Mulholland Drive Inspirations: G.V.G.V. A/W 10

As seen (yes, ad nauseam, I know…) in previous posts, a film can often inspire fashion designers in many different ways.

Sometimes a charismatic actor or actress can turn into an iconic hero or muse for a collection or the costume and sets seen in a film can somehow influence the direction for an entire collection.

Further inspirations and reference points can be found in the atmospheres evoked by a director or the lights used by a cinematographer.

Mug, the designer behind the G.V.G.V. brand (and a graduate of Kuwasawa Design School), focused on colours and atmospheres but also on some of the metaphors and meanings behind David Lynch's 2001 surreal psychological thriller Mulholland Drive.

Undoubtedly, the vivid red colour employed in the first garments of the brand's Autumn/Winter 2010 collection - that is the leather skirts and trousers, trench coats and accessories (mainly shoes and gloves) - was a clear reference to Laura Elena Harring’s wardrobe.

A see-through white shirt dress decorated with fringes looked more like a sleeping gown and was a clear reference to the beds and bedrooms in Lynch’s film, but also to the influence dreams have in Mulholland Drive.

Lynch’s movie was also characterised by a sort of confusing narrative order that often didn’t make sense and Mug tried to recreate it in the non-linear story that unravelled on the runway. 

After the first part in which red designs prevailed, there was a mish-mash of colourful prints, body-con dresses with geometric details that traced the contours of the body and were probably conceived with strong and powerful women in mind, and rather casual, almost grungy looks, including, shirts, skirts and cardigans emblazoned with circumscribed anarchist-like symbols.

A mix of femininity and masculinity was detectable in this part of the show, but soon a dark grey T-shirt with the legendary “Hollywood” sign on a crumbling light grey background, reminded of the main theme, reintroducing it with another quick change of style through Rita Hayworth-like gowns matched with fur jackets and rather elegant skirt suits and fur coats that also called to mind the style of iconic actresses à la Ann Miller.

Mulholland Drive risked of turning into Sunset Boulevard towards the end of the show, but, after all, both films have got something in common, since both of them see Hollywood as a cynical and manipulative place covered up in a cloak of dreams, illusions and obsessions.

So, while Lynch’s film could be read through different multiple meanings, G.V.G.V.'s new collection could be analysed through the different women - sensual and erotic femmes fatales, anarchists, and dark and decadent Hollywood stars - that walked down the runway. 

Nothing is as it seems in David Lynch's film and probably Mug was right in choosing it as the main inspiration for this collection. After all, in fashion, things are seldom what they seem.  

  
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