The Devil Wears Prada: 2000s Fashion Predictions

The Devil Wears Prada (2006) is one of the only DVDs I still own. Why? Because I could watch it over and over again and not get bored. Each time I watch it, I notice more and more stylish details in the Vogue-inspired "Runway" world.

Y2K/early 2000s fashion is very "hot" right now, but I predict that these trends will start moving away from typical Paris Hilton, Bratz, Juicy Couture style and move towards trends we saw in the later 2000s. Films like The Devil Wears Prada, shows like Gossip Girl, and the O.C., and reality shows like the Hills and the City are excellent resources in seeing the kind of clothes that were de rigeur in the late 2000s/early 2010s. I've also been looking to street style shots of celebrities who were styled by Rachel Zoe, like Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, and Mischa Barton for late 2000s fashion inspiration. These are the clothes and accessories I always admired and coveted, but was just a kid and couldn't afford any of what I saw in Teen Vogue at the time. 

 

What's hilarious is that I'm an adult woman now and still can't stop thinking about the clothes in the Devil Wears Prada! The opening credits montage made me fully believe that this is what it would be like to get ready in the morning. Re-watching the film as an adult made me realize that most women in the world are actually like Andie Sachs, and what I got out of the film this time 'round was that it's super unrealistic to be like these fancy fashion ladies. I guess The Devil Wears Prada is another casualty of what I refer to as the Mean Girls syndrome, where the irony Tina Fey worked so hard on conveying was lost on the majority of its teen girl audience, who now wanted more than anything to be like a Plastic and saw Regina George as being an aspirational character. 

 

Anyway, even after my epiphany over the true meaning of The Devil Wears Prada, I'm still a person who's into fashion and still can't get over the styling in the film. In this post, I wanted to break down a few specific pieces I noticed while watching this time around and see if I could find these now vintage items on eBay.

1.  The tweed hat & Chanel necklaces Andie wears while walking home from Miranda's house after she accidentally went upstairs with "The Book"- FOUND: The tweed hat is Chanel as well! Found on eBay for $700 (LOL) and the pearl necklace is actually still pretty popular, I found a few similar ones on eBay for around $1,000.
   
2. The Marc Jacobs bag that Andie gifts her friend over drinks- FOUND: It's called the "Stella" bag. I found different color ways of the bag  on eBay for around $100.
   
3. The Chanel sunglasses Andie wears on her head while trying to track down the Harry Potter manuscript for the twins- Sort of found...a similar style is featured in one of their eye wear campaigns.
   
4. Obviously: the Chanel boots- FOUND: on the Chanel fall 2004 runway. Similar styles on eBay were around $2,000.
   
5. "The first pair of Jimmy Choo" pumps- FOUND: $50 on eBay
   
6. The pink dress that Miranda is picking out a turquoise belt to wrap around- Still a mystery!
   

 

Bright Star (2009)

If you haven't seen Bright Star, you need to watch it now! It's one of the most beautiful movie's I've ever seen. The production designer & costume designer, Janet Patterson, has an incredible eye and the sublime detail in every shot is so sensitively captured by cinematographer Greig Fraser. The soft light, dark leafy trees, wildflowers, and warm breeze that we can sometimes take for granted in mid-summer is bottled up in this beautiful film.

All stills sourced from Film-Grab.com

Christmas movies that aren't pt. 2

Tired of being lectured on the "true" meaning of Christmas? ME too! Sadly, around this time, it's hard to find a movie playing on tv that's not about family and santa and reindeer and hot chocolate and little blonde kids. Take a break from movies that tell you how to live your life and check out this triad of movies I suggest you watch while you finally have some free time this holiday break.



