Classiq - An online journal that celebrates cinema, culture, style and storytelling.

4 October 2015

Style in Film: Delphine Seyrig in Last Year at Marienbad

A landmark in the world cinema, L’année dernière à Marienbad (1961) is a movie you either love or hate. The first time I saw it I can’t say I liked it and didn’t quite know what to make of it, but the second time I loved it. If you haven’t seen it yet, my advice is not to read any reviews until you watch it, because this is the kind of film everybody understands differently. Director Alain Resnais lets his viewers create their own film and that’s the beauty of it.

Much has been said about Last Year at Marienbad, but, to my surprise, so little about the amazing costumes Coco Chanel designed for Delphine Seyrig, although she remained uncredited in the film. The baroque decors (the filming took place at two castles outside of Munich, Nymphenburg and Amalienburg) served as an impressive frame for the elegance and exactitude of Chanel’s dresses. Delphine’s wardrobe is so sophisticated, yet so light in details: layers of tulle, wisps of chiffon, delicate lace and dramatic feathers (those sensational white feathery peignoir and black cape), as if especially created to drift unnoticed through the sumptuous corridors and gilded rooms and the architectural, majestic gardens.

In the sea of black (there had to be a few little black dresses) and white there is also a Chanel metallic suit with three-quarter sleeves and another shimmering outfit. The avand-garde clothes are a beautiful mixture of the ’20s and ’60s fashion, but unfortunately I couldn’t capture all the details to show you the extraordinary craftsmanship of Chanel’s couture creations.

Looking at the accessories, one must notice the Chanel leitmotifs throughout the film: two-toned shoes with kitten heels, chain belts and costume jewelry.

Alain Resnais was taken by the sophistication of certain silent movies, like Pabst’s Pandora’s Box (1929) starring Louise Brooks. This was the inspiration for Delphine’s make-up, for example her lips were painted the same way it would have been done in the ’20s. At the director’s request, the entire team watched Pandora’s Box, including the hairstylist, who more or less had to copy Louise’s hairstyle for the female character. But Delphine had cut her hair unknowingly and they had to come up with something different, the famous ‘Marienbad hairstyle’, which was copied by women all over Europe and America.

Regardless of what impression it leaves you, the cinematography, narration and fashion in Last Year at Marienbad continue to be a reference for filmmakers, photographers and designers alike.

Photos: screen stills; photo credit: Cocinor, Terra Film, Cormoran Films
Editorial source: the special features on the Last Year In Marienbad DVD

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26 September 2015

Another World

It’s interesting how differently (and wisely) you can choose to spend your little spare time when you don’t know when your next ten-minute break will come. These days I spend so little time online and instead look for inspiration somewhere else, mostly the everyday life, films and books. And it feels right. It’s fashion month, yet I haven’t viewed any collection whatsoever. I don’t miss that kind of information either. I would rather do myself a favour and watch a style-heavy movie – that, I can relate to much easier. So that’s the kind of fashion story I gravitate to lately – more personal, more practical, more real, more pointful. Right now this is about the only way I can write about fashion (I still like the discipline of sitting down, distilling my creative thoughts, while trying to make a sense of them visually, too) and find it relevant.

Photographer Bill Doyle’s The Aran Islands: Another World and this book are what ignited my interest in the craft that goes into the making of an original Aran sweater. I am fascinated with style pieces that have their own storied past, that are pieces of menswear (in the generic sense) history – that’s often the case when fashion is born of utility, and that’s usually when you can put an equal mark between fashion and style. The history of the Aran sweater is just as beautiful and intricate as the rich array of stich techniques that goes into its hand-knitting.

The garment has been worn by the fishermen of the Aran Islands (its birth place), off the western coast of Ireland, for hundreds of years. Not only has it kept generations of Irish fishermen warm trough their harsh and unforgiving winters, but it is a distinctive item, a work of local art and a reflection of the islanders’ lives and families. Each region and clan developed its own knitting pattern, carefully constructed (and guarded – rather memorised than written down, passed from generation to generation) and which can contain any combination of stitches, none of them incidental. They carried important information and had seafaring connections. The sweater was a badge of belonging to specific fishing communities and could be used to identify a specific member of a crew drowned at sea. The stich designs are inspired by Celtic art, architecture and design, and each stich conveys a unique meaning. The cable stich is a symbol of the fisherman’s ropes and represents luck and safety at sea, the diamond depicts, some say, the small stonewalled fields of the island or, according to others, the fishing net mesh, and is a wish of success and wealth, the zig zag stich represents the twisting cliff paths, while the tree of life is one of the original stitches of the fisherman sweater and it symbolises the importance of the clan and unity within. As for the traditional cream hue, it comes from the undyed, 100 percent virgin wool the authentic Aran sweater is made of. Indeed, every single design detail represents a story in itself. Designers only have to know where to look in order to draw plenty of inspiration from.

