. This was also the first generation of women to embrace trousers, think Katharine Hepburn in her black and white film era. The loose leg front pleated trouser that was her go to has already begun to surface at retail. During fashion week in New York, we saw Thom Browne embrace The New Look tailoring trend with his neckties and Chanel tweed. Now this week in London at Erdem presented the other side of the trend – the clean fit tailored dress. Tres Dior 1940’s all the way.

We will experience the impact of the trend with retail buys in the form of updated Blazers and Suiting for both men and women. Time to freshen up your corporate wardrobe!  The trench coat, Chanelesque tweeds, and don’t forget the drippy necklaces ladies!

SWANS

Oh no you didn’t Swans. FX show Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans is the second season (though unrelated to the first) that focuses on the lady friends of author Truman Capote. First of all I do believe he invented the notion of the Swan when he wrote Breakfast at Tiffany’s . I mean Holly Golightly is the OG.

Audrey Hepburn’s iconic portrayal of Holly Golightly in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s is one of the most notable examples of fashion shaping a film. The little black dress she wore was designed by Hubert de Givenchy and became a symbol of timeless elegance and sophistication. Its influence can still be seen today in fashion trends and the popularity of the “LBD.”

In the series the Swans, the focus is the New York society set that befriended Truman Capote. These gals have iconized the column dress, the pants suit, and the ladies who lunch sweater set. And let’s not leave out Truman Capote himself who was the master of the dinner jacket. And showed the world what could be done with the simple palette of black and white during his marvelous Black and White Ball. What a historical fete!

The costume design from The Swans will find its way to a rack near you in the form of fur coats (I’m sure you have seen the mob style swirling on TikTok – it overlaps here), feathers, tulle, and decadent embellishment. For the guys much like The New Look the focus is on sharp tailoring, throwing in a fun bow tie or necktie.

Ah and alas let’s not forget Gloria Vanderbilt, a swan in her own right and created some truly western styled jeans – just to bring us full circle. The grand dame’s 100^th birthday just passed. Happy Birthday Gloria and until next time!