Osaka Kid and The Predators from Hello Family on Vimeo.
The narrative and costuming in this film is strong. It has a very intriguing aesthetic and storyline, which inspired us to create something contemporary and Avant Garde.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Lecture 6- Beyond Hollywood.
Brigitte bardot. 1950s france very conservative. had children out of wedlock. For young french women, she represented youth rebellion. And god created woman. With one line, brought couture to an end. “I bought it in a little boutique in the village(paraphrase)” Bardot was representative of a casual youth culture. She still had sex appeal through her figure, and her hair and make up, but this casual chic made other women feel overdressed. She bypassed traditional modes of fashion portrayal.The following are films and actors referenced in the lecture, which are important to watch and understand, to have a deeper understanding of this theory.
Caherine Deneuve.
Belle de jour. Bourgeois housewife. Dressed by YSL.
Sophia Loren, la ciociara, 1960. Italian icon. Steven Gundle theorist on glamour.
Italian film from the ‘70s Il conformista.
Juliette Greco beatnik chic of the ‘50s. black jumper represents political protest and existential philosophy. Audrey tidied up that look, and made it acceptable.
Anna Karina
A bout de soufflé (breathless) 1959.
The birth of the cool. The book.
Pierre bourdieu- taste is a marker of social class.
Crossdressing- Richard Dyer says that it emphasizes the performative nature of dress.
In the mood for love, 2000. Cheongsams. Set in 1960s HK. Made costumes with 1960s upholdtery fabrics.
New Chinese cinema of the ‘90s. gong li.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Notes about Gidget, from Campbell, N, 2004, American Youth Cultures, Edinburgh university press, UK pp237-…
237
“In the history of surfing, two such ‘takeovers’ figure prominently: the first signaled in the late 1950 to mid 1960s by the litereary sensation turned mass cultural icon ‘gidget’; the second by what we might think of as the arrival of girl power in surf communities in the mid-1990s.’
238
‘If the Gidget phenomenon generated subcultural foreboding about the potential costs to surf culture of its own newfound popularity, it also generated a host of creative and financial possibilites which, as they were explored and realized over the next two decades, financed many a surfer’s primary desire: to be in the water for hours on end. Whether it was working in the movie business as a stunt surfer, founding magazines and making films that told the story of how mass culture got surfing all wrong, or providing equipment and information to the subculture’s expanding commercial base, many of the era’s best known surfers got in on the ground floor of the popularization process and rode it to places that nobody imagined surfing, or a surfer would go.’
‘During the early cold war period, mass culture’s representations of beachy California youth served to school baby boomer adolescents in the how to’s of living the postwar good life: conformity, consumerism, mobility and WASPy niceness equaled ‘decent’ American youth. When the subculture ‘wrote back’ after Gidget to say that mass culture had sugarcoated and, in effect, feminised surfing, it countered with images of surfers as rebelliously masculine, sensual, anti materialist social drop outs- not a discourse about American youth as readily adaptive to cold war national alert. It is this tension between mass cultural and subcultural ‘ownership’ of surfing narratives that, in fact enabled the subculture over the next three decades to produce itself as a viable alternative public culture, eventually a functioning and very masculinist counter-culture.’
Outlaw surf culture is sexy and bohemian.
‘in an age of popular panics about self-loathing ‘Ophelias’ and competitive ‘queen bees,’ the new surfergil’s mental health appears stable and secure, guaranteed by sports activities…keeps intact her feminity, meaning she does not denounce her ‘girl-ness’ and , in effect, insists that girl-ness be valued be valued, taken seriously.’
242
Desirous of importing more females into the ranks of surfing amenable already (a legacy of Gidget) to the playfulness of girl cultures, women surfers/ business owners made it a central goal to recruit girls into male-dominated surf communities.
259
The gidget phenomenon includes 6 gidget novels, appearing between 1957 and 1968, some selling over a million copies, and reprinted in 10 languages, the Gidget films 1958-1963. As well as the dozens of beach blanket films spawned by gidget, and the tv series gidget. The most sustained commentary on this cultural trend is to be found in Kirse Granat May 2002. Historical figure Kathy Kohner upon whom gidget was based.
Contemporary society, a new market for surf stories.
Hollywood creating consumer item out of subcutlture.
Can include 3 or 4 images. Introduction. State the obvious. Reference images. Have a conclusion at the end, to wrap everything up. Make it engaging. Really hone things down to concise statements.
Ideas to explore:
rise of youth consumption. Middle class. Gender wise. Embodied… women physical. More child like. Gidget. Constructed image for a market, and for a type of consumption.
Films worth watching, as recommended by Pamela Church-Gibson
1917. Eisenstein ivan terrible. Alexander Nevsky. Russia
Man with a movie camera. Dziga Vertov
German. Sunrise. F.W. Murnau City Girl. Hollywood. City scenes.
Metropolis. 1930. Envisaged the future.
Citizen Kane.
The rules of the game. 1969.
French new wave.
Italian cinema of the 50s and 60s.
Read Church-Gibson’s journal. Film, Fashion and consumption. http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=203/
La dolce vita!
British new wave. 60s. Darling. Julie Christie.
60s. new Hollywood. Easy rider. Bonnie and Clyde.
