Mumbai Film Festival – Fashion in film

By Sailesh Ghelani | December 13, 2011

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Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo in The Artist

It was a week mostly spent in the dark! I attended MAMI and I very much enjoyed the darkness. I watched films almost every day at Cinemax in Versova and Metro in town.

Two of the films I got to watch were masterpieces. These were The Artist and Pina. Now I won’t give you the reasons why you should try your best and watch them somewhere sometime, but I am telling you fashion-wise they were also very inspirational.

The Artist

The Artist is a French film set in Hollywood in the 1920’s. So there were a lot of hats, furs, sequins, fringes, headpieces, feathered boas, phew… It excited my love for the diva look once more. There is an e-rumour (well I don’t live in Hollywood, do I?) that the costume designer Mark Bridges, whose credits include Magnolia and There Will Be Blood, might be getting his first Oscar nod for this film. Honestly, I don’t know if the film will be released in India, but I really hope so.

Berenice Bejo in The Artist

Now the thing is, I am not an oracle, but Big B (Amitabh Bachchan, of course) has just finished filming for his Hollywood debut, which is Baz Luhrmann’s remake of The Great Gatsby. This one is also set in the 1920’s and it is going to be released around Christmas 2012. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?? Will we be seeing a roaring 20’s trend during the next set of fashion weeks? Well, I can definitely hope so, but even if not, it will not stop me from devising my own 1920’s inspired outfits.

The Artist

The documentary Pina is made in 3D, which is such an obvious yet genius choice. You watch it as if you are in the theatre by the stage, on the streets, in nature with the dancers, and you feel you can touch them. I know, I know, that this is the effect that 3D is supposed to have anyway, but heck, I didn’t feel like that in the slightest when I watched Avatar (no offense James Cameron).

Pina

Now, Pina was full of gowns and transparent dresses (which were borderline undergarments. It felt like this woman had love for beauty in any form, be it colour, movement, fabric, nature, emotion or the human body, and it was all expressed in a very sensual yet not sexual way. The dancers were dressed in clothes that one can see and wear in everyday life but I have to admit mostly in dressed up situations. It was this way or the transparent undergarments I am mentioning above. But the general feeling was that of a celebration of expression through the human body and its movement, and the clothes were there to enhance that feeling every time.