trouser suit | Clothes on Film

Contributor Birdie McAra explores the fantabulously non-male gazey world of Birds of Prey.

MINOR SPOILERS Movies that feature contemporary fashion, particularly high-end and particularly for women, are a tricky sell costume wise. While men’s semi-formal to formal attire is generally shaped around the fundamental guise of the lounge suit, women’s clothing has a lot more avenues and possibilities. In addition to colour and pattern there is shape and form, which can vary dramatically for the fashionable wearer. What can vary dramatically can also date dramatically and this can be major stumbling block for costume designers. Films centred around the world of fashion, or those that include a lot of fashionable garments such as The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Clueless (1995) and Funny Face…

Wes Anderson’s most sartorially significant film yet.

Mark Bridges exclusively explains his costume choices for retro epic Boogie Nights.

As TracyDi Vicenzo in OHMSS, Diana Rigg wore a daring 1960s wedding ensemble.

Throughout The Way We Were, Barbra Streisand wears a mix of period authenticity and contemporary fashion.

Less a costume movie and more a fashion one, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is typical of its naughty director Russ Meyer in all the best ways.

Michael Caine is the epitome of badly folded cool.

Rosemary’s Baby is the perfect mid-sixties set fashion movie.