Stylish films featuring Chanel and Givenchy

Fashion and film have been inextricably linked for the past century, with designers drawing inspiration from the silver screen and auteurs going to great lengths to secure the perfect costumes for their characters. Would Holly Golightly have become a pop culture sensation without Hubert de Givenchy’s sophisticated designs? And what would Belle de Jour be without Yves Saint Laurent or Barbarella without Paco Rabanne? Below, Vogue presents 14 of the best designer and director collaborations of all time.

Raf Simons for Jil Sander in I Am Love

From Call Me by Your Name to A Bigger Splash, Luca Guadagnino’s films are packed with stylish characters – none more so than the 2009 romantic drama I Am Love, which stars the director’s long-time muse Tilda Swinton as a woman who marries into the upper echelons of Milanese society. Raf Simons, then creative director of Jil Sander, provided Swinton’s wardrobe: boxy shift dresses, jewel-tone knits and sleek coats that reflect the refined minimalism that was a hallmark of his tenure at the house.


Rodarte in Black Swan

It was Black Swan’s Oscar-winning leading lady Natalie Portman who introduced director Darren Aronofsky to Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the sisters behind Rodarte. While costume designer Amy Westcott (who previously worked with Aronofsky on The Wrestler) created most of the film’s looks, she collaborated with the design duo on a number of elaborate tutus, including the feathered confections Portman wears on stage in the final scene. The designers’ mood boards referenced everything from the day-to-day wardrobes of dancers in the American Ballet Theatre to films like The Double Life of Veronique and The Piano Teacher.


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Katharine Hepburn: Rebel Chic

Hollywood legend, Katharine Hepburn was an early pioneer of androgynous fashion, appearing on set dressed in high-waisted pants and button-down shirts a decidedly unconventional look in the 1930s and 40s, when girdles and stockings were the order of the day.

The fiercely independent Hepburn famously once quipped: 'Anytime I hear a man say he prefers a woman in a skirt, I say, "Try one. Try a skirt."

And when Barbara Walters asked the 78-year-old Hepburn whether she even owned a skirt, the actress quickly retorted, "One -- I'll wear it to your funeral."

Hepburn cross-dressed famously and fabulously as Sylvester Scarlett in "Sylvia Scarlett" (1935). "It was meant to be funny, but nobody laughed," Hepburn noted - even with Cary Grant as co-star and George Cukor as director.

Katharine Hepburn, as well as being a pioneer in her own right, also knew the importance of costume in defining character and drawing the audience into a story. She had a sure sense of what would work for her. Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen includes costumes Katharine Hepburn kept in her personal collection of performance clothes, wardrobe which she wore for publicity, and examples of “rebel chic” from her casual and rehearsal wear. Augmented with film still, posters and playbills, the exhibition spans her long career in theatre, film and television.

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10 Iconic Fashion Moments in Film in the Past Decade

Every great film has style that spans generations. The attention to detail when it comes to the characters’ wardrobe from clothes down to accessories can’t be missed even as you reach the bottom of your popcorn tumbler at the cinema. We go down movie memory lane and recall all the beautiful style moments in film in the last 10 years.

Sex and the City the Movie (2008)
It has been 10 years since Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) donned the Cloud dress by Vivienne Westwood in Sex and the City the Movie. The layers of silk satin-duchess and ivory silk taffeta was such an iconic look that the designer launched a collection inspired by the bridal gown just this year.

Coco Before Chanel (2009)
Audrey Tatou plays Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel in this 2009 film directed by Anne Fontaine. Costume designer Leterrier recreated the wardrobe of the style legend and made Tatou her muse. She based a lot of the clothes from photos of Chanel and translated that onto the film. Her silk pajamas and sailor tops were inspired by photos of her wearing them in the 1930s. And that tweed suit in the final scene where Chanel is by the stairs? That’s actually a real Chanel outfit and those stairs are in the House of Chanel.
Every great film has style that spans generations. The attention to detail when it comes to the characters’ wardrobe from clothes down to accessories can’t be missed even as you reach the bottom of your popcorn tumbler at the cinema. We go down movie memory lane and recall all the beautiful style moments in film in the last 10 years.