Buffalo '66 (1998): Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo) is released from jail and finds a girl to bring home with him to have dinner with his parents. Awkward family meal ensues! Although the "going to the parents' house" is not all that goes on in Buffalo '66, this scene, to some extent, will be re-enacted all over the country this holiday season. Forget Love, Actually, this movie is the feel good movie of your life.
The bleak winter landscapes of upper state New York are a refreshing change from the romanticized snowy wonderlands depicted in most movies set in the wintertime. Yet the cinematopgrapher, Lance Accord (who also did Lost In Translation), managed to find the beauty in the icy blue daylight and the warm indoor incandescence in what could be the ugliest part of the year. 


Eyes Wide Shut (1999): It's Christmastime in New York and rainbows of lights in windows and on trees light up the city. The majority of the scenes in the film are lit with the multicolored lights of the holiday, with the exception of the scenes that take place within the Masked Ball. This film is set during the holiday season, but that's probably the only hint of christmas cheer you'll extract from Eyes Wide Shut. What with the terrifying scenes within the occult masked ceremony, sexual deception between Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's characters, and mysteriously murdered escorts, this movie is NOT one that will be enjoyed by the whole family. 


The Sure Thing (1985): 3 Words...CHRISTMAS. IN. CALIFORNIA. Bitchin' (that was separate of the 3). And John Cusack!

Screenshots from http://film-grab.com

Kevin Smith on writing + music

Kevin Smith talks about how he had the Pixies' song "Hey" in mind while writing a scene for Zac and Miri Make a Porno. 

.

christiane f.// We Children from Bahnhof Zoo

I watched Christiane F. last night and I can't believe I waited so long to do so. The movie tells the story of Christiane, a 13 year old girl and her downward spiral into the drug scene in West Berlin.
Christiane is brought to a teen disco by a friend, and there has her first "trip." It seems as though she takes her first pills even before she tries drinking because she orders cherry juice at the bar. David Bowie is playing and the colored lights of the disco are bright and optimistic. But at 138 minutes, this film has plenty of time to devolve to the zombie-like heroin addict Christiane becomes by the end. Right after she snorts H for the first time, the David Bowie soundtrack cuts out, replaced by menacing orchestral sounds similar to the Trans Siberian Orchestra's The Shining soundtrack. Director Uli Edel seemed to pay special attention that drug use not be glamourized in Christiane F.. 

lit with skittles// thoughts on lighting

Harmony Korine wanted Spring Breakers to look as though it were "lit with skittles." Lights in clubs, lights from the city that cast onto motels and suburban homes, lights from the windows of stores and corner stores that gaze onto the people looking in, lights from a rock show that make the skin and hair of the musician change from blues to pinks...
Painters Jenny Morgan and Jen Mann paint their subjects in monochromatic hues that make them appear to be lit with colored bulbs. Casting colored light onto a subject- whether painted, filmed, photographed- captures the illusion of the skin becoming a reflective surface for the surrounding environment. Like diffusing a Manic Panic tint onto an image that makes skin appear to concisely consist of varying tints, shades, and saturations of one color.

Harmony Korine + Chloe Sevigny

Korine was 23 when his screenplay he'd written for the film Kids was released as a feature film in '95. Chloe Sevigny, who played the leading role in the film, was 17. The two apparently met by chance in Washington Square Park in NYC when she was still in high school. "The two became close friends which resulted in her being cast in the low-budget independant film Kids."



Filter magazine has a cool recent interview with Korine here.

Spring Breakers costumer Heidi Bivens

GO here to get a better view of James Franco's pink cashmere baja hoodie designed by Spring Breakers' costumer Heidi Bivens. Or find out what the biggest challenge was with the hot pink balaclavas featured in the "Everytime" scene; when James Franco does a cover of that 2004 Britney Spears ballad. So much pink!

via thewallgroup.com

Drugstore Cowboy// green tones

Yesterday, me and my sister watched Drugstore Cowboy- a Gus Van Sant movie I've been trying to track down for a while now. Matt Dillon was so impressive! I'd only ever seen him in There's Something About Mary in which he played the icky villain guy who beats up Jim Carey. But in Drugstore Cowboy, although crazy, violent, dope addict Bob isn't the most sympathetic character, Dillon manages to convince you to stay on board with his character until the end. He has this wistful look that many boys cast by Gus Van Sant posess- his gaze reminded me of Gabe Nevins' brown eyed stare in Paranoid Park.

