Cate Blanchett Is Dressed for Seduction as Carol

carolThere are some films where the fashion feels like a full-on character in it’s own right. Sex and The City, Great Gatsby, Atonement, they’re some of the biggies which all have fashion in them creating this other pull, this other thing which holds your gaze and stands up as a major part of the viewing experience. Carol, the new film directed by Todd Haynes, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara is a film set to join those ranks. A subtle but enthralling love story -based on the book ‘The Price of Salt’ by Patricia Highsmith- Carol, is set in New York city in 1952 and follows the sincere romance between two women. The costumes, designed by Sandy Powell, are EXSQUISTE! Blanchett as Carol is pretty much effervescent, with her high glamour, elegance and sophistication, compared to the more discreetly and casually dressed Therese, played by Mara. Carol is the impeccable type of woman you would see in a magazine while Therese is the working class girl on the street. This styling plays a huge part in Carol’s seduction of Therese, her look, her poise and presence are an aspiration, she is transfixing, and that, well, it’s massively down to her fashion. With her simple elongated silhouette, the smooth tones and perfectly placed accessories, the costume here screams of neatness and constraint, much like the character herself; poised and possibly a little suppressed. To get the look as perfect as it is designer Powell used a lot of era specific underwear to exaggerate Blanchett’s shape; padding on the hips and the classic 50’s pointed bras! With authentic vintage bags and shoes made by Ferragamo to be exact copies of old shoes, the clothing here is just as alluring as the women and the story. Absolutely sublime.

Carol-3carol-movie-poster-cate-blanchett-rooney-mara-5Carol is in UK theatres from 27th November 2015

 

The Magic of Old Dresses

Fashion from the past is forever finding a way back into our modern lives, becoming valid once more to a new audience. Fashion in the 1920’s was a frivolous and whimsical affair reflecting society’s feelings of liberation once war had ended. So it’s perhaps perfectly fitting that as the weight of the recession seems to lift, we see the release of the brand new Woody Allen film, Magic in the Moonlight, set in the 1920’s; making us all fall slap-bang in love with the care-free and relaxed fashion of this era to match our new found hope.

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I defy any girl not to fall under the spell of the adorably dressed Emma Stone in this charmed film. Magic in the Moonlight refreshingly focuses on the day wear of the 20’s more than the typically favoured Flapper evening dresses, making this enchanting look a much more wearable option for us today. Delicate fabrics, dainty detail and loose shapes, all provide a beautifully simple new silhouette, gone were the corsets and rigid underskirts, replaced with a light hearted weightlessness and freedom of movement in unstructured shapes. Petite boyish collars, soft muted colours, dropped waists and elegant mid-calf lengths are the leading elements to this look. Day wear had a delightful androgyny to it then, women wore adapted men’s suits and sailors jackets; a trend Coco Chanel inspired.

Fashion always has a way of reflecting the current attitude of society and the casual grace and ease of Emma Stone’s character in this film will have us all wishing for an easy-going, relaxed style; this enchanting film will inspire the 1920’s girl in us all!

Getting the look of this era whether you’re wanting the original thing or a modern interpretation is a perfect way to dress heading into the new season. Designers and the high street are endlessly looking to this era for inspiration, with many dresses and separates superbly supplying you with an up-to-date take on the look. When it comes to the real vintage version, the dreamy day wear is a more attainable option than original Flapper dresses. Look for dresses, blouses and skirts with an effortless nostalgic tone, a good vintage find of this age is always adorable and a great collectors piece. The more notorious evening dresses from those days are becoming a rare treat to find, dresses embellished with sequins made of wax quite often had the print of a hand melted onto the waist from a dance partners hold, and the fragile silks have commonly become torn and tatty from the weight of their decorative glass beads; a heartbreaking shame for those of us who covet dresses from those days but a cute testament to the celebratory and spontaneous joy that was felt at the time, surely a brilliant way for fashion to show how we live our lives!

Get the look….

1920's red cotton day dress from Prim Vintage Fashion, £165

1920’s red cotton day dress from Prim Vintage Fashion, £165

1920's cream cotton day dress from Prim Vintage Fashion, £165

1920’s cream cotton day dress from Prim Vintage Fashion, £165

Crepe pansy dress from Prim Vintage Fashion, £145

Crepe pansy dress from Prim Vintage Fashion, £145

Beaded 1920's Flapper dress from Prim Vintage Fashion, £265

Beaded 1920’s Flapper dress from Prim Vintage Fashion, £265

1920's purple silk evening dress from Prim Vintage Fashion, £245

1920’s purple silk evening dress from Prim Vintage Fashion, £245

Peach 20's style dress from Cos, £79

Peach 20’s style dress from Cos, £79

Satin & wool 1920's style dress from Miu-Miu, £1470

Satin & wool 1920’s style dress from Miu-Miu, £1470

Prada Dresses Daisy; The Great Gatsby Costumes

 

 

‘Cant repeat the past?…..Why, of course you can.’  The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald

Great Gatsby

 

Whoopie-dooo! I am so excited to see Baz Lurhman’s The Great Gatsby, and the release date is very nearly here! I adore the F Scott Fitzgerald book, it is quite possibly my favourite book ever, and Lurhman is one of the most sumptuously beautiful directors of our time, so I am pretty damn certain the wait shall be worth it.

For many of Lurhman’s films, including Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge, the costume designer was the supremely talented Catherine Martin. For this film, set in New York in the 1920’s, Martin has teamed up with the legendary Miuccia Prada. Super; we are in for a treat. Transforming over 40 dresses from the archive collections of Miu Miu and Prada, Miuccia says she was fascinated by how little adaptation many of them needed, even though none had originally been designed with the 20’s era in mind. These costumes are about character and the story of those characters lives, rather than blatant glamour.

Great Gatsby

Great GatsbyGG1

With this yellow sequin dress from a past Prada collection, we can see how easily suited the original design was for this film, the perfect choice of costume collaborator.

Great Gatsby

Prada

The centre piece dress in the film is Daisy Buchanan’s party dress, which is a gently revised version of Prada’s Chandelier dress from their 2010 collection, as seen here on Miss Moss. The dress was originally designed around the idea of light, but in this film it is about wealth; Lurhman wanted Daisy to be the ‘most beautiful and rich woman in the world’.

mossy

Great GatsbyAn exhibition showcasing the costumes is currently showing in the New York Prada store, to coincide with the anticipation of the film’s release, then the exhibition goes to Tokyo and Shanghai.The movie hits UK movie theatres on May 16th. 

For more information visit The Great Gatsby and Prada.