Io Sono L’amore

If any film could be considered a “fashion film”, the sumptuous, provocative and emotionally charged film, ‘I Am Love’, befits perfectly.

‘I Am Love’ follows the wealthy Italian Recchi family during their period of turmoil in the dawning years of the new millennium. There are a number of changes and confrontations experience by all, but the most intriguing, and important, revolves around Emma’s (Tilda Swinton) affair with young chef Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini).

‘I Am Love’ is an amazing film. It is deep, rich, human. It is not about rich and poor, but about old and new. It is about the ancient war between tradition and feeling. For this role, Tilda Swinton learned to speak Italian with a Russian accent, as Tilda Swinton would, but her performance is nothing as trivial as a feat of learning. She evokes Emma as a woman who for years has accepted the needs of the Recchis and discovers in a few days to accept her own needs. She must have been waiting a long time for Antonio, whoever he would be.

This film in made to be consumed firsthand. The stunning imagery leaves such an impression and is seasoned delectably with it’s soundtrack. The costumes are so striking and Antonella Cannarozzi was appropriately nominated for an Academy Award. Emma is so very elegant colour blocking those slip dresses, with simple dashes of red on the lips and classic sparkles at the ears. (Don’t those wrap around sunglasses so perfectly capture the essence of the time?) A lavish and graceful film, a must see!

Edith Head – A life of dressing for success

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costume designer, Edith Head, Hollywood

This gallery contains 11 photos.

Edith Head was undoubtedly Hollywood’s most famous costume designer, or “magician,” as she liked to call herself. Her career spanned …

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An Oscar nominee for Tom Ford

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Tom Ford

A Single Man – Tom Ford’s directorial debut follows a day in the life of a gay English professor. But this isn’t any old day for George; he’s decided this is his last day. Following the death of his partner Jim, George struggles to find meaning in life and we follow him as he prepares to end it. Along the way we meet George’s long-term friend and one-off lover, the flamboyant Charlotte, as well as handsome student, Kenny Potter.

Tom Ford financed this film himself and, with several Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, few can argue that this was anything but a good investment. The fashion designer’s touches are everywhere, from the the exquisitely tailored suits to the fantastic interiors of George’s home. The casting is also inspired; Colin Firth makes uptight George’s depression convincing without seeming self-obsessive, while Julianne Moore’s Charlotte adds some giddy light-heartedness.

Clothes make the man, but can’t save the film

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Christian Dior, Pierre Berge, Yves Saint Laurent

Six years ago, Coco Chanel was also the subject of dueling biopics, though in the case of that particular French fashion icon, her life was storied and controversial enough to sustain multiple narratives. Perhaps Bonello’s film will make clearer the reasons for the equivalent fascination with Saint Laurent: his professional legacy may be unassailable, but “Yves Saint Laurent” presents him as a wan, petulant figure, susceptible to the same vices and vanities as all too many others in an industry not celebrated for its rich human values.

Yves Saint Laurent, the man, was a towering figure in the fashion world – a visionary haute couture designer who challenged traditional notions of feminine beauty and power.

“Yves Saint Laurent” the movie, isn’t nearly so innovative or forward thinking. It’s a tasteful and formulaic biopic, visually lush but emotionally shallow.

Saint Laurent first arrived at Dior Maison

Christian Dior

And first met Victoire Doutreleau

Instant draft

🙂

Karl Lagerfeld (right)

And the costume design – a combination of original pieces on loan from Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge’s foundation and period reproductions from Madeline Fontaine – is as chic, elegant and luxurious and you’d hope. We see the bold tuxedos for women and the Mondrian-inspired color block dress. In one memorable, early moment, Saint Laurent takes a basic black cocktail dress and makes it something daring and original with just the addition of a white sash and bow arranged prominently at the front. The greatness is on display, but only in glimmers.

Here goes the full gallery of all the designs.

Dress to kill: The devil wears the rude

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Hannibal, Hannibal Lecter, NBC, suit, tie

Much like one of TV’s other best dressed shows about sociopaths, NBC’s Hannibal uses its extensive and beautiful wardrobe to provide some serious menswear eye candy, while also suggesting something about each of the characters and their emotional and mental states.

