Relationships Between Fashion and Contemporary Movies and the Discussion of Fashion Related Issues

投稿類別：英文寫作類

篇名： Relationships Between Fashion and Contemporary Movies and the Discussion of Fashion Related Issues

作者：黃郁絜。臺北市立和平高級中學。三年二班

指導老師：陳嫚霓老師

Relationships Between Fashion and Contemporary Movies and the Discussion of Fashion Related Issues

I. Introduction 1.1 Research Background

Movies and fashion industry are two of the most relatable businesses in our daily lives. With both impacting lives, people combine them by putting fashion elements and concepts into movies. Teenagers are their primary customers, because what they usually wear or say are mainly where the trends will follow. Plus, with the influencing power of the media nowadays, lots of our decisions, perspectives, and even thoughts, are affected by what we see and hear unwittingly. These lead to some social problems and phenomena which are worth some discussion.

1.2 Research Motivation

I love to watch movies. No matter what the year is, what the genre is, I always find them interesting and can’t help but endlessly try to dig in further to find more information. Also having great passion for the fashion industry, I regard dressing style and outfits of characters on the screen as things that I won’t forget to look for when I’m enjoying movies. My style, ways, and thoughts will continually change depending on what movies I immerse myself in. Sometimes, I’ll even try to pursue the idea in movies. That makes me wonder: what’s the relationship between fashion and movie industry and what makes their connection so tight? How do they affect our lives and what are the consequences? With these doubts questioning me, I decided to research on “Relationships between Fashion and Contemporary Movies and the Discussion of Fashion Related Issues.”

1.3 Research Objective and Research Questions

Q1: How did contemporary movies and fashion work together and what is the relationship between them? Q2: How do people think about fashion combining contemporary movies? Q2: What and who decides fashion tendency and how? Q3: Why do fashion trends in the past come back?

1.4 Research Methodology

First, I went through essays and data about major events that happened through the 1950s to recent years and how fashion has developed during this time, to understand more about the connection between world circumstances and fashion trends. Then I choose and watch 5 iconic films in each era, and then analyze the differences. Moreover, two documentaries about future fashion by Vogue helped me to dig into the world of future tendencies. Besides, the literature

Relationships Between Fashion and Contemporary Movies and the Discussion of Fashion Related Issues review was conducted to know more about the relationships between fashion and contemporary movies.

II. Body 2.1 The Definition of the Term “Fashion”

The definition of the term “fashion” in the Cambridge dictionary is “a style that is popular at a particular time, especially in clothes, hair, make-up, etc.” or “a custom, look, or way of doing things that are considered acceptable.” But actually, fashion is a reflection of lifestyle. According to a quote by the person who was mainly discussed in the 2008 documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor, Valentino Garavani, “Elegance is the balance between proportion, emotion, and surprise.” Not just talking about elegance, but also the whole fashion world. Just like what Coco Chanel, who had even been made to a documental movie Coco Before Chanel had said, “fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” These quotes of big shots and bellwethers clearly show that the word “fashion” doesn’t only stand for the outside image of what people wear, but at the same time represents the culture including spirits of one generation, one country, or oneself.

2.2 Contemporary Movies with Fashion Elements

Movies with fashion elements conclude two kinds of movies: the usual movies with stories in it and documentaries. The following contexts list down some representative contemporary movies.

A. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

It was an American Musical Comedy, talking about money, trust, and true love. Scenes in the movie are full of glimmering jewels and diamonds. Several dresses and gowns are remarkable and still be embraced till nowadays.

When it was in the first fifties, knee-length dresses were on the trend. Often having laces and ruffles, the A-line and pencil skirts perfectly showed women’s body shape and created a slim image. All of the above factors were in the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and have been presented well enough to make the world remember.

B. Funny Face (1957)

Funny Face is a movie full of love for fashion and an inspiration bag of designs. The clothing in the movie is a collection of art. After World War II, fashion bloomed in the fifties. People started

Relationships Between Fashion and Contemporary Movies and the Discussion of Fashion Related Issues to wear clothing in various kinds of fabric, patterns, and bright colors with elements that were meant to attract people’s attention. Women’s wearing were designed in a way that can emphasize beauty and body figure, which can help to please or find them a husband. All of these symbols can be recognized in the movie Funny Face. The scene “Think Pink” is just like what its name implies, full of the color pink. The wardrobe included classic two pieces suits, iconic swing dresses in the fifties, and big skirts covered in abundant patterns with white gloves, necklaces, or collars ornamenting the whole outfit. The bright color category also includes a yellow dress pair with shades and a light blue gown. The iconic white wedding dress and the little full-skirted black dress were in perfect ballerina length. They both showed the slim waist of the women’s body and create an elegant and posh grace.

