Since the “Peroni Collection – Italian Style on the Silver Screen” is kicking off in London on Wednesday (though tomorrow there is a private viewing evening), I have been going once again through some of the images featured in the event.
A few readers wrote me to say they really enjoyed the poster picture from Giulietta degli spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits, 1965) by Federico Fellini (with costumes by Piero Gherardi).
Women are the main protagonists of this story, in fact a feminine universe characterises Fellini’s entire ouvre: numerous and different women – mothers, wives, mistresses, nuns, vamps and prostitutes – appear in his films, representing projections of a desire as multiform as the male imagination can be.
In this film the world of burlesque and circus - represented by Sandra Milo (the actress in yellow in the first image in this post) starring as Iris, Suzy and Fanny - clashes with that spectacle called “pure cinema”. Like a designer at a catwalk show, Fellini presents his imaginary women clad in fashionable and rich costumes born out of fantasy and wonder.
“The ambition of this film is to restore to woman her true independence, an unquestionable and inalienable dignity of her own,” Fellini stated in an interview about Juliet of the Spirits.
This is the same impulse that drives contemporary fashion designers to keep on creating new designs and collections that can empower women.
Florence-born but New York-based fashion designer Sofia Sizzi recently launched her own label, called Giulietta and inspired by Fellini's film.
Born in Florence, Sizzi first worked for Gucci, then moved to New York where she collaborated with Donna Karan and Calvin Klein.
While in her designs there is also a sort of Fellinesque obsession with church and ecclesiastical clothes (see her black dress with white collar and her capes - View this photo) a bit reminiscent of the "pretino" dresses, her Autumn/Winter 2011-12 collection also includes a red chiffon dress that references one of the costumes donned by Giulietta Masina in Fellini's film.
Masina's dress was actually shorter than Sizzi's, but it's interesting to see that stylish and original costumes from '60s film still inspire contemporary designers. I doubt that any of the contemporary films that currently boast any kind of fashion and style connections will turn into an inspiration in fifty years' time.
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