Japanese cinema. Kurosawa. Macbeth, king lear. Vosnu.
New Chinese cinema. Raise the red lantern.
Xena burton 20s.
50s. America andy warhol’s films. Chelsea girls.
Brokeback mountain.
Hindi films!!!! Biggest film industry in the world. Has its way of selling clothes.
Planning our Film
Things to consider:
Message: fast fashion is not sustainable or healthy
Concept
protagonist represents the mainstream consumer. She consumes fashion in a unsustainable way. She is always in search of the next trend, the latest release, the hot items. However she is never fulfilled and is in constant search to end her hunger.
Job: High level creative corporate.
Marital status: Single
Education:
Visual representation:
· Greed: the way she physically consumes the food- grotesque consumption
· Pace of the film- speeding up of the film shots, fast cuts, movement within the shot
· Use of music
Types of shots
· Close up shots of the eating
· Stairs- feet
· Elevator
· Close ups of clothing
Personas
The Interior= food consumption. The private self
Private self, what we hide from view, freedom to eat what they want, grotesque eating
· Dishevelled
· Unconventional style, not current trends
· Mismatched
· Kitsch
· Chaotic
Exteriors= public self
The persona we want the world to view us by
Women have control over their consumption
Women shouldn’t have appetites
Food consumption is controlled. Example eating a single pea, leaving 2 on the plate
Confessionals
· Up to date with current fashions, trendy but not to outlandish
· ‘workwear’ corporate cross evening
Locations
Control, power, glamour/ gloss, money
· Syd uni- new buildings, glass and metal- reflections. Views back towards the city OR building 10, aerial
· City- financial area, blight st
· Double Bay
· Food desire- cupcake shop, bakery, DJ food hall
· Trade halls building
Hot Couture: Brigitte Bardot’s Fashion Revolution.
Brigitte grew up in a wealthy setting with a very fashionable, well connected mother. It is interesting that she rejected this feminine ideal. The origin of the 1950's feminine ideal stemmed from the postwar reclamation of femininity. It is interesting, that perhaps Brigitte felt that women had sufficiently explored overt femininity, and felt the need to move toward a more androgynous dress sense. Brigitte, however, compensated for her relatively androgynous dress, by highly sexualised feminine styling, with emphasis on a small waist, pointed breasts, long legs, and sultry hair and makeup.
Started a Childlike fashion revival, including gingham and broderie anglaise. Emblem of youth with overtly feminine dress +radical amrican youth clothes: james dean’s jeans. Beatnik Duffle coats.
Bardot’s generation had economic freedom, but not social, therefore used delincincy and cinephilia as outlets.
Her clothes: child like but ostentatiously sexualized.
Choucroute hairstyle combined invitation and defiance. Simultaneously said fuck me, and fuck you. ‘Bardot adopted and promoted fashion that liberated the body (and hair) from the constraints of rigid couture outfits, leaving behind bourgeois conventions.’ Simplicity and cheapness.
Rejected couture as ‘for grannies’ and promoted young designers. Bardot’s clothes easily reproducible, so she was the centre of fashion production and consumption change. Youth and joie de vivre.
Her ‘highly sexed behaviour lost its appeal in the permissive age, her fashion sense was no longer innovative.’
Monday, June 27, 2011
Lecture 5- change, identity and rebellion.
Pamela gave us an overview of the history of subcultures:
First use of the word subculture was in the 1940s to describe gangs.
First real subculture was the zoot suit. Late ‘40s America. Malcolm x.
Bikers.
Teddy boys. Mods. Rockers.
Can you have a genuine subctulture anymore, or does it become too commercial. This idea of contemporary subcultures is intriguing. Perhaps designers are aware of the importance of 'trickle up' fashion, on top of simply 'trickle down' fashion, so they have their 'ear to the ground,' and are aware of underground trend movements.
Rockers- Hollywood.
Youth culture 1950s.
Rise of the teenager is a demographic fact.
High urban populations and improved standards of living.
The rise of the teenager as a consumer group
Disposable income and credits for young people.
Abolition of national service in some countries.
Not many young people went to university at that time.
Hay’s Code was relaxed!!! TV!!!! The Wild One 1953. Quite tame to see it, but it was banned. Fear that it would make people do bad things. Blackboard jungle. 1955. Rebel without a cause. 1955.
Teen movie now formulaic. As it has been done so much. Not another teen movie. Mean girls.
Easy Rider. The first road movie. First movie to have songs of the day as soundtrack rather than a score.
Alienated youth on a killing spree. Gun crazy 1950. Bonnie and clyde 1967. Clockwork orange 1971. Badlands 1973. Natural born killers 1994. Elephant 2004.
Subculture. Symbolic resistance through style. The problematics of lived class existence. Perhaps the reason contemporary subcultures, particularly in Australia, are more ambiguous, is the changed modes of communication ad activism. Perhaps youth feel empowered by social networking sites and the democratisation of media, that if they have something to revolt against, they are more likely to start a facebook group, than start a mob on the street.
All youth cultures, bar hippies, were largely working class. Had style. In 2011, mass production has allowed garments to be so cheap that class is not necessarily restrictive of sartorial identity, to such an extent as it was in previous eras, such as the golden age of couture, where the real and the fake had such a strong distinction.