photos (edited by me, from left to right, from top row): first row: Bill Doyle / Michael Kors Fall/Winter 2012, via Vogue.com / Flickr / second row: Giles & Brother / Bill Doyle / Jean Seberg on the set of Breathless, 1960 (Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie, Les Productions Georges de Beauregard, Les Films Impéria) / third row: Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair, 1968 (The Mirisch Corporation) / Marko MacPherson for Vogue.com / source unknown (my mistake, forgot to bookmark it) / fourth row: Bill Doyle / George Pickow-Three Lions-Getty Images (Peter Faherty of the Aran Islands, c.1955) / Vanessa Jackman

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17 September 2015

An American Original: Steve McQueen in Bullitt

Steve McQueen looking cool while keeping warm. Has anyone done it better? Sunglasses and the Benrus watch further enhance this classic modern look.

“An American original” is how photographer William Claxton describes Steve McQueen in his book, Steve McQueen: William Claxton Photographs. That, he was, in terms of style, too. Looking at photographs of him from the book, many from his private life, one can tell that his wardrobe was brim full of Ivy classics, from his signature G9 Baracuta Harrington jacket, knitted sweaters and polo t-shirts, to ankle-gazing khakis and worn-in sneakers. He was one of Hollywood’s advocates of classic American clothing. It was his movies, after all, that elevated his low-key, functional, visceral style to cult status. Bullitt (1968) is at the forefront of these films, and this is thanks to director Peter Yates, too, who understood the McQueen image and molded the character on Steve’s own style and personality. A hip personality, a special kind of existential cool, detached and rebellious, his own guy, a tough guy, who loves cars and speed (he convinced Yates to include an extensive chase scene in the film, which resulted in a eleven-minute sequence and one of the most famous movie car chases ever made) and has a beautiful woman (Jacqueline Bisset) by his side. That’s McQueen, all right.

As the anti-hero cop Frank Bullitt, he set the standard for Ivy cool in his navy blue cashmere turtleneck sweater, the brown tweed sports jacket, and those trademark brown suede, crepe soled chukka boots. It is, however, that custom-made three-roll-two jacket, undarted with a soft cut in brown herringbone, with its suede elbow patches, that defines his appearance in Bullitt. An element that, on him, looks fresh, un-precious, purposeful, belying its traditions, and setting the best example, still, after almost half a century later, of how to wear a tweed jacket in the city. Steve McQueen remains the best dressed police lieutenant (sorry, Clint) ever to have hit the streets of San Francisco.

When it comes to outerwear, Frank Bullitt is part of the school of thought that prefers the more functional single-breasted raincoat, instead of the trench. Both were highly regarded in the Ivy ranks, both are suitable for every occasion, both are established threads of the male wardrobe. But as it is well pointed out in the book The Ivy Look: Classic American Clothing, “the slimmer aesthetics [of the raincoat] seem to harmonise well with the simple shapes of the rest of the wardrobe”. I, for one, prefer the mac for men for the same reason. The suit is undarted and has soft shoulders and lapels, but still looks smart – this contrast is another detail indicative of the preppy dressing code. The costume designer for the film was Theadora van Runkle, who would also fit McQueen for The Thomas Crown Affair, but whereas in the latter film he was groomed to the last detail (he was looking to change his screen image and be cast against type), in Bullitt he didn’t just slip into the assigned movie wardrobe. He might just as well have played himself.

Photographed by Barry Feinstein on the set of Bullitt. Forgoing his suit jacket and mac, with his shirt unbuttoned at the neck and a loose tie knot, he is just as natural riding his beloved motorbike as he would be in jeans, t-shirt and his Baracuta jacket.

