Some Stylish Films (part 1)

I was a film writer for about a year. It's easily the second best job I've ever had, and were it not for the magazine I wrote for having been based in Detroit, a city which, even then, seemed to embody the theory that depression is simply anger turned inward, I might have stuck with it.

I don't go to the movies that much anymore. A combination of poverty and my brother's adeptness at downloading has seen to that, but I thought, because films and TV have always been more likely to influence my look than fashion stories that I'd write about what I consider to be the some of the most stylish films.

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Best school uniform ever.

In Picnic at Hanging Rock three Victorian school girls mysteriously vanish after being taken on a class trip to the Australian outback. The film, which was internationally acclaimed upon its release in 1975, makes use not only of the starkly beautiful scenery but also clothes its young actors in one of the most gorgeous school uniforms ever: pristine high-necked white dresses with full sleeves, straw boaters, chunky black boots and long, free flowing hair, all worn against the backdrop of Australian summertime.

Wish I'd looked like that in high school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoMWkI5QEl8

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Obviously.
I'm not that big a fan of Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina; there's something too girly about the black and white ball dress to make it appealing and winsome is just not my thing. But in Breakfast at Tiffany's, her wardrobe, which shouts out party girl as much as sophisticated city girl, immediately cries out to be worn, and worn it I have. Cheap imitations, anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urQVzgEO_w8

Belle de Jour
Belle de Jour is similar to Breakfast at Tiffany's in two ways; the protagonists of both films are prostitutes, although this one, being French, feautures a housewife who slips into the world's oldest profession because she's unfulfilled at home, and because like Audrey Hepburn, Catherine Deneuve is one of the actors whose beauty and sense of style marks them out.

While Hepburn was dressed almost exclusively by Hubert de Givenchy throughout her career, Deneuve was the long time muse Yves Saint Laurent who, along with Pierre Cardin, outfitted her in this movie. The patent leather mac and matching shoes instantly sold out when the film was released in France, cementing the actor's reputation as an icon of modern elegance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJXLCYZMGQ8

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg
Another Catherine Deneuve film, but one of a slightly different stylistic bent. While Belle de Jour is all stark city girl sophistication, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, a beautiful and gentle musical in which Deneuve plays a young pregnant woman, missing her lover who has gone to war, is all bright colours to contrast its sad themes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb5iVFq7qlQ&feature=fvst

Marie Antoinette

Sophia Coppola's heavily stylised depiction of the last Queen of France as a troubled teenager is, in non-fashionable speak, absolutely bloody gorgeous.

From the costumier's use of pastel shades for Kirsten Dunst and deep jewel tones for her friend the Duchess, to the actual shapes of the dresses and hats, to the montage sequence featuring Manolo Blahnik shoes and macaroons, to the soundtrack, the entire film is stunning.

I care not for its historical innacuracies; I want to be in it. I may base my wedding on it. Consider yourselves warned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WjsqVwWyrI

I saw far too much nice footwear in Topshop today.

For Autumn, but really for right now, especially now that I’ve tried a pair on, I want some black leather over the knee boots. I’ve wanted a pair for years, and the fixation was reignited when Blake Lively rocked a pale grey suede pair from Chinese Laundry on the first series of Gossip Girl (pictured above courtesy of fabsugar.com).

It’s gotten bad; I've found a pair that I like in an affordable shop; I have a crush; I fantasise about them when I should be researching potential employers; I imagine how well they’d go with outfits I already own- surely the clothing equivalent of imagining showing off a new date to all your friends- and, when I should have been writing internship application letters, I went to the shop to visit them.

The ones above, the objects of my affection, are called DUFFY. They are from Topshop, not too slutty, cost a fairly reasonable £85, and are wide enough on the leg to accommodate even my chunky limbs.

I am a bit concerned that the tan suede ones might make the girl who wears them look like Robin Hood though...

After visiting the boots I saw a pair of patent black brogues with a pale sole which, bafflingly, I can’t find on the Topshop website (if they have them in my neck of the provinces, they should surely have them online) but I think they are this pair, Kameryn (£55).

I want them in the shiny black, rather than the brown, which are far too much like my old school shoes (not a look I want to repeat), or the or gold, which I hate, or the two-tone, which though fab might not get worn enough.

Like the crush boots, these could well become a Winter wardrobe staple, especially as I’m heading back to school, well post-graduate education, in October. I want to wear them with short A-line skirts and dresses and dark tights, to emphasise the geeky school-girlyness of them. I’ll avoid wearing them with just ankle socks, particularly bright coloured ones, ‘cos I’m too old for that now, or with jeans, ‘cos the bootleg and flared jean shapes that suit me won’t suit them.