Mods- young working classs men looking amazing in Italian tailoring. Was at a time when middle class men looked terrible and sloppy.
Bricolage. mods were bricoleurs. Take sharp tailoring, and arrange it differently to subvert its establishment meaning. Take pills and vespa, and make them status symbols, not functional objects. Metal combs. Union jacks. It was ok for men to talk to each other about clothes. ‘face’ façade. means look good. Influeced by Italian. Why la dolce vita was so important!! Quadrophenia. This is England.
Subculture; linked to notions of authenticity. Style leaders. Active and creative consumers. Innovative and original. Opposing bourgeois values. Resisting mass consumption and taste.
Point break.
Two methods of subculture recuperation. The commodity form, and the ideololdical form.
The girl can’t help it 1955.
Jailhouse rock- the only decent movie Elvis made. Came from the south, wore clothes from shops where only black men shopped. Zoot suit ish.
Jubilee 1977. Watch it. Derrick Jarman. About girl punks.
Sarah thornton. Subcultures not necessarily about resistance. Could have creative and commercial living side by side, not cancelling each other out. Mainstream and alternative boundaries are nto distinct.
Subcultures are defined and created by entrepreneurs. Taste cultures organized around subcultural capital.
Subcultural capital may not equal economic capital as successfully as cultural capital, but it still employs djs, club organizers, clothes designers…
Clubbed to death, french film. Not very good film
La Haine. Good powerful film.
Mc Robbie- girls and subcultures. Female youth culture were more private. Schools, girls bedrooms. Overpriveledge consumption over work and production. Magazine Jackie. Group behaviour.
Are there any current examples of Bricoleurs? Lady Gaga. She represents mainstream commodification of sartorial revolt.
Fashion Film research. Continuity in repetition
La Prochaine Fois (The Next Time) from A76 PRODUCTIONS on Vimeo.
This film has a great sense of rhythm. We could emulate this in our film by the journey between restaurants, and gluttony. There is an engaging use of narrative, the protagonist is relatable, and the film is aesthetically beautiful.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
filmmmaking tips
When making video, consider audience. Be bold and simple.
Beginning, middle and end.
Restrcitons of mobile phones. Panning shots and zoom ins don’t work too well. Need to do them slowly, but can use the blur to your advantage to create the mood.
Be inventive. Panning on wheels.
Lighting. Steady.
Handheld. make sure you’re leaning on something. Wall, table. Clamp it. Hardware. With case to protect the phone.
Biggest thing is planning. Concept. Have ideas on Monday.
Storyboard. Show breakdown. Locations. Actors/ models, props. Costume accessories. Special effects. Makeup, backgrounds. Audio. Schedule. Who what when, where.
Continuity. from different angles. Leaps in the air. Eyeline.body direction.
Day 4. Heroes- From matinee idol to rough trade
A Streetcar named desire. One of the first films in the 50s that had a blue collar hero. Marlon Brando. Stanley Kowalski married up. Actors like Brando were actually nice middle class boys projecting blue collar workers. His sexual confidence is emphasised by the contrast of Blanche's insecurity.
American Gigolo. Richard Gere. Scene. Seminal moment in the history of menswear. See him dressing for a date. 80’s. los of gadgets. Bachelor pad. Man showing off his body. This was the first movie that really used the traditional masculine ideal, of a man in a suit, but constructed the man as fashion conscious and self aware. The film did this while retaining his masculine appeal. Gere's torso is tanned, which portrays the use of solariums and grooming as enhancing masculinity, rather than a solely homosexual or feminine representation.
Thelma and Louise. Normally hollywood sex scenes focus on the woman’s body, this is mostly Brad’s body. Lit as if he were a statue in a museum. Exotic southern accent. This film sexualises the 'bad boy.' Pitt is a thief, and a liar, yet his brooding sexuality is clearly emphasised. Although he is presented as enjoying clothes and dressing, the film uses traditional masculine physical appeal to engage to audience. This harks back to the traditional blue collar worker and the way he has been physically sexualised.
The question remains: since the masculine ideal has shifted to include fashion as an element of masculinity, how have male versus female dynamics been changed? Men were previously presented as the brains, women as the aesthetic other. If, now, men are more aesthetically pleasing, could women be presented as the brains?
Brokeback Mountain, proves how far cinema has come, that a film can win Oscars when it is about gay men.
Rambo, rocky, diehard, the terminator. Lethal weapon. Are all examples of a brutish masculinity.
Wild at heart.
Laura Mulvey- visual pleasure and narrative cinema.
Woman are constructed as image, conversely, man were simply seen as bearer of the look.
Masculine: activity, voyeurism, sadism, fetishism, story. Feminine: passivity, exhibitionism, masochism, narcissism, spectacle.
2 types of men- phallic, muscly OR slender fashion boy.
First male cinema pin up Son of the sheik. Young rajah.
Cary Grant. North by northwest. 1959. Very elegant stylish man.
Great male renunciation. Flugel, psychology of dress 1930. Hollander Sex and Suits.
American Psycho. Parody of male grooming.
1950’s. demographic changes, young people!! Youth cultures! Serious questioning of traditional gender roles.