On another note- still sticking to a Gus Van Sant theme- this week I came across a copy of a novel he wrote called "Pink" at She Said Boom used books on College St.. I had no idea that he'd written a full-length book- it looks like it's semi-autobiographical in that it's about the trials of filmmaking. It also has little doodles scattered throughout. 

Norwegian Wood the movie

Last night I watched the film adaptation of Norwegian Wood, directed by Tran Anh Hung. The cinematography was crazy amazing- light was always streaming through glass, the wind constantly rustling grass, and the sixties textiles were lush and colorful. My only critique would be that the plot would be difficult to follow if you haven't read the book. There's little explanation when large plot turns happen and suddenly the main character Toru is somewhere completely different. But that said, it was a really faithful interpretation of the novel.

All screencaps taken by me.

richie+margot tenenbaum// prada rsrt 2013

Tennis headbands, tawny fur coats and 70s sportswear @ the Prada 2013 resort collection. This reminds me of how next halloween I wanted to dress up as a hybrid of characters from the Royal Tenenbaums..but then again, why not just dress like this all the time.

Not Fade Away// Bo Diddley

John Magarro and Jack Houston jamming

I saw Not Fade Away this week; a movie that tells the story of a group of boys from New Jersey in the 60s trying to make it as a band. The movie was great if you count out certain scenes that felt really out of nowhere and uncomortable, i.e. the ending. Art direction on the other hand, was spot on; the wardrobe chosen for all the characters was sooo cool...I know the original reference is 60s rock and roll, but I couldn't help but think 90s Strokes with the band's outfit choices. The lead John Magaro, who plays Doug, reminded me so much of Albert Hammond Jr. what with his 'fro and smart little jackets. Not Fade Away is filled with 60s rock and roll footage, particularly, Bo Diddley playing live with a female guitarist. The live performance video is cut into a scene where the band is jamming; to show the origins of the "Bo Diddley Beat" that Doug's playing. I got so psyched about the backup dancer who's also singing AND playing the guitar. I did some research and found her name is Norma Jean Woffard or "The Duchess." It was refreshing to see a female in Not Fade Away who was actually playing an instrument and not gazing glassy eyed at a television at Mick Jagger.

Conclusion: aside from the freaking weeeird ending (won't reveal specifics!), I really did enjoy this movie. With an awesome soundtrack and a pretty convincing look into 60s youth culture, it's comparable to that John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy. Except I enjoyed this one more.

top christmas movies that aren't

 Movies that have a longer timeline usually have a cluster of holiday season scenes in them (see Mean Girls) which make me then categorize them as being forever Christmas movies. Kids movies also fall into the vast 'holiday movie' category, just because they feel cozy and nostalgic...when you watch movies you watched as a kid, you feel like a kid. Precious holiday vacation time well spent!

Mean Girls (2004): the scenes from Mean Girls that always come to mind first are the Christmas scenes, like the Glenn Coco candy gram scene and the Jingle Bell Rock scene.

Anastasia (1998): The sparkly animation quality of this movie makes me feel festive. The art design of the Romanov palace is awesome. Rasputin, the evil zombie villain, definitely puts a damper on holiday cheer in Anastasia, but don't worry! It is a kids' movie, so it has a happy ending.

Little Women (1994) has this rustic New England Christmas-y feeling that transcends to the whole movie, not just the Christmas scenes. Anyhow, watch this movie and see Christian Bale look super young and fresh-faced...and not even crazy at all! 