C. Mahogany (1975)

Mahogany is a story about Tracy, a fashion design student, being discovered to be a model, but still pursuing her ambitious dream.

Diana Ross illustrated the era’s glamour with a wardrobe including the fashion at that time: exotic prints, luxurious fake fur details, and clothing with bright colors.

In the seventies, the desire of expressing oneself had continued. The “hippie” style rose up, and people try to do anything that will mark differences between each other. In the movie, the main character did her best to show her designs which were concerned quite “edgy” to some people. You can see the costumes in the movie were full of exaggerated dyed fur elements and colorful details.

D. Heather’s (1988)

Fashion in the 1980s rapidly changed and had been more diverse than before. Thanks to the technology rise of cable TV and the network, everything was widespread in an instant. Celebrities can contact their fans easily, which as well brought various styles among distinct groups.

The middle class and the so-called “ yuppies,”which refers to young urban professionals, had their expansion and affected the world in both economy and fashion. For fashion, this is the way they can display their wealth. Workplace clothing was on-trend, focusing on conspicuous consumption and brands, but it also shows the force of women, for everything is about globalization and diversification in the 80s.

What is special about this movie is that it used different colors to illustrate the personality between characters. The costume designer used red as power, green as envy, yellow as fear, black as evil and blue as depression. The portrait of 80s fashion had clear images, including exaggerated

Relationships Between Fashion and Contemporary Movies and the Discussion of Fashion Related Issues big perms, shoulder pads, bold prints, powerful skirt suits, buttoned-up blouses, sporty tight leggings, and leg warmers.

E. Clueless (1995)

Clueless is a 1995 American romantic comedy film. The plot centers on Cher, the main character. This film has received generally positive reviews and is considered to be one of the best teen films of all time. Just mentioning the outfits in Clueless is already overwhelming.

Fashion in the 90s is a transformation. Adapting a quote from a fashion related video, “there’s a thing for everyone.” Lots of concepts and elements are still used nowadays and had become outfits ideas that’ll never fade away. Nevertheless, fashion in this era went through some big twists. Just before 1993, the style was still so 80s: much hairspray, wild colors, and patterns, baggy clothes, etc, yet all of a sudden, grunge fashion had its peak. Then industrial style rise followed by the rave back of glamorous fashion again. Clueless is a movie that is made during this time, leading the trend and completely demonstrating the coming back of glamourous fashion which is not much different from fashion today.

Here, I need to mention another movie, Clerks from 1994. Although Clueless had been filmed right after the year of Clerks, you’ll be shocked by how diverse they dressed. The 1990s is also a generation when Hip hop unity took over the culture. Clerks had perfectly combined Hip hop and grunge. It makes people easily understand how the fashion world looks like between teenagers those days. On the other hand, Clueless had shown some grunge and streetwear, but what stunned people was a huge amount of outfits collection demonstrating feminine looks. The wardrobe collected printed skirt suits, red Alaia dress, sweater-vest, and sweater-tank top, body- hugging Calvin Klein dress, and so on. They might be very unalike in colors, yet two films shared a similarity by using lots of plaids, and that’s still a trend now. Clueless is a significant inspiration idea to several artists, and gain a foothold at promoting the 90’s fashion.

2.3 People’s Reaction and Accepted Level to Fashion Related Movies

Whether they are films in the past or the latest ones, successful fashion-related movies always inspire people to get outfits ideas from them. Take Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as an example, Marilyn Monroe had worn a strapless, long, and tight pink dress with a big bow on her back when she was singing the so-called one of the most important film songs of all time, “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend.” Not only did the song got famous, but the iconic pink dress also amazed many and the imitation goes on and on. The widely-known star Madonna once turned up in this outfit in one of her song’s music video. First feeling fresh by the hit by movies, then hearing the crowd’s discussion and comments, plus seeing the promotion by celebrities, it’s not hard to see how massive

Relationships Between Fashion and Contemporary Movies and the Discussion of Fashion Related Issues the influence will be when fashion is combined with media, especially when social media is such a major affective power to teenagers.

