The way a child dresses
when there is no adult pointing out
what is right or wrong
is absolutely the feeling I got when watching
Bella in Poor things.
Even though a lot of the movies I watch these days are on my little laptop screen - the expression ‘big screen’ is absolutely the way I feel about movies. Luckily I have a friend that takes me to many movies in the theater. When we went to see Poor Things in February 2025 I was mesmerized by the story and the visuals but also very much by the clothes.
Holly Waddington the british costume designer that created all the gorgeous clothes in that movie won the Oscar for Best Costume Design.
The outfits are dreamy, futuristic and playful.
It reminded me of the ‘verkleedkist’ (in english the dress-up box) we had when I grew up. It would have things like a see through slip skirt, long satin gloves and some bright red stockings. I would wear as many pieces as possible, layer them all together and finish it off with the longest beaded necklaces (that in my memory would reach all the way to the floor when you wore them). The way a child dresses when there is no adult pointing out what is right or wrong is absolutely the feeling I got when watching Bella in Poor things. The first part of the movie is in black and white and the costumes seemed to have a lot of different textures, which made it like you could almost feel the garments.
Because I looked up the oscar winners for Best Costume design I discovered that the movie Gruella (2021) also won an oscar for best costume design. This movie also starring the gorgeous Emma stone, was really speaking to me because of the punky, Vivienne Westwood kind of style.
I personally loved the absolutely briljante dress that was made of thousands of bugs. This dress was inspired by the historical garment called the ‘Beetle Wing Dress’ decorated with thousands of iridescent beetle wings.
In this case the movie is about a girl who wants to become a fashion designer and it perfectly shows that she has this specific style from the beginning. She wears her school uniform jacket inside out and wrote all kinds of words on the lining.
It reminded me of the school bags I had that had all kinds of band-names written on them, and how I combined peace signs and anarchy symbols without any doubt!
A personal favorite for me was the movie Grease, it came out in 1978 but the movie was still very popular throughout the eighties. The outfits in Grease (1978) had a huge, long-lasting impact on both fashion designers and streetwear. The iconic outfit of Sandy has been called the ‘bad girl transformation’ look by many designers. And it caused an explosion of black leggings in the 80’s. To me this movie was the ultimate proof of the possibility to transform through clothes. I felt like there was something so promising in the thought.
‘bad girl transformation’
I cannot write about movies and fashion without mentioning the movie
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, a movie from 1998, that really made me think about colours and the balance between interior and an outfit.
I honestly only realized while writing this piece that all the costumes are designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier.
The most incredible thing about this movie is that as characters moved from location to location throughout the film, their costumes change colours to match the surroundings.
There have been more fashion designers that contributed to the costumes in movies. Miuccia Prada designed costumes for
Romeo and Juliet,The Great Gatsby and the movie The White Noise for example.
Givenchy created costumes for Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina, Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffany's with ‘The little black dress’ in Breakfast at Tiffany's becoming historic.
I could go on and on but I feel like I must watch some classics and get inspired by the true artists that make us fall in love with movie stars!
Love Eva
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