Here (photo above) is a better look at the superb, rich blue colour of the roll-neck (extra points for the slightly, just right, loose fit that I consider to be a very mannish detail) and the charcoal of the trousers, and the beautiful, high-quality textures of these pieces.
With his co-star, Jaqueline Bisset, on the set. “I think every one of Steve’s leading ladies was smitten with him and he usually treated them with respect.” I like this remark from William Claxton. The photographer was a close friend and would often document on film the actor’s on- and off-set life.

McQueen drove a very fast, dark green 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 in Bullitt. Off set, however, he drove a Ferrari ’63 250 GT Lusso Berlinetta and a Jaguar XKSS, in keeping with traditional Ivy League style. East Coast Ivy Leaguers always favoured foreign cars, and Ferrari and Jaguar XK-120s were on top of the list, alongside British MGs, as well as Volkswagen Beetle – preferred by Paul Newman, for example, another Hollywood proponent of the preppy style, who liked to stay away from the movie star image of expensive sports cars, although his various convertible Beetles were rumored to have been equipped with Porsche engines. But I don’t think that McQueen’s choice of car brands had much to do with any desire to show off, but simply stemmed from his love for fast cars. Period. I don’t think he ever forgot where he came from, the emotional hardship of his childhood as a poor, rough street kid. He was an avid racer and loved to share his passion with just about anybody who happened to be around, and would often take a car, load it with his buddies and go for a ride. He was a man’s man – on any lesser man even the practicality of the Ivy classics wouldn’t have had the same rugged appeal.

Update: Citing the sources below, I initially wrote that the sunglasses Steve McQueen wears in the film are Persol 0714, but a reader pointed out that they weren’t.

bibliography: Steve McQueen: William Claxton Photographs; The Ivy Look: Classic American Clothing, by Graham Marsh and J.P. Gaul; World Film Locations: San Francisco, by Scott Jordan Harris

photos: 1,2,4,6-8: shot on the set (2,4,6-by Barry Feinstein) / 3,5,9-11: movie stills / Warner Brothers/Seven Arts, Solar Productions

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10 September 2015

On Books, Humanitarianism and Fashion, with Francisca Mattéoli

Francisca in the Scottish Highlands

Books, stories and travel. Can it get any better than this? When the writer is Francisca Mattéoli, I think, yes, you can expect the very best of everything of the above. Francisca’s writing style has that capacity to leave you wishing for more. More of that beautiful weaving of personal or family experiences with the history and tales of a place that sets her work apart. Thankfully, Francisca writes a wonderful blog, too, where she documents her journeys, never short of inspiring stories. But a book is different, I will admit that, and I will always be of that opinion (especially when, I was happy to find out, the author thinks that the cover does matter). I have the privilege to occasionally exchange emails with Francisca, but when I found out she was going to publish a new book, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to do another interview with her. One other reason was that there were many other subjects I have been eager to approach for some time – like Francisca’s husband’s, dr. Bertrand Mattéoli’s, Chirurgie Plus phylanthropic association, founded to provide surgical and medical know-how to less developed countries. But the truth is, when you have someone as fascinating as Francisca Mattéoli at the other side of the conversation, you kind of wish for the discussion to take any number of directions, with the certainty that the experience will motivate you to learn more, do what you do better and open your eyes, arms and heart to the world.

You are about to release a new book. Can you tell me what it is about?
The title is Map Stories/ Histoires de cartes and it mixes history, personal experiences, stories of great adventurers and maps from all periods. The maps are magnificent. The idea came to me because my grandfather gave me a beautiful South American map when I was a child and it was my first encounter with travel, stories and fantasy. I spent hours imagining the adventures behind each detail, and in this new book, I wanted to pay tribute to this art, the world of travel, and also explain the origin of a place, tell the stories behind a river, a desert, or a road followed by the pioneers for exemple. It will be published in France in November and later in other countries and I love it.

You were recently mentioning on your blog the importance of beautiful books – “that awaken the desire to read, are a pleasure to hold, to offer, to look at – and to keep”. I was relieved to hear this from a writer, because I have always appreciated a book with a beautiful cover and design. Should we judge a book by its cover? Can this also be a way to compete with e-books and digital media?
Well, BIG question. Big questions! I love beautiful objects and beautiful books and if the cover is not appealing I find it less tempting when I am in a book store, it’s true. By chance, today, you see more and more beautiful books – and beautiful covers – because publishers know that a book must be appealing. Concerning «physical books» versus e-books, etc, I love both of them. Really. I love an elegant book, a «real» cover, a paper so creamy that you want to lick it! I love the texture and the feeling that you have when you open the first page, and I will always defend the real books and the incredible pleasure that goes with them, but I also use Kindle when I travel. So, for me, there is no competition. But again, I think that there is a pleasure that only real books can provide.