James Dean. Rebel without a cause. Church-Gibson recommended to watch it!! He was in touch with his feminine side, he showed vulnerability. Rebellious romantic masculinity. This links to an early metrosexual identity. East of eden. Giant.
The young lions 1958. Guys and dolls.
‘50s. the age of the chest. Male torso fetishished. Streetcar, From here to eternity. 1953. Burt Lancaster. See more of his body in the ‘sex’ scene. Picnic 1955, William holden. Cat on a hot tin roof. Plaein soleil. 1960. French cinema. Alain Delon.
Steve McQueen, was actually a working class boy.
1977 sat night fever. Hairy ideal.
Top gun 1986. About a love affair between men.
Gangster film and the suit. If suits were too spiffy, they were usually bad guys. Casino. Good fellas. Pulp Fiction.
homospectatorial gaze. Men can look at other men.
80s. menswear revlolution. Mens shops, more design. Men went shopping. Grooming products. Men in ads, billboards stemmed from Calvin Klein ads.
The new man. Levis 501 ad 1985. The most successful ad campaign ever. Increased sales 200%. John Hegerty.
80s/90s. new lad.
Then rise of metrosexual. men became aware that they were being judged in the same way women were. This a very important point in tracking the development of the masculine ideal.
Oceans Eleven. Pitt always eating junk food, spiking up his hair. Out of sight. Only movie George Clooney has ever gotten naked in. 300 2007. Spartans. Persians presented as the ‘other’
Couples retreat. Forgetting sarah marshall. Juno. No longer have to live up to these expectations. This is related to the current lifestyles of men. More computer jobs, so a more sedentary lifestyle equals a less sculpted body. Could this mean that our contemporary masculine ideal will shift to accommodate the lifestyle shift. Is there any chance a fat man will be fetishised, in a throwback to pre industrial times?
Reading: Brad Pitt and George Clooney, the rough and the smooth: Male costuming in contemporary Hollywood. Church-Gibson.
Valorised masculinity is young and white, slim and trim. e.g. Brad Pitt.
Clooney, alternatively is the suited hero. Never appearing bare chested. Today’s standards of male beauty are pumped up pecs. Clooney harks back to an earlier era. His sexuality comes across in his mystery.
Fight club. Is an important film in the study of masculine ideals.
Oceans eleven. Contrast between Danny as together, old school sophisticated Hollywood type, respectable, and Rusty; ruffled, vulnerable, a little trashy. However, Rusty is seen as without artifice. He is somewhat safer and more approachable in this sense.
The Gangster style dress is too perfect. Suits represent menace, not like suave promise of the pleasure of hidden physicality. Oceans was very popular with 18-24 year old male. Used by fashion mags to attract young male consumer.
The suit- sheaths and conceals. Renders the body inaccessible. But since ‘60s, womens bodies have been ‘accessible.’ No protective undergarments+ a lot of flesh exposure.
Post ‘80s, male body available. Buff male torso Calvin Klein. Object of commodification and emulation. Makes men consume things which will make them buff- gym. Rough image, like Pitt in oceans, makes male body accessible. Tousled hair, stubble. Jeans- buttocks, shirt-biceps, pecs. Shirt- chest. Tousled hair hints at body hair beneath. Rough star gets naked, but suited star shows physicality through hands, arms, sometimes topless. Rough seems more blue collar.
Suits used to represent a man of leisure or wealth. Pop culture and entertainment media shape leisure wear, more than class differences.
1950s opposition to classic Hollywood man was Marlon Brando, James Dean, Montgomery Clift. Adopted working class dress. Agricultural influence.
Flugel’s great male renunciation. End of 18th C men relinquished fashionable dress, to women.
Because the suit is so contolled, it is sexy.
Youth Cultures. 1960s changed male representation. More macho and cool than Dean, less sulky and antagonistic than Brando. New man: Steve mcqueen.
The Thomas crown affair. 1968. Exchanges chic clothes for sports clothes.
Brad in Thelma and Lousie- homospectorial gaze.
A river runs through it. 1992.
Se7en. 1995. Fight club. Pro anticonsumerism yet thrift shop chic spectacle. Mutilated body, yet still attractive. Snatch 2000.
Clooney. one fine day 1996. The peacemaker, the thin red line. Three kings, out of sight. Parodies: O brother where art thou? Intolerable cruelty. Old fashioned charm and sexuality. Tried to do blue collar roles, including Welcome to Collinwood, The perfect storm.
Suave V rugged in media. Two archetypes. Why?
Reading: Screen Style: Fashion and femininity in 1930s Hollywood. Sarah Berry 2000.
At the end of the 1920s there was widespread availability of mass produced fashion. Style became a valid reason to replace goods, rather than durability and utility. Style was seen as a tool of upward social mobility.
It is interesting that there was a problem of industrial overproduction. This was remedied with marketing strategies and consumer credit making it easier to buy large things. This made it easier to replace goods still that were functional, but seen as old fashioned. This mindset seems to have remained constant to today's attitude toward consumption. The only things which have changed are the things which are consumed, and the modes with which to consume them. For example, online shopping.