I used some data statistics on websites IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes to find out how the people had rated the above movies. Using the terms “fashion-related movies,” I found a list named “The Best fashion movies” on IMDB, listing out 72 movies related to the concept of fashion, including famous films such as The Devil Wears Prada, The September Issue, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and so on. It turns out that they have got the average on 6.5 out of 10 on IMDB by adding up all the numbers to get an average. On the other hand, I researched all the movies I’ve listed above on the website Rotten Tomatoes to get the score of critics. Summing up the score of all five movies, we got an average score of 79.8% out of 100%. The results show that people have fun watching these kinds of films because they’ll find the fashion industry more approachable through the process. Fashion used to be leisure only royals or nobles could afford until the world circumstances had settled down, allowing people to have the spare time to focus more on whatever and however they can dress.

2.4 Need to Know: Prediction Making about Future Tendency

Fashion in the movies is always so glamorous that people all around the world would be attracted and strive to be the first to follow the new trend. Sometimes, the new season of clothing even drops the world a bombshell by producing such edgy and innovative style. Fashion trends do not just pop out from nowhere.

According to one of the Vogue documentary films Alexa Chung Uncovers Fashion Industry Secrets, “When innovative thinking and technology combine, the new industry had born and change the face of fashion forever. And in the late 90s, trend forecasting did exactly that.” Trend forecasting is a decisive factor in the future fashion tendency. For instance, the company WGSN plays a role as a lead character in the market. They observe and keep track of street fashion, fashion runways, blogs, and social media. A group of people will collect all information that influences fashion, not just talking about clothes and accessories, but also from food, trending music, subculture, to shows or films which are beloved by teenagers and so on. When a movie is being filmed, they need to select a dressing style that fits the whole movie setting. For movies that have settings in the future, they now have to predict how the future will look like. People will take the trend forecasting results as crucial references.

2.5 Theory: Why does Fashion Trends Come Back

I concluded two possible reasons that could explain why fashion trends come back. The first theory has a science explanation related to old music. According to the article,” Familiar music

Relationships Between Fashion and Contemporary Movies and the Discussion of Fashion Related Issues feels better to audiences.” People can easily relate to music that can especially trigger good old memories. It’s the emotion center of the brain that is more active when listening to old music. This search result makes me think fashion trends can be the same with music. Trends in the 80s or the 90s come back because people have emotional feelings hooking up and they feel comfortable wearing those kinds of outfits that call back their golden ages. Another theory is moderately different. We suspect fashion trends come back in a “recycle” way, which does take elements from past days, but with new twists and revisions to adapt the nowadays fashion culture.

2.6 Past and Current World Situation and the Influences on Movies and Fashion Industry

The whole world situation years ago was more chaotic and disorderly compared to these days. Here talking about the numerous wars between countries, independent issues, several major policies, even the stereotype of people’s images, and et cetera, affect people’s interests of wearing and the fashion trend in eras.

For example, before 1950 when World War Two was still going on, the closet collection tend toward simple and practical due to the limited resources. Since the war was over, all the men came back from the battlefield, women’s clothing was designed to attract men’s attention. To emphasize women’s figure, appearing elements included splendid sleeves, elegant collars, and various kinds of fabric in different colors that had never been shown before. All these points can be seen in the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and Funny Face (1957). Follow along with the films Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Mahogany (1975), Grease (1978), and Heather’s (1988), you can see dressing style started to focus more on individual personality rather than pure ladies’ figure.

Fashion becomes an issue that everyone, from teenagers to upper-class society, cares about. Clothing is not just pieces of fabric that are meant to cover your body anymore, but a tool to express oneself and a way to spell your name without any words. That’s when fashion shows, runways, magazines, and TV series appeared—to give designers a stage to let their fashion speak for them. Living in the era of information explosion, anything happening all around the corner can be found in just a click, fashion news with no exception. This is also why one trend can be so wide-spread in a very short time and make everyone fall for it.

Imagine how easy one can fall in a fashion trap: first seeing the trend shown in the movies, then being poured under the advertisement by celebrities or social media. Due to the evolution of history, the freedom society, the universality of individualism, the invention of movies and social media, no wonder fashion nowadays can be shown in so many styles and exist in everyone’s life.

II. Conclusions 3.1 Research Findings

Relationships Between Fashion and Contemporary Movies and the Discussion of Fashion Related Issues

Movies at all times produce different dressing styles and outfits combination, but they all share the same concept: to fit the whole generation’s expectation of fashion and try to have a wonderful and memorial collection to fit the wardrobe of the era.

