Home » Press & Advertising Don’t despair. To advertise on Clothes on Film try the Blogads link on the right or contact the editor at chris[at]clothesonfilm.com. Statcounter unique visitor figures currently stand at 40,000 per month (April, 2010). Voted the UK’s Most Influential Cinema Blog by Wikio. Yep, we even beat Mark Kermode at the BBC. Clothes on Film is also a permanent fixture at Rotten Tomatoes and has been quoted on Totalfilm.com. Site editor Chris Laverty was recently interviewed for a fashion on film feature in Men’s Folio magazine: PDF of full article by Wong Kee Soon: For Your Consideration

Ghost Town (2008) is one of the finest romantic comedies ever made. It’s a grown up film about grown up problems (regret, companionship, second chances – they’re all themes); it’s not a sickly sweet teen romance. Even though the situation is fantasy, the characters themselves are totally believable in their world. Moreover the screenplay by David Koepp and John Kamps is written with absolute economy and constructed without an ounce of fat. Not one scene in the movie is wasted, each being packed with character and story revelations – some subtle, some part of the main plot, but all driving the narrative towards a deeply satisfying and moving conclusion. One…

Beach pyjamas, or sailor pants, of the 1920s owe their popularity to Coco Chanel and her appropriation of the wide-legged trousers as a functional addition to the female wardrobe. Chanel hit upon the idea of pants for women while visiting Venice during the early part of the decade; she felt they were the only practical way to properly climb in and out of a Gondola. (more…) Based on the real life theft of £12,000 of gold bullion from a moving railway train in 1855 (though in the movie the amount had swelled to £25,000), The First Great Train Robbery (1979) features a hefty slew of period costumes for its modest…

Home » Journal & Ads Okay, self promotion show off time. Clothes on Film is now the third Most Influential Cinema Blog in the UK according to Wikio. Back slaps and cheap champagne all round. Down two from one, but still… Here is the full Top 30 for May. If you can remember the chart countdown tune to Top of the Pops, hum it now: Now, two days ago I published a sneak preview of the May list provided by Wikio that continued to list Clothes on Film as the No.1 blog. Clearly that was wrong so here I am publishing an amendment. Still I did beat Mr. Kermode and…

In Proof of Life (2000), a kidnap thriller set in fictional South American country Tecala, Meg Ryan plays Alice Bowman, possibly one of the least convincing hippies ever committed to film. On Alice, hippie seems like a passing trend rather than a lifestyle choice. Ryan’s costumes are a mix of sarong-skirts with embroidery, cotton vests, long-sleeved/tie-dyed t-shirts, big belts, linen shirts, waist cincher, leather jacket, waistcoat, sandals, even a matelot sweater. Add in a $300 hairdo, with a generous application of lip gloss, and Alice Bowman, all in all, looks pretty fresh considering her husband has been trapped in captivity for several months. Proof of Life makes a big hurrah…

Home » Blog Journal & Ads Having recently caught the video for ‘Great DJ’ by The Ting Tings again on TV, two things hit home: 1) How sexy lead singer Katie White looks in her retro jersey dress and 2) How technically redundant the word ‘retro’ has become. Of course all fashion is retro; everything we wear is influenced by what has gone before. That’s the point; we band the word around as a kind of generic reference to anything that’s old and hip, often without ever assigning a specific era. If it looks like something your mum and dad would have worn, well then it’s retro. Take Katie White…

Denim in cinema has been popularised by some of the great screen icons of the twentieth century. From Marlon Brando (The Wild One, 1953) to Steve McQueen (Junior Bonner, 1972), from Paul Newman (Cool Hand Luke, 1967) to John Travolta (Urban Cowboy, 1980), from Grace Kelly (Rear Window, 1954) to Brigitte Bardot (And God Created Woman, 1956). Similar to the business suit, denim is a sartorial way of life that confers immediate personality on someone without them having to do or say a word; this personality has evolved through time and trends, though one facet remains the same: rebelliousness. The following three films are referenced in this essay, not because…

Part two in a three part sartorial analysis of denim as symbolic recognition for character on film, this time focusing on Audrey Hepburn in Two for the Road (1967). Women in Denim: Audrey Hepburn left behind her Givenchy comfort zone in decade-spanning dramedy Two for the Road to wear a veritable catwalk of trendy outfits by the hottest designers of the day. And amongst these Quant shifts and Courrèges sunglasses, Hepburn also wore jeans which, onscreen at least, she had seldom done before. Denim is not a fabric traditionally associated with Audrey Hepburn, yet here she takes to the look with such effortless chic that all memories of Givenchy couture…

Home » Archive » Sartorial Analysis Third and final part of a sartorial analysis examining denim as symbolic recognition for character on film. Part two in a three part sartorial analysis of denim as symbolic recognition for character on film. Denim in cinema has been popularised by some of the great screen icons of the twentieth century.

Third and final part of a sartorial analysis examining denim as symbolic recognition for character on film – focusing on The Parallax View (1974) starring Warren Beatty. Action Man: By the mid-1970s denim had been accepted as day wear for everyone, though still remained intrinsically associated with adolescent ‘drop out’ culture. Warren Beatty was 37 at the time of shooting The Parallax View so could hardly be described as young; he looks just a little uncomfortable in a sky-blue western denim jacket and brown twill hip-huggers. Nonetheless the casual denim jacket remains a potent symbol of 1970s action hero. Mainstream acceptable yet scruffy, Beatty’s attire resists his character Joe Fredy’s…