Fashion films

 

 

The Weeks of Dasha

What do we call films with characters wearing distinctively designed outfits, in better known examples, Marie Antoinette or The Great Gatsby? Or films with characters not even being put into pretty clothes, but designing them, such as Coco Before Chanel? We describe them, potential nominees for Best Costume Design of movie awards—movies with a touch of fashion.

Some directors are not satisfied with having just a touch of fashion, they want to create fashion films with fashion as the focus. Here is the tricky part—short films with a fashion theme sounds kind of familiar—aren’t they… emmm… ad campaign? I am not discussing Vol de Jour by Karl Lagerfeld here, but it just doesn’t feel right to call it a fashion film. Fashion films may have to, delicately, strike a balance between making fashion the focus, and getting the commercial part involved. Whether the commercial side becomes a result, that’s another story, but it’s better to be left out of the planning process.

Inspired by Haruki Murakami (村上春树), The Weeks of Dasha ties in fashion and film nicely—each episode keeps the scene simple enough to not let the story get in the way of the fashion items Dasha wears, yet somewhat leaves a cliffhanger, in a noncommercial way, to induce curiosity. Although I didn’t get the mood of Haruki Murakami from the music used in the film, I am curious to find out more places Dasha goes to, with the close-up shots of the shoes or jackets.

View the film here: The weeks of Dasha

Rainbow in a puddle

 

 

Calling all visitors in London—modern world lovers who appreciate the Gherkin, while enjoying the London views, consider putting on the Oakley shades; and playing The Eraser by Thom Yorke; and a Griffin jacket—uhh…maybe too much.

It was terrifying for Stanley Donwood to think of attending the Grammy ceremony in February 2009, for “Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package” for Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ album—picture Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings, overwhelmingly nightmarish and painful. Known as being inept in social situations, is Stanley seeking for a better way to hide in the crowds with the collaboration with Oakley?

  

  

Cnut

  

House of Bastards

  

Gherkin

The Eraser

  

A London house

The last Atlantis

When asked by his mom: “What is your most terrifying fear” during an interview, Alexander McQueen answered: “Dying before you.” At least, he is gone without being terrified. Fashion is only a game, and he played it so creatively that it will take a long long time for us to comprehend it.

He may be going to the past, to the field of Culloden. He may have gone to the future, to have predicted what the aliens look like.

 

Tribute to Isabella Blow

  

"The Bird" From his inspiring movie to his friend, 2008

Photo credit: InStyle

 

Rain on the runway, 1998

 

Shalom Harlow as a human canvas, 1999

Photo credit: InStyle

Pants? No Pants?

 

Dockers ads for Super Bowl

No day is better than the “manliest” day in the American sports to launch a campaign targeting at men—men who had so much Pizza Hut that they need a new pair of khaki pants.
   
The song "I wear no pants" somehow does not seem to be fun as intended by Poxy Boggards when it was sung by a group of pantless men marching on a open field. Just when our level of tolerance is getting seriously challenged in front of the close-up whities, came with Dockers’ rescue: “Calling all men, it’s time to wear the pants”. Hewww, close call!

It must not be Dockers’ intention to insinuate their detest to woman’s new fashion trend—pantless look/panty bottoms. But it doesn’t hurt them to nip the trend in the bud in man’s world.

 

Carine Roitfeld's pantless look

Photo credit: NYmag

Lady Gaga

  

Photo credit: Fashionizing

pantless ensemble does not look bad at all on those long-leg girls

Guerrilla marketing

 

  

  

Photo credit: Racked

Guerrilla marketing—catching consumers unaware through highly unconventional and sometimes shocking means—has brought lots of trouble to companies adopting it, including IBM in San Francisco and Microsoft in NYC. Just picture stickers of a company logo or graffiti painting that blanket city landmarks, it is fun for the viewers but intrude the public if not planned well.

Although claiming to use a guerrilla marketing campaign, Alexander Wang’s first Ad is much more mild than it sounds—putting up posters on the streets of NYC. Granted, not wasting the budget on the billboards or buses or magazines does fit the brand’s humble but urban style, but we expected it to be just a little bit grungier.

Reference: CNN

 

            Microsoft butterfly sticker for MSN compaign

Sony graffiti

IBM peace love and Linux

A Mad Tea Party at Six

Necklace designed by Tom Binns 

Urban Decay, The book of shadow

Having a perpetual tea party when the time stops? Is there anything more magically relaxing than that? How about attending a perpetual tea party, wearing the whimsical teacup necklace, and putting on the eye shadows, all inspired by Alice in Wonderland?

As the first in a cadre of top designers and brands participating in a program inspired by the much-anticipated Alice In Wonderland film, Tom Binns, the ideal opposite of minimalist, showed off his limited-edition collection of jewelry pieces.

Tom Binns

 

Stella McCartney for Disney, inspired by Alice in Wonderland

 

Stephen Jones wears a custom-made hat of his own design. Lacroix, as the March Hare.

 

Natalia Vodianova as Alice

Olivier Theyskens, in the guise of Carroll

Viktor & Rolf multilayered silk dress, stared as the Tweedle duo

Photo credit:Vogue

Venetia Scott

Venetia Scott

 

Venetia Scott from the Sartorialist

Venetia Scott--The stylist, creative director for both lines at Marc Jacobs found magazines less and less interesting because of the advertisers' increasing influence over magazine editorials. Luckily, Marc Jacobs sees eye to eye with her that ad doesn't have to be about the product.

Marc Jacob's first ad featured Kim Gordon performing on stage after she was spotted wearing his dress on tour. How about that to start a campaign rather than models walking out in a dress? Since then, his ad campaign has always been more intrigued in what people do than what they look like.

Although the power of advertising forces editorials to reluctantly loose bargaining power-- as seen and disheartened by stylists like Venetia Scott, the boundary of ads and editorials, may just become more and more blurred.

I wonder what Kim Gordon plans to wear tomorrow at the Fillmore, San Francisco.

Reference: PoneyStep

Kim Gordon in Marc Jacobs' ad

 

Kim Gordon wearing a Marc Jacobs dress on stage