Like all other art forms, fashion has many influences and one influence that has been prevalent over the past few seasons has been film. It seems that over the past couple of years the output on the big screen has affected the output of fashion design houses around the world and the trends that the big names dictate eventually filter down into mainstream fashion on the high street.
In the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s fashion and film practically went hand in hand, much like fashion’s love affair with music, but the 90’s and early 00’s saw a shift away from film influenced fashion with influences being found from TV shows, such as Sex In The City and more recently Gossip Girl, and then the internet with blogs and outfit creating [Polyvore] and outfit sharing [Lookbook] websites took over.
In 2010, Ruth La Ferla wrote an article for the New York Times looking at how film and fashion had moved away from each other but were starting to get reacquainted again. Avatar was one of the kickstarts of this with its blue and green colour scheme being used by designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier and featuring in Vogue. A small start that has flourished over the past 3 years, 40-50 years ago it was replicas of actual outfits and pieces but now the focus is more on tiny details i.e. a colour used in the film, the mood of the film affecting colours, designs and patterns etc.
Recent film/fashion crossovers include the Twilight franchise and films such as Snow White and the Huntsman on the gothic/gothic glam trend that happened in A/W 12, superhero films such as Batman, Ironman and Sci Fi films such as Star Trek which has influenced a surge in metallics, leather and lycra used within fashion. The release of The Great Gatsby has seen a revival of 1920’s fabrics, colours and drop hem dresses, period films are always an influence on the heritage trend which is seen pretty much every year with tweed becoming a major part of A/W 12, Les Miserables saw a rise in the worker girl look last winter with leather ankle boots and long, flowing, basic skirts and Oz: The Great and The Powerful was clearly a big influence for the announcement of 2013’s colour; Emerald.
Some big name films and some huge fashion trends seen not only on the catwalk from designers, such as Burberry’s S/S 13 show featuring metallic trench coats and emerald green and Gucci’s A/W 12 show in Milan featuring crushed black velvet, black leather and Victorian styles, but also our high street, street style reports in magazines and fashion seen on celebrities. We may have passed the golden era for film and fashion where designers were creating replica pieces seen on the big screen for the next season but after all these years of cinema it shows that one of the oldest visual art forms still has a hold over the clothes we wear each season. Though television and the internet may be quicker at spotting and updating style trends, it’s the big feature films of the year that have a tendency in 2013 to have the biggest impact on each season’s key pieces, patterns and colour schemes.