The latest Autumn/Winter 2010-11 collections provided interesting connections with films, including Arabian Nights, Lady Oscar and The Eyes of Laura Mars and The Colour of Pomegranates.
Indeed, the next season looks rather interesting if you are as obsessed as myself about the fashion and film connection. The film thread seemed strong in London, cinematic inspirations were for example also behind J Maskrey’s catwalk show.
In a fashion world that’s always rushing faster and faster, J Maskrey’s presentation was quietly poetical, almost hieratical I would say, and definitely among the most stylish catwalk shows presented as part of the On|Off calendar during London Fashion Week.
J Maskrey Catwalk from On|Off TV on Vimeo.
Models slowly walked down the runway in black body suits, cardigans and mini-dresses decorated with dazzling jewels, jackets and skirts adorned with crystallised chains, while additional sparkling notes were added by the skin jewellery applied to their bodies, spiralling over their arms and legs.
Despite the urban and biker inspirations behind a few pieces such as leather trousers with architectural motifs created by rows of zips, the main connection had to be traced back in Art Deco films.
Some designs reminded of Greta Garbo’s Deco Orientalist costumes in Wild Orchids and the bejewelled costumes and accessories – sequinned hats included – worn by the actress in Mata Hari.
Yet there was also a touch of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis in a sparkling dress worn with a black armour-like structure on top of it. While the black and futuristic designs mixed in some cases horror, fantasy and science fiction, for a perfect Cecil B DeMille’s Madame Satan-Frederick Stephani’s Flash Gordon mix, the main inspiration for this connection remained the black and white 1932 movie The Mask of Fu Man Chu, directed by Charles Brabin.
This classic film from the Art Deco era featured Boris Karloff as Dr. Fu Manchu and Myrna Loy as his evil daughter Fah Lo See.
It’s exactly the latter that inspired J Maskrey’s designs: indeed some pieces perfectly embodied Fah Lo See’s dragon lady sexual power and control. Models often looked like Art Deco vamps and dominatrixes and there were even designs that called back to mind specific film scenes such as the studded leggings worn by a model with a bare torso covered in black and silvery body jewellery shaped like slashes that referenced the scene in which seductress Fah Lo See gets Terry whipped.
The show climaxed in its finale with a model in an exotic fan-shaped headdress, that, I must admit, was reminiscent of Fah Lo See’s looks but also of Hash-A-Mo-Tep’s modernist metal helmets in Lansing C Holden and Irving Poichel’s She (1935).
At Fendi's (and here we are moving on to Milan Fashion Week...) cinema was channelled through Ennio Morricone’s "Rabbia e Tarantella" from the Inglorious Basterds soundtrack (rather comical if you think that this ended up being the first catwalk show Anna Wintour, obliged to come one day before she had hoped to, ended up seeing during Milan Fashion Week…).
The focus at Fendi was naturally on fur incorporated in carefully constructed woollen coats, but there was one cinematic connection: the elegantly chic astrakhan coats had all the drama of the cropped jacket designed by Piero Tosi and worn by Silvana Mangano in Luchino Visconti’s Gruppo di famiglia in un interno (Conversation Piece, 1974).
Superficially looking like a mere study in geometrical shapes, Albino D'Amato's collection - characterised by a palette based on white, camel, black and light blue shades - featured A-lined dresses, sheaths and capes that fused minimalism with trompe l’oeil stained-glass prints. The designs, D'Amato stated, were inspired by the female characters in Fellini’s Casanova.
In this film the costumes were actually conceived as vital elements to trace the psychology of the different characters, and Albino D'Amato almost tried to do the same, using wool, mikado silk and neoprene to create armours that empower women.
So while D'Amato was looking for the missing link between Fellini's costume designer Danilo Donati, psychology and fashion, cinematic dementia struck at Moschino Cheap & Chic where Asia Argento was enlisted as DJ.
In a way it was a great idea as it may provide an alternative career for the Italian "actress and director". Strange actually that Fendi - involved in acquiring the Suspiria rights a while back - never thought about enlisting her for their own catwalk shows.
Sadly Moschino's Cheap & Chic's collection was essentially a clever advertising performance with models acting as travellers and maids for Moschino's brand new Milan-based hotel. A wonderful trick that made you actually long for some much needed Argento bloodshed on the catwalk Trussardi style.
Alessandro Dell'Acqua infused a bit of cinematic chic in the designs for his new label, N. 21.
The palette for his collection mainly comprised camel, turquoise and fuchsia, but it was when he relapsed into black with a plain and timeless dress, that you realised where his film references came from, Monica Vitti in (Antonioni's) La Notte.
Yet if there is somebody who deserves the Oscar for cinematic connections for the next season, that's Miuccia Prada.
Pop arty videos were projected in the background while models walked among the audience on a floor decorated with graphs that gave out votes to different modern means of communication, Twitter included.
The clothes weren't that modern, though: the perfectly upswept hairstyles were reminiscent of strong women such as Jeanne Moreau’s Eva and Eva Kant in Diabolik’s comics, while late 50s-early 60s silhouettes prevailed, with A-line skirts with ruffles around the hem, plain yet chic trapezoidal dresses in graphic retro plaid prints, plasticised jersey suits and double face cashmere coats with doubled-up wool and fur collars matched with thick woollen socks with ochre or red braids and strappy sandals or patent leather shoes in vivid colours.
Sensuality was channelled via the topiary-style ruffles, ruches and lace appliquéd around the chest area or the cut out motifs under the breasts.
Editing wouldn't have hurt, but as a whole the collection was interesting and featured many Prada classics revamped via the past and filtered through cinematic references such as Antonioni's The Night.
During the 1998 Florence Biennale, ten Italian fashion houses were called to restore a film that for its style, atmosphere and costumes represented an inspiration for them.
Not many may remember it, but Prada chose at the time The Night for its visual power and its main themes, that is the mutual incomprehension in a relationship that is ending, the general lack of communication between human beings, boredom, and the contrasts between technology, neocapitalism and the ordinary rhythms of life.
Maybe these are also the key themes to understand Prada's new designs. After all, a "cinematic" fashion collection doesn't necessarily need to reference specific costumes, but, as in this case, it may also just highlight a sort of "spiritual" connection between a fashion creation and a movie.
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