New media, faster distribution and window display made it normal to quickly change fashion. Retailers built on this, but had to use divided ‘sweatshop’ conditions in order to reduce production costs and remain profitable. Things were made using piecework. This had terrible conditions for the workers. By the mid 1920s, labour unions + new equipment= assembly line production. This, again, connects to today's market, as global production chains are difficult to track, and fair trade is rarely acknowledged in popular, profitable labels.
Advertising began using style as a selling point. American housewife was the target. This was because in 1928 women were responsible for 80-90% of all consumer purchases. Since thebeginning of 20th C, cheaper commodities has meant that the woman's traditional job of production has been replaced by the job of shopping. Around the 1880s, department stores were seen as a pleasurable experience. This history is an interesting background as to why women are seen as the 'shoppers,' more so than men.
Women’s clothes had been categorised by occasion. New roles during WWI. Clothes were then categorized by feminine personality. Some people recommended performativity to assume the character of that feminine type, others recommended personal authenticity, with customization of the feminine type. What Price beauty 1924, represents this.
This idea of self help and building personality through clothes, was parodied in A Star is Born 1937.
Hollywood was democratic. A guide for what women could assimilate into their own wardrobes. Our Dancing Daughters 1928 launched Joan Crawford’s career, and popularized art décor interiors.
Film industry was seen as working with advertising to promote style-conscious consumerism.
Will Hays was the President of Motion picture Producers and Distributors of America. Product placement + tie ins = studio revenue Warner Brothers General electric & motors. 1933.
Hollywood was snubbed by fashion elites. Omar Kiam, used some of his Folies Bergere 1934 costumes the following year in Saks fifth avenue. They appeared in Harper’s Bazaar. Thus Hollywood looks were accepted in mainstream fashion. Then, Hollywood looks became more mainstream to profit from this connection. Hollywood was more influential on the majority of Americans, than Paris was.
Hollywood had to tread the line between wearability and marketing, and theatricality suitable for the character.
During the Depression there was a return to home sewing, which meant patterns rather than garments were used to emulate Hollywood based trends.
Emulating stars. Joan Crawford. Jean Harlow.
Like the rags to riches stories so often communicated in Hollywood, the style used for costuming is democratic, available to viewers if they wish, unlike the previous system of aristocratic birth. “the importance of clothing as a catalyst for new kinds of social behaviour." (P.29) Apparel is shown to create confidence in male-dominated situations. What Price Hollywood. Emulation is based on desire and calculation.
Mae west Goin to town 1935, Crawford The bride wore red 1937, Mannequin 1938.
Easy living 1937 parodies the Cinderella story, and use of fashion to signify class. Interwar migrants to the US who were working lowly jobs but had aristocratic backgrounds, inspired a new genre of movies The princess comes across 1936. Midnight 1939 comic Cinderella story. Fifth av girl 1939.
Presents status as a matter of appearances.
Vogues 1938, The Women 1939 makes fun of tasteless socialites.
These films communicated fashion as a construct. The way it could be applied, and change one’s life. Social status assertion is deconstructed and parodied.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
George Clooney as a masculine ideal
Clooney's suave hair, charming grin and chiselled chin have a strong allusion to the aesthetic of Chesty Bond. However, Bond embodies a real sense of accessible physical masculinity, and george does not.
Levis 501 Commercial 1985
Contrasts traditional masculine constructs, as the male is the object of the women's gaze, rather than the other way around.
This commercial increased sales by 200%
Son of the Sheik
This film was claimed to contain the first male 'pin up'. This scene depicts his masculinity, as contrasted by the weak and highly ornamented woman.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Lady Dior Blue Shanghai
This Film had the potential to represent the future of the masculine ideal. Previously, in Hollywood films, the young, fit, caucasian man has been sexualised. The Brando, The Clooney, The Grant, The Pitt.
This film shows the potential for the new idealised masculinity to be a man of Asian descent.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Reading ‘The taste of time’
Dior’s new look. Desire was to look extravagantly feminine again. Desire for colour and frills. Not just fashion of clothes changed. Went crazy with design after the war. Interesting that women had achieved a sense of freedom from traditional gender roles, and empowerment during the war, but they felt the need to relinquish this, and go back to the traditional role of the aesthetically pleasing housewife.
Stiletto heels were invented by Parisienne bootmaker Jordan in 1951, unveiled at Dior the next year. 1956. Brigitte Bardot made the rumpled look sexy. Other girls felt over dressed, loss of interest in accossories and millinery. Youth wearing sloppy joes, pedal pushers, long trousers, but expected to wear the traditional adult clothes. Not a smooth transition. Mary quant saw an opportunity to make more child like clothing for adults, allowing for bodily freedom. “I wanted everone to retain the grace of a child, so I created clothes that allowed people to run, to jump, to leap, to retain this precious freedom. British chic, with flat chest, childlike impudence. Began making for herself and her friends. ‘I didn’t want to grow up to have candy floss hair, stiletto heels, girdles and great boobs. Young communicties created. Chelsea, Greenwich village, NY. Old copied young, rich copied less rich, for first time in history. ‘Buy 4 0r 5 dresses at a time and not worry about sewing’ Janey Ironside, Royal college of art. You couldn’t tell the secretary from the deb, because the debs were copying the secretaries. Desire for chic, cheap, independent. This tracking of the development of a youthful fashion is insightful. It is presented clearly, and shows the transformation of popular public images.