Inception (2010)
The plot might have gotten a bit confusing despite repeated viewing, but one thing’s for sure: the outfits in this film are impeccable. Costume designer Jeffrey Kurland, who has worked on films such as Erin Brokovich, Ocean’s Eleven, and Dunkirk, designed and made all the clothes you see in the movie. He took inspiration from architecture and went with sharp lines for the suits. Just like the movie, the clothes were stylized but still rooted in reality.

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The enduring appeal of The Great Gatsby

During his 1920s heyday, F. Scott Fitzgerald enjoyed fame and glamour comparable with any modern rock star. And, as with so many rock stars, the myths that have collected around him obscure the more fascinating — and tragic — reality.

Fitzgerald is remembered as the epitome of what he himself dubbed ‘the Jazz Age’, when America reacted against stringent Prohibition laws with a decade-long drinking orgy; the original ‘It’ girls danced the Charleston on the roofs of taxi cabs; and mobsters such as Al Capone machine-gunned each other in the streets. 

It all took place amid a boom-bust economic cycle — very much like our own — which culminated in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

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Hitchcock, blondes and fashion

Alfred Hitchcock loved blondes, but he famously dismissed Marilyn Monroe as too "obvious". So, it's a little surprising that Scarlett Johansson – Monroe's modern-day equivalent, complete with curves and pillow lips – is starring in next month's Hitchcock, the biopic that recounts the making of Psycho. She plays Janet Leigh, a woman definitely more in Hitchcock's favoured buttoned-up mould. But while the casting may seem a stretch, one thing is certain – the film will encourage yet another tryst between fashion and the director's heroines.

Hitchcock heroines have become a style trope – classics rolled out as a reference on the catwalk every so often, just like Edie Sedgwick, Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour or Kurt Cobain. Alexander McQueen famously presented a Hitchcock collection for autumn/winter 2005 and, with its angora sweaters, put-together hair and sharp skirt suits, it became one of his most popular. This season, Miuccia Prada at Miu Miu dabbled with over-the-knee pencil skirts, car coats, gloves and ladylike bags straight out of one of the director's later films, Marnie.

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The most famous sunglasses in film history

A special gallery dedicated to cinema history’s most famous sunglasses, as worn by icons such as Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Julia Roberts.

There is that famous scene from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, when Holly Golightly, played by Audrey Hepburn, lowers her sunnies to have a better look at a woman who, she will find out, is her neighbor’s lover. Her style was much imitated courtesy of an unforgettable closet designed by Givenchy, but that one accessory instantly became a symbol of understated elegance. Shortly after,  one year later, Sue Lyon plays the role of Dolores Haze, aka Lolita: in the heat of the summer  she is wearing heart shaped sunglasses. Romantic and pop, they are a symbol of adolescence and of the transition from childhood to adult life, when Lolita becomes aware of her sensuousness.

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A brief history of goth in 10 films

The Craft

If you’ve ever owned a velvet choker, dressed like someone from The Addams Family, or insisted The Cure sold out with “Friday I’m in Love,” then chances are you’re super into gothic cinema. At the very least, one of your favorite films—whether it’s The Craft, Lost Highway or Near Dark—belongs to the gothic tradition.

But what counts as gothic cinema? Even though the genre’s gloomy, shadow aesthetic originates from the 19th century fiction of Mary Shelley and Edgar Allen Poe, the cultural movement has survived in film form by persistently seeking out fresh blood for itself. Thus Bram Stoker could put pen to paper with Dracula in 1887 and inadvertently shape how Robert Pattinson would sink his incisors into Kristen Stewart for the Twilight movies. (Which is surely what Stoker intended.)

Moreover, gothic cinema is about drawing the curtains and identifying with outsiders. Sure, there’s the giddy thrill of tiptoeing past coffins in creaky castles, or the allure of uncovering ghostly family secrets (like why your uncle has so many anecdotes about the 14th century). But these films are also for anyone who’s ever looked into a mirror and felt more like Lydia Deetz in Beetlejuice than Cher Horowitz in Clueless. And if you don’t see your reflection at all? Then these movies might even be about you.

From December 1 onwards, New York’s Metrograph will be screening a Goth(ic) series, a celebration of 32 films that trace the history of gothic cinema and goth subcultures. These include landmarks of the 1930s (F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein), genre-defining suspense thrillers (Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, Robert Wise’s The Haunting), right up to more recent popcorn fare (Alex Proyas’ The Crow, Neil Jordan’s Interview with the Vampire). Mostly on 35mm, of course.