The new incarnation of Dr. Lecter takes the idea of ‘Dandy’ to a new level. Stoically played by Mads Mikkelsen (best known as the blood-tear shedding bad guy from ‘Casino Royale’), this Lecter isn’t nearly as physically flamboyant as the previous cinematic interpretation. Where Hopkins was almost operatic in his approach, Mikkelsen’s Hannibal is self-contained, perfectly content to be the smartest man in the room without shouting it from the mountain top. He often serves up telling asides that have no meaning to anyone but himself, and that’s fine with him.

The extroverted part of his personality is on display via three passions: murder, cooking and clothing. Each episode features some grisly death that he may or may not have anything to do with, and there’s always time for a well prepared masterpiece of a meal, always including a meat of some kind. What kind of meat? Let’s skip that.

Christopher Hargadon, the costume designer for the show, works closely with showrunner Bryan Fuller and the rest of the team, from makeup to visual effects, to get a sense of how the clothes should match each character in every episode. Such attention to detail is necessary, as dressing the characters on “Hannibal” is not just about creating consistency in style, color palette, and design, but also using the clothes to tell us more about their psychological states. Hannibal himself, for instance, boasts a bold and flashy style with custom-made suits from Garrison Bespoke in Toronto, where the majority of the show films. The suits befit the killer’s refined taste and bold style (he is a killer living in plain daylight, after all). Huge double Windsor knots draw attention to the paisley ties, while the suits themselves are often European-style three-pieces that boast some seriously bold patterns.

Hannibal prefers shirts with cutaway collars, anchored by wide full windsor knotted ties. Given Mikkelsen’s severe European looks and demeanor, he can pull off a look that won’t work for most men, as this wardrobe would tend overpower the wearer more often than not. However, it’s a bold, inspired look that reminds gentlemen that individual style doesn’t have to be a slave to the current trend. Almost anything Hannibal wears one could imagine fitting in in almost any era. That’s style and Hannibal is killing it.

And last but not least, take a look at Hannibal’s mesmerizing tie collection.

Yves Saint Laurent and his muses

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Christian Dior, fashion designer, Lauren Bacall, Pierre Berge, Saint Laurent, Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent is arguably the greatest fashion designer of this century. World-renowned since the age of twenty-one, when he shot to fame as the savior of Christian Dior, he has changed the way that women dress with a series of innovations – from trouser suits and leather boots to peasant shawls and safari jackets – now regarded as classics.

Yves Saint Laurent and Lauren Bacall

His business empire has become a role model for the fashion and beauty industries, establishing Rive Gauche as the first chain of ready-to-wear boutiques, launching Opium as a bestselling perfume, and opening up the vast Asian market.

Yves Saint Laurent and Catherine Deneuve

Raised in colonial Algeria, Saint Laurent was taken on by Dior as an assistant while studying in Paris as a teenager.

The designer stopped by Barbra Streisand’s dressing room backstage of her Broadway show Funny Girl in 1965

Hailed as a hero in France for saving the company after Dior’s death, his world collapsed when he was conscripted into the French army. Saint Laurent broke down and was committed to a military hospital where he was brutally treated. His lover, Pierre Berge, rescued him and set him up in his own couture house. Thanks to Saint Laurent’s genius and Berge’s business acumen, their company dominated fashion throughout the 1960s and ’70s, making them fabulously wealthy. But the pressures of fame and the commercial constraints of fashion took a toll on Saint Laurent.

Yves Saint Laurent hung out with Audrey Hepburn and Loulou de la Falaise at a fashion event

The charismatic young man who partied with Rudolf Nureyev and Andy Warhol fell prey to addiction and depression, retreating from the world to live as a recluse, while Pierre Berge became a force in the French arts and in politics. As Saint Laurent withdrew, his financial affairs came under scrutiny, culminating in the political storm over the sale of his empire in 1993 to a state-controlled company.

Wedding-dress-clad Claudia Schiffer and a glamorous Carla Bruni with YSL after his Spring/Summer 97 couture presentation