Dior died in 1957. YSL took the reigns. He raised the hemlines...'
This excessive exposure of flesh has changed the way society views clothes. It is almost like the fashion is about the body, rather than the other way around. in current times, women go clubbing wearing body-clinging stretch dresses, it is acceptable to wear shorts so short that the entire pocket is exposed. The 'skimpy' revolution of the '60s changed the way we see fashion. it has become more about the fashion of the body type, this is represented in the amazonian supermodels of the '90s, and clothes by designers such as Alaia and Herve Leger.
Day 3-Cinema, Couture and Ready to wear
References to follow up, as discussed in the lecture:
The film as Fashion show.
Face Off. Watch the first few minutes. Donna Karan.
Pulp fiction.
Patricia Field style led to designers fighting to get their clothes on the screen.
Past 10 years, people have become more aware of designers and fashion, this has been reflected in cinema. This knowledge has been enhanced by the internet. it is a free and democratic information source.
Gaultier. The fifth element.
Narrative. Chain of events. Cause-effect relationship in time and space. Adrian saw costumes as telling the story. Couturier’s prerogative is to create clothes as spectacle, but costume designer must serve the narrative. Couturiers can create narratives within their garment. Mae West Every Day’s a holiday 1936, Schiaparelli.
Hepburn had two trademark looks. The first; Young, bohemian. The second; European elegance. Hepburn is always in control. Not the 'dolly' of the designer.
Makeover movie. Joan Crawford. The bride wore red, Bette Davis. Now, Voyager. Audrey Hepburn. Sabrina, Funny face, My fair lady. 1970s Shampoo, Grease. 1980s Working girl. Pretty woman. Recent. Clueless, Miss congeniality, Legally blonde, She’s all that, The Devil wears prada. The Indian version of Emma.
Why does this idea of makeover relate so strongly to the female viewer? does it relate to the mindset of consumption established in the first lecture and reading, where we have been constructed to think that we always need more, to get clothes based on style, not function.
Audrey was not presented sexually. She was paired with much older men, seeming like a faher figure. This emphasised her child like quality. She is for women. ‘Growing up with Audrey Hepburn’ is good.
Audrey in Givenchy in Sabrina at the ball. Europe meets Hollywood, Europe wins.
60s was the last time fashion looked forward. Futuristic. Barbarella. Paco Rabanne.
2001 A space odyssey.
The Great Gatsby. Mia farrow.
Dolls by Kitano. Clothes by Yohji. Saw his role as subservient to the director.
Couture is now involved in mass marketing.
The women 1940. The fashion show had a New Look feel.
Think about films which contain fashion shows. ‘Blow up’
Reading: Cinema and Haute Couture: Sabrina to Pretty woman, trop belle, pour Toi!, prêt a porter.
The main ideas from the reading were:
Clothes were presented as spectacle and mechanisms for display. Distinction between costume and couture. Clothes functioning independent of the body, character and narrative.
Intersection between costume and couture; Chanel did some costume design well, but did not keep with it as she could not handle being bossed around. Palmy days 1931. Clothes were prioritised over narrative.
Couture= spectacle. costume= portray a character.
Cinema’s use of couture. Kika, Pretty Woman, trop belle pour toi! Voyager, prêt a porter. These are all films I wish to view, in order to get a more complete understanding of fashion, couture, and cinema.
Jean Harlow. Dinner at eight. 1930s Hollywood glamour.
Hollywood style was emulated in couture e.g. Crawford Letty Lynton, Elizabeth taylor A place in the sun. Quoting Hollander (1975 pp 349-50) “dressing is an act usually undertaken with reference to pictures-mental pictures, which are personally edited versions of actual ones. The style in which the image of the clothed figure is rendered…governs the way we create and perceive our own clothed selves.”
Sabrina pre paris- costume Edith head. Post paris. Couture Givenchy.
Aramrni. Gere, American gigolo 1980.
Chanel. Last year in Marienbad, les amants. Paco rabanne Barbarella.
Marlon brando The wild one. James dean. Rebel without a cause.
European cinema ascendance in early ‘60s created synergy between couture and costume. La dolce vita. A bout de soufflé. Darling, two for the road= shopping not designing. I would like to become more informed with a range of styles of film, other than simply those from contemporary hollywood.
Ralph Lauren. The Great Gatsby, Annie Hall. Obsessive nostalgia for a bourgeois past of leisure wear and natural fabrics in pale shades.
The changing course of consumption in the 80s changed the way film was seen. Hollywood- costume functioned to communicate character. However, in Eurpoean films, costume was flamboyant, as another art form. For example; Last year in Marinbad. I wish to see this film. It is relevant to fashion history as well, to understand Chanel's creativity in greater depth.
Arty couture costumes Gaultier- The cook, the thief, his wife & her lover. Kika, My life is hell, The city of lost children, Prêt a porter. I have not seen any of these films, and wish to view them all.
Trop belle pour toi! This is an interesting film as couture is shown as a barrier to identification and intimacy. This contrasts films such as Pretty woman, where couture is the catalyst for identification and intimacy.
Fashion- technological, iconic, verbal. – Barthes.
