I may have to go into fashion and film detox very soon, since, everything I turn my eyes on, seems to develop uncanny cinematic connections. Yet, for today’s second post, I think I’ll indulge a little bit more in my cinematic passion.
One of the films that probably holds a high position in the style chart of every fashion fan is Kar Wai Wong’s Fa yeung nin wa (In the mood for love, 2000).
In this film actress Maggie Cheung starring as Su Li-zhen sports some truly beautiful qipao dresses, characterised by a fitted silhouette, stiff high collar and floral prints or geometrical motifs in pastel nuances that create contrasts with the colours of the environments – from dark and dusty buildings to walls covered in vividly bright wallpaper – that surround her (check out the first clip in this post: turn on the CC button to view subtitles).
It’s often impossible to look at Cheung in this film without thinking about 30s Shangai movie idol Ruan Lingyu wearing a qipao dress with Art Deco motifs and matching accessories.
Costume designer William Chang really did an amazing job in this film. One of the main things you get taught if you want to be a designer and work in the film industry is that your creations must be absolutely perfect. If they aren’t, the camera will show it and the illusion created on the big screen will be shattered.
William Chang’s costumes and in particular the qipao dresses are absolutely impeccable. Look at the close ups in this film: you won’t be able to see a single crease; stitching and seams are invisible and the classic front flap overlapping and fastening along the collarbone, under the arm and down the right side, at times looks as if it were a trompe l'oeil-like optical illusion.The costumes are also used in this film as metaphors: while they look constrained and conservative, perfectly fitting Cheung’s body and designing it sensual contours, they also hint at the turmoil in her heart and create a sort of traditional vs exotic/erotic dichotomy, calling to mind contradictions between manners and morals. (I know that there are a few fashion and design students out there reading this blog, so here are a couple of tips for them: what about trying to study the developments of the qipao dresses in cinema? Or maybe, as an exercise, why don’t you try to create a costume based on the contradictions of a character - think on an exterior/interior level and see what you can come up with).
Yet stylish qipao dresses aren't the only costumes that helped somehow making Cheung's career: in 1993, the actress played Chat in Johnnie To’s futuristic thriller Dung fong saam hap (The Heroic Trio).
To narrates in the film the story of three women, urban wonder woman Tung (Anita Mui), beautiful and egocentric motorcycle girl Chat (Cheung) and invisible Ching (Michelle Yeoh).
Though To’s film basically reinvented Charlie’s Angels in a fantasy key and anticipated some of the atmospheres of The Matrix, it was essentially considered as a minor hit, the sort of dream film for everyone who grew up in the 80s watching a mix of third rate art martial films and bizarre Japanese sci-fi TV series in which aliens and monsters fought Bruce Lee style in hilarious deranged costumes (think Megaroman, Urutoraman & Co, things that not many of us as grown ups admitted watching when they were kids).
A melodramatically irresistible pastiche of action-meets-fantasy-meets-horror film, The Heroic Trio is worth remembering for its amazing martial art choreography provided by action director Ching Siu-Tung, who also worked on Yimou Zhang’s Ying xiong (Hero, 2002).
The latter was set in an ancient and mythological China suspended between reality and dream in which fearless Nameless recounts how he defeated the three murderous warriors "Broken Sword", "Flying Snow" and "Sky".
The film is best remembered for its gravity defying battle scenes, special effects, extraordinary costumes by Emi Wada that borrowed from traditional designs (Wada won an Oscar for the costumes in Akira Kurosawa’s Ran) and beautiful Cheung starring as ethereal assassin Flying Snow.
Two years later, abandoning fantastic sets and legendary inspirations, Cheung starred in Olivier Assayas's Clean (2004) as Emily Wang, a woman who tries to fight her drug addiction to deserve her son’s affection. Being the film set in our times, in this case the costumes are probably less interesting (though equally inspirational as we are going to see in a minute...).
Through her films, Cheung managed to win the heart of many fans, among them also the sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte fame.
The sisters often claimed their designs had cinematic inspirations: the glamorously dark edges of the design duo’s Autumn/Winter 2008 collection were indeed inspired by modern Japanese horror films, while the girls also stated that other creations borrowed ideas from films in the Criterion Collection series.
Last week the cinematic connection between the Rodarte girls and Cheung was strengthened as the design duo presented in collaboration with Hong Kong-based boutique Joyce four designs inspired by Cheung’s characters in the above mentioned films.
The designs were then auctioned off in Hong Kong and proceedings were given to UNICEF, but a film was shot by Hong Kong-based photographer Wing Shya to document the collection.
The first design, a long cobweb like evening gown, is inspired by the dark atmospheres of The Heroic Trio; the second includes an embellished sheer vest matched with a pair of trousers decorated with multiple zips, a look directly borrowed from Emily Wang's wardrobe; the third dress recalls both in its colour and in the strips that form it and create movement Flying Snow's costumes, while the fourth and last design is a sort of post-apocalyptic qipao turned into an Amazon’s armour thanks to intricate surface elaboration.
It's interesting to note that, while some of the looks and costumes in the films inspired the designs, some of the most interesting elements were actually provided by the film atmospheres or by some of the details of the sets (think about the possibilities that dusty or crumbling buildings in In the Mood for Love may have offered to the design duo in terms of surface elaboration).
As mentioned above, Rodarte's designs were auctioned, but, if you are into these films (or, if that matters, into any other film!) or into Maggie Cheung, well, nobody stops you from coming up with your own very personal interpretations of a character's look or style. Just remember to try and have lots of fun while creating it.
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