Why is it important that people continue to read paper books?
Because it represents much more than just a book. It teaches you what is beautiful, what is elegant, what is well crafted, the concept of artisan working. Because when I was a kid, I loved the feeling of paper books, of a library where you could disappear from the adults with a book. All kids need a place where they can disappear from time to time and dive into a world that is only theirs. For me, the pages of my books were a refuge and a wonderful escape.

In our first interview you were telling me that the most rewarding part of being a travel writer was the ability to change the false perceptions about a country and about people. Is it a writer’s, and especially a travel writer’s, job to build bridges between cultures?
Personally, I think so. I come from different cultures – my father is Chilean and my mother Scottish – and the idea of an exchange between cultures is normal for me. But I don’t know how the other writers or travel writers feel about that. Everyone is different and has different motivations.

Do you have a favourite book?
Nope. There are many books and writers that I love. Peter Fleming, Christopher Buckley, John Grisham, Jorge Amado, Francisco Coloane, Philip Roth, among others.

Francisca in Chile, in Atacama

What do you always carry in your travel bag?
My bathing suit. The gym bores me to death, but I can spend hours in the water, so I try to be in hotels with swimming pools where you can really swim or choose a destination where you can also swim.

Your husband, dr. Bertrand Mattéoli, is a plastic surgeon, a specialist in plastic, aesthetic and reconstructive surgery, having undertaken frequent humanitary missions early in his carreer, practising right at the center of the most violent conflicts and in the most poverty-striken countries of our time. An impressive humanitarian work. Dr Mattéoli has also founded the Chirurgie Plus Association, which offers trainings in the best hospitals in Paris to doctors from developing countries and then sends them home enriched with knowledge and expertise. You sometimes accompany him when he visits the hospitals in these countries. What is the most valuable lesson these experiences have taught you?
Well, I think that the most important thing I’ve learned is that rich countries don’t have all the answers, nobody holds the truth.

What is the biggest misconception about non-profit organizations? What has the biggest challenge been so far?
Vast subject. The most common misconception for me is to think that any help is a good help. Sometimes the aid is not suitable at all, unfortunately. Concerning the biggest challenge, I’ll say that it’s important to improve the perception of people concerning the countries in difficulty, not to judge, not think that our way of thinking and living is the best, and try to bring to a country what it really need.

Some of your sponsors are fashion brands. How else can fashion make a difference in our world?
The first thing that comes to my mind is providing employment – a lot of employment.

You are a woman of style. How does fashion fit into your journeys and into your travel stories?
Fashion is everywhere and is often part of a country. In Peru, the typical outfits are gorgeous. In Italy, people are often very elegant. In some countries, fashion is part of the lifestyle. I like to draw inspiration from colours, textures, fabrics, get ideas by looking at how people behave and dress. When I was at the Indian Fair in Santa Fe a few years ago, I saw the famous native american jewellery and so many beautiful typical clothing. I bought a gorgeous silver cuff that I always wear. I like pure and beautiful pieces that last a long time or a classic piece – like a white shirt – that I can make my own. I own clothes from my parents when they were 18 and 20 years old that I still wear regularly! I buy clothes and accessories while traveling, in South America or other countries where the design is independent and more personal, not influenced by labels or trademarks. I don’t take fashion seriously, but I like well crafted things that add character to my style. Also, I am inspired by the world around me and the lifestyle and fashion are part of our world, so they also inspire my writing. Those elements can make me want to write about a place or a country.

One thing you can’t start your day without:
A “café au lait and a tartine” at the café down my street (I am very French in that sense!).

A piece of advice or a life lesson you’d like to share with my readers:
I am not very good at advice, but let’s see. I’ll say, do things your way and do not think that others do better! Everyone has problems, everyone has failures, and everyone does what they can. Be passionate, finish things, and do your things the way you like to do, with people you appreciate and who appreciate you. Show your kids that you love what you do and that you are not lazy, they will understand and will respect you for that. And if you fail, you will have the satisfaction of saying that you have lived a unique and special life that belongs only to you and to no one else.

photos: courtesy of Francisca Mattéoli

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10 September 2015

Style in film: La Dolce Vita

Federico Fellini’s 1960 groundbreaking film, a landmark pointing to important changes in Italian and European society, is a spectacular morality play which has lost none of its relevance in today’s celebrity obsessed world. La Dolce Vita introduced the world not only to the Italian fashion, style and elegance, but also to the profession of unscrupulous, unlicensed celebrity photographer. Marcello Mastroianni plays journalist Marcello Rubini, a tabloid columnist who aspires to be a more serious writer, but knows he will never be, because, like society, he is fascinated by the decadent hedonistic pursuits which are seemingly everywhere.