‘deliberately unspectacular fashion can still function in a spectacular way.’ this idea is very interesting, and connects to the idea of Chanel's, that for a woman to be seen as beautiful, her clothes will not be noticed, she will just be seen as beautiful.
Couturier as costume designer was conflicted between representing their fashion house, and representing the character of the film.
There was more choice after class was eradicated from dictation of dress. This led to direction being sought from movie stars. Class no longer differentiated, style differentiated.
Class Parody and Imposture. From the reading.
Deconstructs the myth of fashion and appearance, shows how fake it is. Constructed. Destroys the concept of class distinction, can use fashion to break through the barriers and create a façade. Presents status as a matter of appearances.
Vogues 1938, the women 1939 makes fun of tasteless socialites.
These film communicated fashion as a construct. The way it could be applied, and change one’s life. Social status assertion deconstructed and parodied.
Aspire to ideal Hollywood look. Start of the article, talked about how you have to choose your style to represent your identity. This section talks about masquerade. Creating a new identity. How clothes can transform who you are. Nothing to do with actuality. Doris day defying her identity. Dietrich.
Midnight. does not just change clothes, but mannerisms. To move from the Bronx to being a baroness. Arbitrariness of class signifiers.
Appearance was no longer a clear indicator of identity.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Lecture 2- The Star System. Lifestyle, Aspiration and Fashion
First critiques of film were in France, this is why the words used are French. For exmaple: Genre, mis en scene.
Films began to be shaped around who the star will be. Most money was spent on their wardrobes. Watch Some like it hot. 1949. Billy Wilder wrote it especially for Marilyn.
Conceptual dualities.
Consuption. we exercise our agency. OR “Advertising makes us spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need.” Fight club. This attitude has not changed. This is what led to the GFC!! and people still have not learned the dangers of this attitude.
Film studies. Text V audience. Are audiences passive or active?
Stardom, manufactured commodities, social models. Stars are now brands. Gwyneth Paltrow, Rachel Zoe.
Star system. Today, most power is held by men, as main target demographic is 18-24 year old men. Need male stars for identification.
Transcend their role of actor, and become icons. Importance of the off-screen persona. Used to be controlled by the studio. For exanple, a 'Lavender marriage' where a gay person is married, to show they’re not gay.
Richard Dyer- 'extraordinary ordinariness' concept that stars represent an idealistic image, but are still are relatable. The rise of celebrity culture has made it difficult for viewers to relate as easily to their favourite film stars.
Barbara Stanwyck. Mae West. In the '20s- screen star women were either seen as vamps or good girls.
Louise Brooks. Suitable for European film. Chic but not glamorous in the traditional Hollywood sense.
Greta Gustafsson was later known as Garbo. Swedish. The actors that played these characters which underwent transformations, had themselves been transformed to become a Hollywood star.
Rita Hayworth was a Mexican. Margarita Carmen Cansino
Marlene Dietrich. Morocco. Wears trouser suit. Gender bender. Inspired YSL's Le Smoking.
Make the opposites exist in harmony.
Rita Hayworth’s black dress in Gilda. Dolce and Gabbana. La Dole Vita. Inspire current designers
Hollywood transformations. Now, Voyager, 1942. Bette davis.
Tracking shot up the woman’s body reflects the ‘male gaze’ shows feet and legs first.
Pretty woman. Simple transformation.
Joan Crawford. Mildred Pearce 1945. Transformation.
30’s fascination with female power. Drew attention to the way dress can be used to define social identity and alter things.
Costume parody was used to invert and denaturalize social distinctions. Demystification of specific codes of behaviour, dress, social entitlement.
Humphrey Bogart. Film noir returned in the 80’s when women were again in power. Femme Fetale is always shown from the feet up, with the male gaze style depiction.
Marilyn. The misfits. Jeans and jean jackets became popular. Gentlemen prefer blondes. Jane Russell is her foil, Marilyn is not so threatening to women as she is vulnerable, with natural innocence, Presents a liberated, uncpmlicated sexuality. 1950’s.
Liz Taylor. Cat on a hot tin roof. Slip dresses. Inspired Dolce and Gabbana.
Grace Kelly. Cool, self-possessed. Connection with Gwyneth, who is actually jewish, not naturally blonde. Hermes Kelly bag. One of the forst people to have something named after her.
In the same period, Ferragamo named products after Audrey and Marilyn. This celebrity endorsement has proved to be a highly successful marketing strategy.
Cinema was saved from TV's takeover by: star wars. Beginning of the kind of film that you have to see in the cinema. Rise of male stars. Technology, stars have more freedom, can have their own studios. Sharon stone Casino 1995. Pucci, gangster’s wife.
Audrey Hepburn. Of all film stars has had the most influence on the fashion industry. More complicated. Rise of youth culture. Young audiences. “The rise of the teenage consumer” marketing. Dresses like young girls wanted to dress. French beatnik look. Black flats, turtleneck, capris. Slender, short hair. Antithesis of Marilyn. Transformed through couture, but can transform herself back; has her own control, not controlled by a man. Wore Givenchy. Gamine look. Billy Wilder wanted her to wear a padded bra, but she refused. Roman Holiday. Made a kind of look that young girls wanted to wear. Breakfast at Tiffanys put New York on the map as a fashion capital. Jackie Kennedy was the first really chic American, and she dressed like Audrey. Holly Golightly and Carrie Brawdshaw. Urban nomad. Closet full of clothes. No visible income. Breakfast at Tiffany's book was much less saccharine than the movie. She was actually a call girl.
