In Jean Genet’s 1947 play Les Bonnes (The Maids) Solange and Claire, two servants, spend their evenings taking turns at dressing up like their employer, insulting her and staging her murder. The disturbing plot was actually based on a real story: in 1933 sisters Christine and Lea Papin brutally killed their mistress and her daughter in Le Mans.
In 1974 the play was turned into a film directed by Christopher Miles and starring Glenda Jackson as menacing Solange, Susannah York as neurotic Claire and Vivien Merchant as Madame, their self-centered employer.
The story unravels in Madame’s claustrophobic bedroom, with the two housemaids taking turns in their ritualistic and sadomasochist act, almost happy at degrading themselves, fantasising about murdering Madame, yet failing to do so in real life, while the static camera contributes to give a sense of obssession and mental disturbance to the entire film.
Drama and grand gestures prevail, though there is also a thrilling atmosphere of suspense as the poisonous tea is drunk and death becomes a real presence rather than an imagined ghost.
The entire story is based on dichotomies such as master-slave, love-hate, reality-dream, while Claire and Solange hide behind their self-destructing games their obsession with class identity, gender, desire and repression. Glenda Jackson as the dominant Solange tediously repeats throughout the film the mantra “It's my turn to be Madame”, that marks the moment she swaps roles with Claire.
While the film did not capture the spirit of Genet’s text, it perfectly managed to hint at fashion’s role-playing power: Madame’s glamorous clothes and evening gowns allow the two maids to engage in an endless masquerade, leaving behind their simple and boring black and white uniforms, acquiring in this way not only a new look, but also en entirely new personality.
Antonio Marras analysed the necessity of a "dichotomic wardrobe" including in his Spring/Summer 2012 collection designs in two different styles that called back to mind the glamorous attire of Madame and the basic uniforms of her insidious maids.
Madame’s bourgeois wardrobe is symbolised in the collection by elegant draped dresses, laminated cardigans matched with pencil skirts, ethereal prints of flowers in lavender tones echoing Japanese watercolours and ruched bathings suits.
Duplicity appears instead in the construction of the designs with trench coats that look both rigid and tailored but also include fluid micro-pleated inserts, and in the colour palette with bright and vivid tones of teal and green, plum and burgundy and cream and red, references to the main shades of the film costumes but also of the furniture in Madame's bedroom.
The maids’ uniforms are interpreted as black and white dresses or skirts with simple cardigans, decorated with appliquéd elements and romantic ruffled collars in luxurious materials, to symbolise the maids' desire of turning into Madame.
Marras also tried to play with dichotomies in just one design: in some cases he mixed two wardrobes in one, re-cutting Madame’s flowery clothes and applying them on white or black skirt/trouser suits or dresses, giving the impression the maids had maybe been playing a collage-like game of paper dolls (though the final effect also called to mind the folkloristic dresses of Italian regional dolls, usually decorated with floral inserts or with aprons with floral edges).
Marras played well with the dichotomic power of one wardrobe, though, you could argue, a fashion collection can hardly be more terrifying than the psychological warfare unleashed by the two main characters in Genet's play.
Yet, the more you think about contemporary fashion, the more you realise that it has turned into a strange monster capable of enticing desires that are often destined to remain unfulfilled (think about all the young people dreaming of having unlimited wardrobes or of becoming rich and famous just by dressing Lady Gaga...), creating a deeper gap between social classes and putting more pressure on consumers.
Even with Europe slipping into recession, magazines are still full of suggestions and ideas about must have items for the Christmas season, making us believe we are Madames clad in Haute Couture, whilst most of us are dreaming and craving maids, servants of a deranged system pretending it's democratising fashion, whilst it's actually making sure that there will always be enough distance between the glamorous Madames and the longing maids.
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