Piero Gherardi, self-taught in art and architecture, created the overall look of La Dolce Vita. He was costume and set designer, as well as art director. This is a stylish film as a whole, as Gherardi placed equal emphasis on the costumes for both female and male leads. Every scene in La Dolce Vita strikes you as a beautifully styled photograph and the film still guides sartorial aspirations around the globe.

The clothes are again key elements in the construction of cinematic identities. The film may be stylish overall, but it really belongs to Marcello Mastroianni. His character is underpinned by a unique, individual style. His sexually alluring masculinity is established in the very first scene and the character of Marcello Rubini was instrumental in creating what we recognize as the “Latin Lover”. In tailored slim suits with single-breasted jackets and slim ties or fitted tuxedo and bow-tie, crisp shirts with peeking French cuffs, large cuff-links and Persol dark sunglasses (worn indoors and at night – Mastroianni practically invented that – they became more than an elegant and cool accessory, they were an anti-conversation piece, having the ability to shut people out), he stands apart from the paparazzi dressed in wide-cut tweed suits or sweaters and slacks. In his formal clothing, he stands in the shadow, detached and observant.

Mastroianni looks dapper, yet nonchalant and casual from the very beginning to the very end of the film. Dressed to perfection, without looking overly styled, Marcello Rubini, or, better said, Marcello Mastroianni is the quintessential example of the sartorial Italian, the personification of proverbial Italian masculine style. “The day when everyone is very, very elegant,” Mastroianni told GQ in 1964, “I will start to go around dressed like a tramp.”

Anouk Aimée, as wealthy playgirl Maddalena, is Mastroianni’s equal in terms of both elegance and moral depravity. Her costumes are my favourite women’s clothes in the film. We only see her in two little black dresses and a V-neck sweater over a white top, but these are more than enough to make a style statement. The first dress is knee-length, the other one is a sequined evening gown with a low-cut back, long sleeves and side-slit skirt – iconic. Her sophisticated wardrobe epitomises 1950s glamour and early 1960s chic. Her fabulous cat-eye shades, which she wears even at night (“Everything is wrong tonight”… “I’d like to hide, but never manage it … Rome is such a bore … I need an entirely new life.”), inspired Tom Ford create his retro-looking cat’s eye sunglasses which he called “Anouk”. Anouk Aimée drifts through La Dolce Vita with the hauteur of a feline.

It is said (Vanity Fair, September 2012) that it was Cristóbal Balenciaga’s sack dress of ’57 that inspired Fellini’s vision in La Dolce Vita. According to Brunello Rondi, Fellini’s co-screenwriter, “these sack dresses struck Fellini because they rendered a woman very gorgeous who could, instead, be a skeleton of squalor and solitude inside.” There are no sack dresses in the movie, but Fellini smartly presents beauty while exposing the darker, superficial flipside of the ‘sweet life’.

Anita Ekberg’s gravity-defying strapless dress (with a sweetheart neckline and a layered overskirt with a contrast underlay and worn with a white mink stole), blonde locks, fuller figure and American accent juxtaposed with the old Rome in La Dolce Vita. The famous dress from the Fontana di Trevi scene was designed by the Fontana sisters, whose feminine silhouettes attracted international customers, particularly from the film world.

All the costumes in the film were noteworthy, showcasing women from the demi-monde to the respectable to the most glamorous. It also seemed to me that Federico Fellini’s movie reaffirmed the status of the little black dress (there are countless pieces in the film) – the ultimate fashion statement. The black and white dress was also center-stage (I especially like the striped dress below).

In the closing scenes, Rubini wears a white suit instead of a dark one, black shirt and black scarf. He is transformed, he is no more on the safe side, and the clothes symbolize his increased vulnerability.

Photo credit: Riama Film, Gray-Film,Société Nouvelle Pathé Cinéma

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