Sabrina. In paris. Learns to wear Givenchy. Funny Face. New look influenced them .
Morocco 1930.
Audrey Hepburn. Gender banding. Little boy look. Monroe- good time girl. Lower classs. Kelly- high class. Pedigree.
Studying this theory is not about relinquishing joy of dressing. Not anti fashion, but being considered, analytical.
Essay idea- 1950s surf films
Surf films and their creation of a beach lifestyle consumption of fashion. Gidget, 1959 is a good example. In an analysis of gender roles, this clip really depicts the woman as spectacle, man as viewer binary.
Lecture one-Film, Fashion and Consumption summary
Hollywood had a pivotal role in shaping consumerism. Gave the idea of democratic consumption, as film narratives commonly involved actors the viewer could identify with. Viewers were given a flavour of fashion. The democratic fashion idea was picked up by magazines in the '20s and '30s. Schiaparelli was quoted: “what hollywood shows today, you will wear tomorrow.”
There was visual grandeur in silent films, as it was necessary to express the plot, but this aesthetic was carried through even when sound was used.
In the 19th C makeup was only worn by actresses and prostitutes. Eyes were outlined to emphasise communication of expression. Max Factor went to Hollywood. Had the idea to sell cosmetics to the general public. People wanted to emulate what they saw on screen.
In the aftermath of the war it was normal for women to go to work.During the depression in the '30s, there was jobs for women but not men. Thus women were now targeted as consumers.
Mass production of garments made it possible to make copies of hollywood dress. Synthetic fabrics made it possible to make them cheap, for example rayon to emulate silk. Consumer capitalism relies on planned obsolescence. Runway shows were for trade, not the public.
There was a tension of dominance Paris Versus Hollywood.
Film costume is supposed to tell you about character, not to sell clothes.
Sex and the City the series is an example that does not adhere to this rule. Carrie was in emotional crisis, but her clothes were distracting from the dialogue.
Ginger Rogers Top Hat. Fur= the glamour of classic Hollywood.
Everybody used to know how to sew, so film copies were expressed in patterns as well as garments. Dinner at Eight. Jean Harlow. Her + Marilyn, and Brigitte Bardot were not natural blondes. Before this, only prostitutes dyed their hair.
Joan Crawford + Chanel popularised the suntanned look.
Hair- Marilyn had an Italian demi wave. It was then the most popular haircut in the ‘50s. red lipstick. Arched eyebrows.
Profitability. Will Hays was quoted “every foot of American film sells $1 worth of manufactured products someplace in the world.”
Transformation by fashionable dress is a staple story of Hollywood. Message that it can change your life. Examples include The Devil wears Prada and Pretty woman.
People used to go to the Cinema 2 or 3 times/ week.
Responsible for the obsession with body shape. 20s slim, 30s curvy. Plastic surgery began to be researched in the ‘50s.
Tie- in = connecting start of film with merchandising. Queen Christina with Greta Garbo. Swedish flatwear.
In 1933 general electric and general motors secured product placement deals.
Spin off. Accidently creates trends. E.g Uma Thurman pulp fiction. nail polish. Marlon Brando James dean. Workwear white tees. Top Gun. Ray bans flying jacket. It happened one night. Clark Gable. Men stopped wearing singlets by 75%.
Bias cuts. Vionnet designed it. But Hollywood made everybody want it.
Edith Head. The only female costume designer of her time. The Sting. Jungle Princess 1936. Liz Taylor, A place in the sun.
Dior New Look 1947. Said to be inspired by Gone with the Wind. Tiny waisted dresses. Romantic. Chanel’s gypsy collection.
New look would not have been so popular on high street if film directors had not portrayed it. Grace Kelly Rear Window. The Birds Edith Head Tippi Hedren Used the tight New look style.
Contemporary Synergy between film, fashion and consumption: Oscars. Film stars sit front row at catwalk shows. Filmmakers began by making commercials. Now leading filmmakers make commercials. Gucci. Lady Dior. Full of references to other films and fashion photography. The more you know about old films the more likely you are to understand fashion films.
Domestic Bliss W magazine. Brangelina. Based on film stills. Italian films of the ‘60s. Desperate housewives.
Digital fashion films. ShowStudio. Nick Knight. Actually photographers not filmmakers. Different languages. Gareth Pugh. Very influenced by Avant Garde cinema.
Laura Mulvey. Women’s sexuality. Men look, women are looked at. Women constructed as sexual beings. Femme Fetale. Marilyn was sexual yet vulnerable. Men usually kept their clothes on. Men tend to be portrayed as smart.
Hay's Code- Mae West help encourage it by her brash behaviour. She was crude. The code was an enormous document, very detailed. The Pelican Brief. No inter-ethnicity sexual relationships. Cigarette smoking linked to sexuality. 1930s Hollywood communist witch hunts. Crazy sci fi films. Attack of the killer tomatoes. Attack of the 50ft woman.
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