Fashion in Film- Turning Clothes in to Characters
Cate Blanchett character ‘Jasmine’ in Woody Allen’s newest film “Blue Jasmine” makes it clear that her ‘clothes make the woman’. She positively drips with Caroline Herrera, Fendi and Chanel. The movie is a cautionary tale of a socialite, so consumed by consuming that she doesn’t even notice her high-roller investor husband is cheating on her.
Sophia Coppola’s “Bling Ring,” which came out earlier this summer, also portrays characters infatuated by haute couture. It is the real-life story of a ring of teenage thieves, so obsessed with the lifestyles of their celebrity counterparts in Hollywood (the Paris Hiltons of the world), that they broke into their homes and adorn themselves with all the blingy trappings, again with plenty of on-screen name-checking of Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Chanel.
No more than in advertising can we see our culture’s obsession with luxury lifestyle.