Top 3 Great Fashion Moments in Cinema

Lately to inject some inspiration into my life and into this blog, I’ve been watching some good old fashioned vintage cinema (a secret guilty past time of mine that I indulge in from time to time) and found it to be a goldmine of amazing coveted styles that the modern girl can adopt.

Here are my Top 3 Stylish Ladies of the Screen:

1.      Faye Dunaway in ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ (1968)

Faye Dunaway plays the beautiful, witty and shrewd insurance investigator Vicky Anderson employed by the Boston authorities to ensnare suave business tycoon and secret crook Thomas Crown, played by the hyper-masculine Steve McQueen, after he stages a notorious bank heist.

Dunaway show-stopping scene appears when she sashays into Boston airport, resplendent in a white mini suit set, wide brimmed hat and Italian style sunglasses, shaping her feline gaze. With that look, you know she ‘always gets her man.’ (I’m of course easily convinced of this when such a scene is accentuated by the 1960s style Bossa Nova tunes playing quietly in the background).

Costume designer Theodora Van Runkle was responsible for Dunaway’s 29 amazing outfits on this film, one of the more impressive ones being the halter neck chiffon dress she wears on a seductive private dinner date with the charming Mr Crown. Van Runkle has presented the character as an empowered woman who dresses like she means business when she needs to but in softer and more emotionally tender moments, can be presented as feminine and romantic as well.

Included in the range of outfits and accessories were smart mini dresses, flowing Grecian style maxi dresses, suits, hats, headscarves, mini handbags and wide sunglasses. Dunaway wears the character and the clothes well, and is very reminiscent of a time when women were discovering their own identities and demanding respect in their own right, while still reserving a sense of sophistication and frivolity,

Modern style transfer: Think Spring style day wear that is playful and feminine with clean sharp lines such as Chloe blouses, Chanel shift dresses, Louis Vuitton matching suit sets.

From left to right: Chloe Spring/Summer Collection 2010; Chanel Spring/Summer Collection 2011; Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer Collection 2012

Inspired Accessories

Vintage Hermes 1960s Navy Blue Leather Handbag  

Lanvin Wide Brimmed Hat

Bvlgari Sunglasses Icona Acetate with Metallic Brown Frame

2.      Audrey Hepburn in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ (1961)

Long before Carrie Bradshaw and her Manhattan crew became synonymous with cosmopolitans and one night stands in Sex and the City, Truman Capote’s book Breakfast at Tiffany’s explored the darker side of schmoozing with the elite social set in New York.

Audrey Hepburn is in her most memorable role as the delightful and mysterious high class call girl Holly Golightly, aspiring to a life being a lady of leisure and luxury, by seeking the favors of rich influential men. This aspiration is challenged when a humble writer Paul Varjak (played by a disarmingly handsome George Peppard) moves into her apartment building. Whilst being pimped out by his part time interior decorator live in lover, Paul surprisingly finds that he has fallen in love with Holly discovering that really underneath it all, she is a small town country girl in a big city running from her shady past and humble beginnings. Now who can resist a story that reads like that?

Like in her previous films Sabrina (1954) and Funny Face (1957), Audrey dazzles in her favourite couturier designer Givenchy, her most famous outfit being the fitted black cocktail dress that she wears outside Tiffany’s, complimented with matching gloves, rows of fake pearls draped along the neck line and matching tiara sitting upon her neatly styled chignon. While that dress* is no doubt lovely and its replicas high in demand at fancy dress parties, I was seduced by the absolutely gorgeous sparkly pink cocktail dress Holly wore on her date with her Brazilian prospect José, with its beautiful appliqué features and matching sash, and of course complimented by a pink tiara. It’s so irresistibly delicious and princess-y and reminds you of iced cupcakes and pink champagne cocktails, much like Marc Jacob’s recent collection of pastel coloured embroidery anglaise outfits for Louis Vuitton.

 

Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Givenchy cocktail dress

Ad for Louis Vuitton Spring Collection 2011

The other stand out items that are worth mentioning are the accessories, namely the Oliver Goldsmith sunglasses that Holly wears throughout the film; the black wide brimmed hat; matching kitten heels; and of course the famous long cigarette holder that Holly holds at her infamous who’s-who do at her apartment. All the things a modern call girl needs to stay on top of her game.

*’That’ dress sold at a charity auction at Christie's for more than $800,000. Some things are just worth having apparently.

Modern style transfer: Think chic Manhattan 'ladies that lunch' on Fifth Avenue outfits such as Victoria Beckham fitted dresses, Tom Ford sunglasses, classic Chanel and Christian Dior handbags

Clockwise from left to right: Eva Longoria in Victoria Beckham dress, Lily Allen in Chanel ad; Nicole Richie in Tom Ford 'Anna' sunglasses

Inspired accessories

Jimmy Choo Patent Leather Kitten Heels

Christian Dior Patent Leather Handbag

Tom Ford Nikita Cat Eye Sunglasses

3.      Jean Seberg in ‘Breathless’ (1960)

Jean Seberg is without a doubt the stylish muse and queen of cool of French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague) cinema.

Her beautiful gamine appearance and effervescent acting were known in her most memorable role as Patricia Franchini in Jean-Luc Godard’s film Breathless, playing an American student and aspiring journalist who gets caught up with small time crook Michel (played by Jean-Paul Belmondo).

I would consider Breathless as Godard’s most stylish film, subverting the audience’s visual senses and expectations. What I loved about this movie was its mix of styles and genres, a playful parody of the gangster and romance genre, with its unexpected twist in the end: the crook doesn’t get away with the crime or the girl.

This film is also well known for its naïve vogue, from Seberg’s stylish Dior-esque striped dress and Belmondo’s gangster suit and fedora, to more simple day wear such as the striped boater top, cropped pants and ballet flats worn by Seberg. It’s an irresistible mix of beatnik, gangster and Ye-Ye girl of the 60s, that brings a fresh influence to hipster cool in street fashion today.

Modern style transfer: Think stylish hipster crossed with French feminine chic such as Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton 1950s inspired dresses and skirts, Hermes scarves, Isabel Marant sweaters and leggings, Miu Miu sunglasses, Chanel and Salvatore Ferragamo ballet flats. 

From left to right: Marc Jacobs; Louis Vuitton Fall Collection 2010;
Isabel Marant Pre-Fall Collection 2011

Inspired accessories

Miu Miu Sunglasses

Hermes Scarf

Christian Louboutin Flats