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Scarface: dress and excess clothes on film

A rewatching of Scarface (1983, directed by Brian De Palma)  always allows you to indulge in the film’s exemplary costumes by Patricia Norris. In its bogus world of clashing colours and mix fabrics, drug lord Tony Montana (Al Pacino) is the model of gangster symbolism, while steely dame Elvira (Michelle Pfeiffer) has become a pin-up for the disco couture era; both characters are as psychologically screwed up as each other.

Tony arrives in Miami, Florida, 1980 as a refugee from Cuba. His Caribbean heritage and lack of cash is demonstrated by a fondness for loose fitting, short sleeve island shirts. These are so gaudy that during the infamous chainsaw sequence, Tony’s costume is heightened to bright orange with surfing and palms pattern just to retain his position as the focal point. Is it any wonder that as his status climbs, Tony progresses to white, cream and most unattractively, smudgy blue suits, often double breasted and unbuttoned with splayed collar shirts? As companion Manny (Steven Bauer) notes when they are still dishwashing for a living, watching the high rollers driven in fancy cars with conspicuous clothes, it is all about “pizzazz”; you must wear your money.

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How Costume Design Influences the Way You Watch Movies

Costume designers are often overlooked. But their craft is as essential as any other aspect of film making. It expresses a character’s style and personality, but it also serves a deeper purpose: to reinforce the film’s themes without the audience even realizing.

The five stars of The Breakfast Club

“The Breakfast Club”
In John Hughes’ classic, the characters’ wardrobes visually depict the differences between the five teens stuck in detention. We see these characters “in the simplest terms.” Costume design is used against the audience, to trick us into regarding the ensemble by merely their archetypes, giving them the chance to prove us wrong.
These characters go into detention early in the morning, dressed in heavy winter layers. Over the course of the film, they take off their layers as they open up to each other about their lives.
This use of visual storytelling might not be as memorable as the banter or dance sequence, but it continually reminds the audience that these teens are, for the first time in their lives, exposing who they truly are.

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Ten films with costumes by fashion's best designers

Jane Fonda in Barbarella

The fact that fashion designers draw inspiration from film is not news to anyone. Whether it is an overt homage – like Rodarte’s AW14 ode to Star Wars – or the nod Raf Simons recently directed towards David Lynch, the silver screen is a go-to for designers when it comes to laying the foundations of an upcoming collection.

For some, that inherent love of cinema goes slightly further, as many switch the studio for the movie set – at least occasionally. Craig Green is one such designer. A self-confessed horror aficionado, the London-based wunderkind worked on the wardrobe of the recently released Alien: Covenant, creating a series of characteristically utilitarian looks worn by the crew throughout.

As Craig sits down to add ‘costume designer’ to his already pretty impressive CV, we take a look at just a few of those whose creative talent has been immortalised in film; from Yves Saint Laurent, Miuccia Prada and Paco Rabanne, to Raf Simons, Jean Paul Gaultier and Coco Chanel.

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Finding the meaning in fashion on film

Dorothy’s ruby slippers? Superman’s cape? Marty McFly’s vest? If cinephilia begins with a childhood longing to be the people we see onscreen, costume may be the first aspect we truly obsess over, and the act of dress-up a way to direct our fantasies into reality. But the characters we love have the same instincts, wearing clothes as an expression of love and dependence (the siamese twins who wear identical suits in Twin Falls Idaho), and colours to suggest deeper, unspoken feelings (Richie and Margot’s brown jackets in The Royal Tenenbaums). Costume designers create complex interior worlds through their selection of colours and textures. Below, we explore our favourite examples.

THE SHINING (1980)

The outfit? In Kubrick’s ominous hotel horror, Wendy and Danny repeat a minor colour combination.

Costume designer Milena Canonero (who also worked on A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon) locates an emotional ripple in the perfect symmetry of Stanley Kubrick’s cerebral King adaptation, as Wendy’s early red-and-blue combo (worn as she’s nursing Danny) later finds an echo in the boy’s outfit, subtly reinforcing the bond between mother and son. Room 237 crackpots might want to make note of the fact that red and blue are also meaningful colours for Native American face and warpaint; oh, and bear them in mind when mapping out your deconstruction-of-the-American family theories!

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