Everything looks dreamy on the silver screen. Fashion on film then is the ultimate definition of glamour. As the great philosopher David Bowie has said, or rather, sung, “it’s big and it’s bland and it’s full of fear,” through the cinematic lens, clothes are no longer threads of fabric. They put on a character, full of secrets and danger. With the upcoming release of the biopic Saint Laurent, let’s take a look at five films on the darker side of fashion.
Blow-Up (1966)
Fashion photographer is a fabulous job but in Antonioni’s modernist masterpiece, it emerges as a shallow and frustrating trade. The photographer in question, Thomas, is fed up with glamour. However, he accidentally captures a murder in the park and the incident brings him a new purpose: using the camera not only for the beautiful clothes but to actually solve crimes. Following the tradition of Antonioni’s “incommunicability trilogy,” Blow-Up is less about Thomas’ discovery than his inability to act on it. Harnessed by the rigidity of his profession and social class, Thomas is a reflexive embodiment of the cinematic dilemma: the tension between capturing and being a part of reality.
Who Are You Polly Maggoo? (1966)
Examining the flip side of Blow-Up, Who Are You Polly Maggoo? has the curious effect of a film within a film. In this fictional movie, a documentary crew follows top model Polly Maggoo from a fashion shoot to her apartment, dying to find out the real persona underneath all the layers of makeup and fancy clothes. But the search is futile, for even Polly herself is unsure of her identity. Filmed in a mock cinéma vérité style, the film’s ostensibly realistic premise is undercut with elements of surrealism and satire, offering a sharp critique on the changeable nature of fashion that aims to enhance reality but in fact, distorts it.
Funny Face (1957)
Yet another a film about a fashion photographer – gee I wonder why films are so obsessed with photography – but this musical is a much more lighthearted piece of romance. Dick Avery, played by the ever charming Fred Astaire, while scouting a location for a shoot, encounters bookish Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn). Then, as fate would have it, the editor-in-chief of Dick’s magazine declares the girl to be the face of a new collection, and off the trio go to Paris, sing a bunch of songs, and change a lot of clothes. Although the sexist undertone of Funny Face is hard to ignored – oh, let’s change existentialist Jo into a model – the film is still worth a watch for its vibrant color palettes, the Givenchy’s wardrobe, and, well, Paris.
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
I still have wonderful, beautiful memories about the wardrobe in this film. Also I kind of hope that someday I will be on the same path as its protagonist, Andy Sachs, a fresh-faced journalism student from graduate school who gets an assistant job at a top fashion magazine, a makeover and seats at the most prestigious fashion shows (instead I spend most of my time on my laptop writing about sad movies, but whatever). Nevertheless, the movie is not all rainbows and roses. Andy starts to notice gradual changes in her personality while the film dwells into the competitive race to success that is constantly present in the fashion industry.
The Women (1939)
While the other movies are about makers of fashion, The Women focuses on a large chunk of its consumers. Circling around the crisis of the protagonist, Mary, as she finds out her husband is having an affair, the film travels through different realms of fashion-a nail salon, a fitting room and most distinctively, in the middle of a black-and-white film comes a gorgeous color sequence showing models adorning the latest haute couture. With an all-female cast, The Women depicts another dimension of the pressure fashion has on women; your husband might be sleeping with someone else, but you’d better look good, and most importantly more stylish than the other woman, as you strive through the ordeal.
