Film Costume: Cleo From 5 To 7 (1962)

By Justina Lee"Cleo From 5 to 7" recounts the two hours before the French singer Cleo, believing that she has cancer, obtains her medical reports. The movie touches upon death, upon existentialism, upon despair, yet it also begins with a stunning costume: the attractive Cleo in a body-hugging, polka-dot dress. The silhouette is decidedly feminine: form-fitting above the waist, it accentuates Cleo's hourglass figure. The femininity of the costume echoes with the movie's questions of the perception of women. Throughout the movie, Cleo is eager to look her best, as seen from the ubiquity of mirrors. As she notes at the beginning, beauty defies death....

Read more »

Film Costume: My Fair Lady (1964)

By Sydney KipenThe costume designed for Eliza Doolittle, designed by Cecil Beaton, is illustrative of high society fashion in the early 1900s of Edwardian England. Following her transformation from a Cockney, low-class member of society to a high-end member of the "leisure class," Eliza becomes the epitome of high fashion. Her dress, when she attended the famous Ascot Racecourse (horse races), embodies the qualities of upper-class society with long and elegant lines and a slight release of the corset and bodice. The lace, large broad hat, sash and belt to accent the small waist, high boned collar, and brushing of the floor of the dress all...

Read more »

Film Costume: Australia (2008)

By Valentina FrancoThe costume for Lady Sarah Ashley, was designed by Academy Award winning costume designer Catherine Martin. The movie is set between the late 1930�s and early 1940�s, and Lady Sarah Ashley, who is a very proper English woman, is perfectly and exquisitely dressed throughout the movie regardless of the places she has to go. When she goes to Australia to make her husband sell his cattle station, she continues to wear her high-end clothes even in an environment that is a lot more primitive and that doesn�t have the same social atmosphere that she is used to. Her way of dressing , which is so perfectly planned and perfect in every...

Read more »

Film Costume: The Proposal (2009)

by: Christine Lee(via)Sandra Bullock's character, Margaret Tate, is extremely strong-willed and powerful in the position as editor-in-chief. Consequently, her wardrobe matches this position. Cate Thomas, the costume designer, dressed Bullock in a power suit but with a twist. Instead of pairing the suit jacket with pants, she paired it with a form fitting skirt that is still conservative and fits within the business sphere. So while the suit still aligns itself with power and respect, it enters the terrain of feminine identity with the skirt. The suit was worn, usually by men, as a symbolic representation of power. That she is a woman wearing...

Read more »

Film Costume: Catch Me If You Can (2002)

By Elleree Erdos This costume for Frank Abagnale, designed by Mary Zophres, is characteristic of 1960s pilot uniforms. Abagnale is a conman, characterized by his skill for deception�thus, his specific looks range from pilot, to doctor, to ordinary working-class man. Zophres captures the essence of each persona that Abagnale takes on through visual externalization. Abagnale�s clothing before he begins is life of deception is more lackluster, dull, and colorless; as he gets deeper into his false world of impersonation, his costumes become more extravagant and vibrant. This pilot's costume, in particular, gives Abagnale the power of social status,...

Read more »

Film Costume: Marie Antoinette (2006)

The costume for Marie Antoinette, designed by Milena Canonera, follows the styles of 18th century aristocracy, such as a fitted corseted bodice and full skirt. The poof is also important to the era. Here the specific look has light feminine colors, associating the character with womanly innocence. The costume represents the privileges of aristocratic power, using fashion as a form of conspicuous consumption to display weal...

Read more »

Film Costume: The Royal Tenebaums (2001)

The costume for Richie Tenenbaum, designed by Karen Patch, follows the styles of the turn of the 20th century when the male suit became casualized by the dot com revolution. The headband and wrist bands reference more casual sports wear and vintage elements. The sunglasses add mystery to the character. The costume represents the power of the consumer to mix styles in a moment of democratization of fashion. ...

Read more »

Tattoos in Western Culture

by Sofya GladyshevaThroughout history, tattoos in the West have by and large been reserved for specific subcultures that assert group identity through tattooing. However, tattoos have undergone a paradigm shift in the past 50 years as they began to find their place in the mainstream. Since then, this specific body art has evolved from its power to express group identity to its most contemporary power in the 21st century, the ability to express self identity and individuality.When Captain Cook made his ground breaking landfall in the Pacific in 1769, he was the first to have real contact with the painted people the Pacific. Afterwards, it was...

Read more »

Democratization of Fashion

Fashion has been associated with privilege and exclusive designs. With mass production, we can generally suggest that clothing is more available than ever, but abundance has not eliminated social differences. The images above and below were created for the Salvation Army in 2007 and intended to shock. The ads read �You wouldn�t be seen dead in them but for a homeless person they could mean the difference between life and death. Please donate your unwanted clothes to the homeless this winter.� Society has shifted from the era of modern production, the industrial revolution through the 60s, to postmodern excess, the 70s through the present. While...

Read more »

Case Study: Jeremy Scott and His Power in Influencing Opposition to Fashion Norms

By Jennifer LiuFashion Designer Jeremy ScottJeremy Scott is a fashion designer that graduated from the Pratt Institute in New York. He moved to Paris in 1995 to make a name for himself in the fashion world and started his own line by 1997. First garnering attention for being �the Midwesterner� in Paris with a quirky and strong sense of personal style, Scott effectively and quickly put his name out in the fashion world with his distinctive style and opposition to fashion. He has evolved tremendously as a designer: from a new comer onto the Paris fashion scene mostly seen as purely entertainment and a break from �serious� fashion, now still holding...

Read more »

The Myth of Street Style

by Michelle Marques Sophie Woodward studied for a BA in anthropology at the Univeristy of Cambridge, and an MA in Research Methods at the University of York, She did her PhD in Social Anthropology (Material Culture) at University College London. She has worked in art and design schools, including Nottingham Trent University where she worked as a Research Fellow and Lecturer. She is also the author of Why Women Wear What They Wear. She is currently a Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester University. Her article �The Myth of Street Style� was published in Fashion Theory in 2009. It is based of a study called "Fashionmap" that she conducted...

Read more »

Vogue

In order to understand the significance of Vogue.fr, it is important to understand how the image of Vogue was originally created and how it has been transformed into something similar to that of a �brand�. It was founded in 1892 by Arthur Baldwin Turnure who created it as a gazette for high society and fashion only factored in when demonstrating the appropriate attire for different high society activities. It staked its claim as being a magazine about high culture, by reviewing books, theaters productions, the opera and the likes. The demographic that comprised the readership was mainly socialites and the wealthy elite class. In 1909 Cond�...

Read more »

Japanese Street Fashion

by Emily MannNotes on Yuniya Kawamura's "Japanese Street Fashion: The Urge To Be Seen and To Be Heard"Dr. Yuniya Kawamura is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She attended Bunka Fashion College, Japan's primary fashion school then went on to study pattern-making technology at FIT. She continued her education in the field of sociology to get formal training in fashion writing. She has a PhD from Columbia University and wrote her dissertation on Japanese designers in the French fashion industry. In 2004, she published the book The Japanese Revolution in Paris Fashion from which her article "Japanese Street...

Read more »