Last week, I asked my followers what they consider the best fashion film. Here’s the full list of submissions: 

Phantom Thread

Funny Face

Tar 

Black Bag (same submission as Tar, broader category is Cate Blanchett)

The Idea of You (because Anne Hathaway wears a lot of Celine)

Romeo + Juliet

Devil Wears Prada

Marie Antoinette

In the Mood for Love (submitted twice)

Party Girl (nominated 5 times) 

Mad Men (not a movie)

The first 20 min of Overboard

While You Were Sleeping

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

The Sweetest Thing (can anyone corroborate???)

Out of Africa 

Who Are You Polly Maggoo

Atonement 

Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead

Troop Beverly Hills

Casino

Superfly

Chessy’s denim overshirt fit from Parent Trap (the guy who submitted this went to UVM so this makes sense)

Desperately Seeking Susan

Perfect Murder

Of these that I’ve seen, here are my ratings on a 5 point scale: 

Phantom Thread: coincidentally I watched this in theaters on a day when Danny gave me food poisoning with a mushroom omelette. If you’ve seen the film, this is a shocking coincidence. 

Film: 3.5 stars

Fashion: 2 stars. They’re clothes shaped clothes. The costume designer said he didn’t want to emulate too closely the great masters of the era. I think he should have stuck closer to Givenchy and Balenciaga even if it meant stooping to imitation. 

Confession #1 of this substack: I’ve never seen Funny Face. 

Black Bag: I watched this over the weekend after taking the poll. 

Film: 2.5 stars

Fashion: 4 stars especially if we include the interiors. Very Tom Ford coded. 

The Idea of You

Film: 3 stars

Fashion: 3 stars. I’d watch this again on a plane. 

Romeo + Juliet

Film: 5 stars

Fashion: 5 stars. This movie was so sexy it made me think I liked Radiohead. Also shocking that the fashion is maybe even better than in the Zeffirelli version. 

Devil Wears Prada

Film: 4.5 stars

Fashion: 4.5 stars. I feel like they all look really good but there’s nothing crazy covetable. No look lives rent free in my brain. But the fashion business side is so real and I love that. I love how we can all say “I had a Miranda Priestly.” 

Marie Antoinette

Film: 3 stars 

Fashion: 5 stars 

Confession #2: I’ve never seen In the Mood for Love. 

Dracula

Movie: 2 stars

Fashion: 4 stars. I remember suffering through this movie a lot as a kid just to see Winona Rider’s sick fits. 

Confession #3: I’ve never seen Out of Africa. 

Atonement

Movie: 4 stars

Green dress: 100000 stars

Parent Trap

Movie: 5 stars

Fashion: 5 stars but not for Chessy. Meredith Blake? Yes. Lindsay Lohan’s at times cultural appropriation-y outfits also really had me in a chokehold as a kid. 

Desperately Seeking Susan

Movie: 4 maybe? I remember really liking it. 

Fashion: 4.5? I saw it only once over 15 years ago but I do remember liking the fashion quite a lot. 

Final confession: 

I watched Party Girl for the first time last night. It’s perfect. It felt real and important to me? Like the oral history I got of NYC in the 90s by all my bosses who’d be like “you don’t need to pay rent! You just need to go dance on a table and have men buy you drinks! You don’t need to eat! You are POOR but you are YOUNG AND LIVING now DONT GO HOME AFTER STEAMING THESE SAMPLES! Go LIVE!!!” I know that girl many times over but she’s also a real individual. Also it passed the Bechdel test like all the time. And I believe that a lot of fashion archivists are amazing researchers. So the plot works!

Movie: 5 stars

Fashion: 5 stars

WEEKLY MUSINGS:

Song of the week: Aretha’s cover of Eleanor Rigby which slayed in my music league last week.

Snack of the week: strawberry rhubarb pie (it’s rhubarb season!!!)

SUSB Buy of the week: these Gap shorts that are the perfect length and that people got super excited about when I posted. I normally don’t engage with mass market brands but I do know so so so many top talent people have been going to big brands recently because the industry is sooo unstable. If it’s something you need to try in multiple sizes, the Gap isn’t a bad option.