How movies changed the way we dress

Come spring, we might all be dressing in pillbox hats, Technicolor frocks cut for dancing and 1940s-style satin evening dresses — pieces worn in three of this year’s Oscar-nominated films for costume design. There’s nothing like a lavishly produced prestige picture (in this case, “Jackie,” “La La Land” and “Allied,” respectively) to jump-start long-dormant fashion trends.

“Movies have been influencing fashion since the beginning,” says film and fashion historian Kimberly Truhler. “When people [first] saw these moving images of actresses [such as silent stars] Mary Pickford or Gloria Swanson, they started emulating them.”

Here are eight films nominated over the years for Best Picture or Best Costume Design Oscars that changed the way we dressed, from the period gangster film “Bonnie and Clyde” to the disco-era crime caper “American Hustle.”

Evan Rachel Wood, Carey Mulligan in character and Katy Perry

Fashion had been in the throes of an early-20th-century revival even before Baz Luhrman’s unorthodox adaptation of “The Great Gatsby,” which won Best Costume Design, brought the Roaring ’20s back to the silver screen.

“Designers had just exhausted the 1950s and ’60s, and were ready for something new,” says Truhler. “You had this window where all the designers went crazy for art deco fashion.”

Gatsby’s two-year roll-out, featuring lavish trailers and collabs with Prada and Tiffany, certainly helped. Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs and Marchesa produced 1920s drop-waist dresses loaded with fringe and beads for Spring 2012. That year, starlets Evan Rachel Wood, Zoe Saldana, Camilla Belle and Bérénice Bejo were all photographed in the same Gucci flapper frock, while Katy Perry arrived at a Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition in Jazz Age cosplay.

Read more here