It is hard to tell who owes more to the other when it comes to film and fashion. Fashion dazzles filmgoers by enriching the characters' wardrobes, while film could make an actress a stylish icon and the film better remembered.
From Audrey Hepburn in Givenchy's one-piece in Breakfast at Tiffany's, to Catherine Deneuve wearing Yves Saint Laurent day dresses in BELLE DE JOUR; from Daniel Craig in Tom Ford suits in Quantam Of Solace to Meryl Streep in Prada coats in The Devil Wears Prada, these iconic images have been as impressive as the film's storylines.
The most recent example, Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, not only uses collections from Miuccia Prada, Tiffany, Brooks Brothers, but has even inspired the brands to create new collections paying tribute to the Jazz Age.
The film, to be released in China on August 30, has been hotly anticipated. The country is no longer the stereotyped landscape where people wear the same colors. The booming economy and rising new rich class has created a growing obsession with brands. Shortly before the Gatsby premiere in China, a local film franchise has stirred a heated discussion on its costumes. The overwhelming presence of luxury brands in Tiny Times 1 and 2, two films based on young writer Guo Jingming's novels, were criticized for misleading young audiences and worshipping materialism.
Ironically, in Luhrmann's film the costumes are mostly Miuccia Prada and Tiffany's old collections reprised, the garments in Tiny Times films are almost all new arrivals of top brands.
Will the old fashion continues its charm in China, a country known for its new rich, whose astonishing generosity have impressed boutiques across the world? What is the border between the necessary demonstration of luxury a film's story needs and an excessive, unpleasant display of it? Clues may lie in the pictures that follows.
Tiffany's Great Gatsby Collection is based on designs from the Tiffany Archives and worn by the film's all-star cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan, who appear as Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan.
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