Sometimes, fashion styles will transform to adapt to the world situation to achieve the goal of being practical or just to accomplish different dominations. If the movies can truly show the beauty and the feature of the fashion at that time, the movie will shine; if the fashion in the movie has been promoted, the fashion will be noticed and maybe have its day to rise. That’s why these two industries that seem so unlike are actually closely related. Putting too much effort into outfits may often lead to the thought of shallowness or not paying attention to the value of immanency. However, for me, dressing up nicely is not only a way to salute to the developing culture and to show respects to others, but finding your own style in the field of fashion, which means knowing yourself really well, for expressing the inner self is usually challenging and takes time to figure out who you are and how do you want to be like. Following fashion trends can also be seen as a part of the process where you are trying to discover the best way to express your own characteristics and find out the one style that can stand up for yourself.

Having the movie industry involved in accelerate and strengthen the influence of fashion, spreading the idea to every corner of the world.

3.2 Research Limitations and Suggestions

Due to the reason that doing this research needs to travel back in time, dig in all the history of fashion relate movies, some information can be only searched on the internet and documentaries rather than actually live in the era to witness a trend going viral. However, spending time watching all these iconic films by myself really helps to truly experience the essence of the beauty of all the clothing and style that have developed so much through the ups and downs in the inconstant, unpredictable wave of time.

The lack of efficiency is the most significant flaw during the process of this research. By using the method of watching all the films by myself, only a few works can be adapted, and it will affect the variety of movie selection. The neglected movies might also show parts of the clothing trend. After all, fashion is a flowing and streaming concept that can’t be easily classified nor put into categories solely on the basis of the number of years.

Moreover, further research will focus more on documentaries of great fashion moguls, for instance, Coco Chanel, Georgio Armani, Calvin Klein, and so on, instead of only sampling fiction movies. More people’s opinions will be included, for they all stood for the fashion pioneers in eras.

Relationships Between Fashion and Contemporary Movies and the Discussion of Fashion Related Issues

III. References

1. Diana Vreeland. (2003). D.V. Da Capo Press. 2. Christian Dior. (2007). The Little Dictionary of Fashion: A Guide to Dress Sense for Every Woman. V&A Publications. 3. Pamela Hutchinson. (2014). Funny Face: a film in love with fashion. Retrieved March 27, 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2014/feb/27/funny-face-film- love-fashion-audrey-hepburn 4. The Vintage Handbook. Funny Face Fashion. Retrieved March 27, 2019, from https://vintagehandbook.wordpress.com/funny-face-fashion/ 5. Igetakickoutofyou. (2012). dresses and controversy in gentlemen prefer blondes. Retrieved April 6, 2019, from https://igetakickoutofyou.me/2012/02/06/dresses-and-controversy-in- gentlemen-prefer-blondes/ 6. The dedicated follower of fashion. (2015). dressing the part ~ ‘mahogany’. Retrieved April 25, 2019, from https://fashionfollower.com/diana-ross-and-the-costumes-of-mahogany/ 7. Erin Mayer. (2014). How the Fashion from ‘Heathers’ Stands Up 25 Years Later. Retrieved April 3, 2019, from https://www.bustle.com/articles/19870-how-the-fashion-from-heathers- stands-up-25-years-later 8. Emma Firth& Shana Lynch. (2019). The Best Fashion Moments From Clueless, Because We're Still Not Over It. Retrieved September 10, 2019, from https://graziadaily.co.uk/fashion/news/best-fashion-style-clueless/ 9. Newell Nussbaumer. (2011). The Fashion That Was: The Sixties and How it influenced the Fashion World. Retrieved September 21, 2019, from https://www.buffalorising.com/2011/10/the-fashion-that-was-the-sixties-and-how-it- influenced-the-fashion-world/ 10. Tom Barnes. (2014). Science explains why we like old music better than anything else. Retrieved August 22, 2019, from https://www.mic.com/articles/96880/science-explains-why- we-like-old-music-better-than-everything-else#.2Lo87Ntfh 11. IMDB. (2019). Retrieved October 26, 2019, from https://www.imdb.com/ 12. Rotten Tomatoes. (2019). Retrieved October 26, 2019, from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/ 13. British Vogue. (2015). Alexa Chung Uncovers Fashion Industry Secrets. Retrieved October 26, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi2nc_xxnvs&t=1889s 14. British Vogue. (2016). The Future of Fashion with Alexa Chung in New York. Retrieved October 26, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u0KzfgVn1I