When a designer unveils a collection, the recurring question is usually where does the inspiration come from? And in a high percentage of cases, the answer alludes to cinema, music, art. The relationship between these three worlds is much closer and deeper than it may seem because both sectors feed off each other in a constant symbiosis that creatively enriches all parties involved. The visible faces of cinema and music rely on fashion as a tool with which to define their image, while designers nourish their imagination with movies and songs of all kinds.
Perhaps the most representative example is found in the figure of the recently deceased Vivienne Westwood and the punk counterculture, to which she provided some defined aesthetic codes thanks to her bold vision of fashion. In the field of cinema, Audrey Hepburn’s relationship with Hubert de Givenchy is well known, whom she met in the fifties on the set of the film Sabrina, the first of many in which the French dressmaker would create the costumes for the Oscar-winning actress. Or Catherine Deneuve with Yves Saint Laurent, creator of Deneuve’s bourgeois look in Belle de Jour.
Currently, the most obvious link between fashion and film-music is found in the lucrative contracts that wealthy houses, eager to connect with the widest possible public, offer celebrities. However, beyond the choice of actresses and singers as ambassadors for the most influential fashion brands in the world – Harry Styles for Gucci, Dua Lipa for Versace, Penélope Cruz for Chanel… –, the catwalk is conclusive proof of how a movie or musical movement can set the trends.
The vaunted remake of Barbie, the film directed by Greta Gerwig with Margot Robbie in the leading role, has brought with it a flood of collections with bubblegum pink, a color linked to the Barbie universe, as the protagonist. The Barbiecore aesthetic, as this type of monocolor outfits has been baptized, has been one of the most successful trends of the last season. Without forgetting the resurgence of science fiction on the big screen (from the second part of Avatar to Dune) and, with it, in the proposals presented in the big fashion capitals.
In the case of Chanel and its spring-summer 2023 collection, the influence of cinema is quite literal. For this season, Virignie Viard has been inspired by the nouvelle vague film Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961), a choice by no means casual as Coco Chanel herself was the designer behind the film’s costumes. In fact, Karl Lagerfeld –creative director of the house until his death in 2019– had already winked at the film in his spring-summer 2011 Columbus.
The connection of fashion with cinema and music becomes important in many cases from the precise moment of conceiving a signature or making a garment. In Spanish fashion we find several interesting examples of independent brands whose vision is strongly linked to the cinematographic and musical universe.
For example, 404 Studio, the firm founded by the designer Anaïs Vauxcelles, finds the inspiration for each and every one of its collections in cult films. His knitted and crocheted designs, worn by the singers Dua Lipa and Halsey, drink from the aesthetic universe behind titles such as The Savage Planet, the French animated film directed by René Laloux in 1973 or the surreal The Holy Mountain, by the Chilean-French director. Alejandro Jodorowsky, released in the same year.
The Valencian singer Helena Goch is the founder behind Goch, a brand that, as it could not be otherwise considering the profession of its designer, is inspired by the power of music to devise its proposals, made in Spain. Opera Grunge is the title of the autumn-winter 2023 collection, a bet orchestrated through the contrast of styles: the baroque style and theatricality of opera against the transgression and ease of grunge. At Joplin Atelier, music was at the beginning of everything. And no, the name does not refer to the iconic Janis Joplin, but to a city in Missouri where the sisters Laura and Aida Molano decided to create the brand after a stop at a karaoke in that town.
The spirit of Route 66 permeates its collections, defined as a mixture of “dust storms, rock aesthetics and a nostalgic road trip”. Of course, his latest campaign, Route 3, is an ode to the American Midwest at its most theatrical, with easily recognizable references and western-inspired clothing that doesn’t fall into clichés. It is clear that this season music sets the pace of trends and fashion is seen on the big screen, like in the cinemas.