They Are Watching
Friday, January 12, 2007 at 12:27PM 
I just received Womens Wear Daily's supplement WWD Fast, wherein there is a roundup entitled: They Are Watching - Fashion Insiders talk about their favorite films and those that have inspired their collections.
This is always fun - movies are so artistically inspiring across so many art forms: film, costume, visual arts, writing...the list goes on. The other thing that's fun about answering this question is that a person's list could be entirely different tomorrow. With that in mind, I thought I'd throw out my answers to these questions, and let you all do the same.
Favorite Film: The Philadelphia Story
Allison Elliott & Helena Bonham Carter in "The Wings of the Dove"Favortie Fashion Films: Now here's where it gets tricky - there are so many! In fact, one of the main reasons that I start to love a film is the fashion that's in it...What to choose...? Rear Window, What a Way To Go! - if you haven't seen it you really should, Marie Antoinette, The Wings of the Dove - oh! The beauty of the Art Nouveau era, Venice, and a love triangle - so good!, The Women, Bullets Over Broadway, The Age of Innocence, and The Thomas Crown Affair - I like the one with Dunaway-McQueen, but I really love everything Rene Russo wears in the new version.
1870's Whartonian elegance in "The Age of Innocence"
Crawford, Shearer, & Russell in "The Women"
Dianne Wiest's prohibition-era glamour in "Bullets Over Broadway"
Most Inspirational Film: This is tricky too. I tend to love films that depict the creative process in some way - I'm just drawn to it. CQ by Roman Coppola, Camille Claudel, Unzipped, Henry and June - because it perfectly depicts Parisian bohemian-artistic life in the 1920s.
Favorite Recent Films: Wicker Park - haunting, romantic, and modern, Kill Bill Vol. 1 - beautiful cinematography and I love that you don't really know what's happening in the story, Pride & Prejudice - I could watch Matthew Macfadyen cross that field a thousand times and never tire of it, A Very Long Engagement - beautiful, scary and romantic, as Jeunet knows best.
Last Movie Seen: Le Mépris - see below.
Enjoy your weekend! Go to the movies!
Reader Comments (1)
Stage Door --- Perfect Writing, Perfect Casting
Favorite Fashion Films:
See above. Katherine Hepburn all architectural and debutantish. Ginger Rodgers, ravishing in day cloths, tap dance pants, and gowns. Lucille Ball, a very young blond in lovely wide-legged pants. Yum!
Brick. The clothing is so essential to the characters here, because they are drawn so quickly, it's how you get to know them. And those blue plastic bracelets are heart-wrenching.
The Royal Tannenbaums. GP's Izod dresses. Cowboy hats. Tennis wear as day wear. Jogging suits as always-wear. Brian has a suit from the guy who made all the suits on this set. You can find him in this crazy shop on the fourth floor of this building on lower fifth. Bolts of cloth everywhere.
Gone With the Wind. I LOVE th dress Vivian Leigh wears in the first scene --- white lawn with little green clusters of flowers. And of course the dress made out of "Miss Ellen's portiers." And the chocolate brown striped dress he wore with Rhett in New Orleans.
Network. Everyone says Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde is smashing. And of course she is. But Faye Dunaway in Network is THE luscious, amoral woman of plunging necklines. I covet her cloths in this movie.
Gosford Park. Kristin Scott Thomas's cloths are excellent in this. The riding outfits. That long icy white column that Ryan Phillipe unzips from the side.
I will stop now . . . ;-)
Most Inspirational Film:
This is bad, but Reality Bites always inspires me to smoke cigarettes. But that's probably not what this category intends.
John Hughes films inspired lots of angst, and love of Moly Ringwald and Judd Nelson.
Star Wars (the first three) inspired cultish adoration, and memorization of many lines.
The Big Lebowski -- ditto.
Favorite Recent Films:
Brick, The Queen, Devil Wears Prada, The Departed, Casino Royal
Last Movie Seen:
Little Miss Sunshine (for new ones). I watched the Big Lebowski the other night, if you want the true latest.