Brown suit for thanxsgiving

I've found the most perfect Thanksgiving dinner outfit; a brown tweed suit!! You'd vaguely reference the pilgrims if you pair it with a white ruffled shirt and buckled shoes but otherwise, you'd be full on referencing Napoleon Dynamite which is always a fashion DO. On that note, this holiday season, may your family be blessed with a bounty of gourds.

Napoleon Dynamite | Charles Anastase Fall 2011

I don't like water anymore | Evan Prosofsky "WATERPARK"

My head's probably filled with water. I don't want to go to a water park for a looong time, ok? I'd rather just watch videos of water parks and indulge in a romanticized idea of them that forgets about those hundreds of sweaty and waterlogged bodies in the sun.

 Evan Prosofsky can help to facilitate the mental blocking out of the "moist" reality of water parks. He makes potentially bleak scenes from a suburban summer look like magical dream sequences using 16mm film and a Dirty Beaches soundtrack in WATERPARK. 

Thanks to Ella for the rec.

Love Story by Florian Habicht

I'm still sad that Hot Docs (Toronto doc film fest) is over, even though it ended basically a month ago. Watching documentaries just feels so good! There's something about watching live, unscripted action that makes a film extremely involving. It's like breaking down the third wall of most scripted movies to show truly relatable human emotion.

The film we saw on the 2nd last night of Hot Docs was a movie/doc hybrid Love Story. Its creator Florian Habicht intertwines footage of New Yorkers giving him their take on life and love along with their suggested romantic scenarios, played out by himself and "Masha." Take a look at the trailer and one of my favourite scenes from Love Story to get a better picture of the structure. 

Love Story's cinematography is beautiful and the lighting throughout makes you want to live in New York during the summertime. Even though it's a quasi-documentary, the wardrobe choices were perfect in helping create a 'summertime in the city' vibe, like Florian's pants are always a flashy pastel (so perfect when he goes to the Coney Island boardwalk), or Masha's orange silk dress. New Yorkers that were filmed each had a unique, confident style that added their "character." Even though this footage is from "Real Life," it seemed like they were characters, like in the scene I linked above, Libra's tight white ensemble seems to fit perfect with her sanguine, vivacious personality.

Florian at Coney Island, Masha holding the red velvet cake

Julia Leigh's "Sleeping Beauty" (2011)

Last night I watched Julia Leigh's 2011 adaptation of Sleeping Beauty. Much to my surprise, musical numbers in the woods, sweet princes, and cherubic fairies seen in Disney's 1959 Sleeping Beauty are nowhere to be seen. While watching, I kept trying to connect the plot twists of the original fairy tale to the modernized version: Lucy (Emily Browning)'s sleeping is induced by special tea, prince charming is a reclusive addict who also happens to be her best friend, the witch is an entirely sympathetic, almost "fairy godmother" like woman, etc. but I don't want to give too much away about the plot. Even the trailer reveals very little about what Lucy actually does in the film. But I highly recommend this movie; The pace is slow, but I was captivated the entire time. Colours, textures, and lighting made the film's aesthetic lush and "sensual."

The costume designer Shareen Belinger has a taste for lustrous fabrics in subdued tints. The dusty rose velvet robe (see below photos) worn by Lucy looks so great on film; the colour contrasts with the rest of the set decoration and compliments Emily Browning's colouring.

the blue hour\\The Future + Coldplay "Yellow"

The blue hour is the period of time when it is neither dark nor light during either sunset or sunrise. This time is considered special because of the quality of light at this time of day.

I watched the movie The Future by Miranda July last night and noticed an abundance of scenes featuring the blue hour. Dusk during sunrise made me think of Coldplay's video for Yellow, which demonstrates perfectly the changes in light during the sunrise. The middle of the video is when it's specifically the blue hour...it's so beautiful with the stars still in the darker sky that's higher up. Although I'm not into Coldplay as much as I was in grades 7&8, Yellow is still one of my favorite music videos ever. Chis Martin looks so earnest!