Buzz on wear and gear
MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER
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Fashion and film are intrinsically intertwined. The Devil Wears Prada, which opens today is the last word in chic from Hermes scarves to thigh-high Jimmy Choo boots
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WOMEN IN BLACK Andy (Anne Hathaway), Miranda (Meryl Streep) and Emily (Emily Blunt) step out in style in The Devil Wears Prada
Does Meryl Streep wear Prada as boss from hell Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada? That is the question. Not if the film is about objectifying women or if women are their worst enemies. It is not even about whether we are a consumerist society driven to live our lives by images fed to us via popular culture.
Who cares about all that and the many young girls who starve themselves, aspiring to Barbie doll figures thanks to the images they are bombarded with in advertisements, films and television?
Based on Laura Weisberger's thinly disguised chronicle of the time she spent as assistant to Anna Wintour, the editor in chief of Vogue, The Devil Wears Prada is a film about the fashion industry. It follows young Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) on her travails and tribulations working for harridan boss, Miranda, the editor of the number one fashion magazine Runway. What everyone wants to know is if Andy makes the journey in Dolce & Gabbana or in something she picked up from the Salvation Army surplus stores.
Angry fangs
Director David Frankel roped in the right costume designer, Patricia Fields, who is known for making Manolo Blahniks a household name thanks to her work in dressing Carrie and her friends in the hit series Sex and the City. Fashionistas are hissing in anger over the way their world has been depicted with the standard clichés of gay men and anorexic vitriolic females.
The worse crime apparently are the many fashion faux pas with Elle fashion news editor Anna Slowey dismissing the clothes as "a caricature of what people who don't work in fashion think fashion people look like."
With a budget of $ 100,000, and about a million dollars worth of clothes loaned from designer friends including Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana and Calvin Klien, Fields has chosen to go vintage rather than trendy. That according to style gurus is an unforgivable crime as Fields has chosen to dip into the excesses of the Eighties rather than go for millennial minimalism. While Fields insists she has gone for a classic Breakfast at Tiffany's look, it is difficult to imagine iguana green eye shadow ever being timeless! And all that fur is so politically incorrect!
Film and fashion are intrinsically intertwined. Before award functions with the red carpet as ramp, we got our regular fashion fix from the films. And while some designers sniffily refuse to have anything to do with films (it is so mass dahling!), there are designers who have made their name dressing up the stars.
In Hollywood, the absolute style diva has to be Audrey Hepburn. In film after film she personified a gamine style with her little black dress designed by Givenchy (Breakfast at Tiffany's) as a cherry on the cake of exquisite style. Sean Connery, the sexiest man on the universe, has a wee bit of help from Armani who does his clothes (even in Brian De Palma's gangster epic The Untouchables where he plays a tough beat cop!)
Ultimate cool
The statuesque Uma Thurman made the ultimate style statement as Mia with her crisp white shirt over black trousers in Pulp Fiction and the black bra underneath was way cool. Then there is Reese Witherspoon proving blondes have all the fun and upwards of 40 costume changes as Elle Woods in the Legally Blonde movies. For more girl power and style cues, there are the Charlie's Angels movies where the angels - Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore and fallen angel Demi Moore change clothes in practically every frame! And who can forget Pretty Woman Julia Roberts who made lingerie the ultimate style statement in Erin Brockovich?
Then there are directors who have a particular look for their films. Alfred Hitchcock, for instance, had a series of icy blond women in flowing silhouettes or sharp straight lines. And replicating the fire and ice concept was everyone's favourite suspect Sharon Stone's Catharine Tramell in Basic Instinct. The sequel, incidentally got talked about more for Stone's fabulous wardrobe than plot or shock value.
George Lucas and the Star Wars movies had some out of the world fashions starting from the golden bikini that Princess Leia flaunted in Return of the Jedi to the uber cool kimono-style jacket that Anakin Skywalker sports in Revenge of the Sith, Lucas, who apparently gave preliminary sketches to designers, owns responsibility for every couture hit and miss.
Coming to our part of the world, the Indian film industry, with super models and beauty queens entering tinsel town, the boundaries between fashion and film have gotten that bit thinner - even though there is not much to say about Aishwarya Rai's sartorial choices with or without sprained ankle.
Where would Urmila Matondkar be without Manish Malhotra? One can barely suppress shudders at the vision of her in Narasimha pre Manish. And remember Karisma of the bushy eyebrows before a makeover from Manish? Before cable TV brought couture to our sitting rooms, we took our fashion cues from the movies.
From Bengali tigress Sharmila Tagore's kiss curls to the abominable bee hive hairstyles of the sixties; from Zeenat Aman's boho chic (yes aeons before Seinna Miller) to Mumtaz's sewn to skin kurtas; from Amitabh Bachchan hair cuts to Dil Chahta Hai goatees, the films have set trends from forever.
And though we shudder to think of the Big B's polka dotted waistcoat in Don or Jumping Jack Jeetendra's white trousers and shoes, nowadays while the whole look might not be replicated, elements from films are incorporated.
Desi flavours
Kajol's long flowing skirts from Fanaa or the chandelier earrings are quite the rage. Then there is the absolutely ghastly popular violet sari from Hum Aapke Hain Kaun! Devdas brought retro back with a vengeance and suddenly sari blouses were puffs and tie ups. Nagarjuna wore his hair long in biker movie Super and longhaired people dotted the streets.
How about people like Govinda with purple trousers and frilly golden shirts in the many David Dhawan collaborations? And spare a thought for a vision of Upendra with unruly nest of hair and the most virulently coloured outfits. It is the definitive anti-establishment statement.
Being a visual medium, the clothes an actor wears are costume and contribute in no mean effect to the over-all picture. Indy would not be Indy without the bullwhip and the battered Fedora. As specialisation takes over, the local tailor master does not do clothes, the look is designed by a couturier in consultation with the actor, the director and maybe even the writer.
And yes Meryl Streep's character does wear Prada in addition to Fendi jackets, Valentino, Bill Bass, 1980s Donna Karan and hand bags from Bottega, Ralph Lauren and Hermes - the fashion equivalent of Alibaba's cave. Open Sesame!
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