My number one film style inspiration is Audrey Hepburn in How To Steal A Million. I've talked about how I enjoy the film before but I've been going back to it recently and being inspired all over again. It stars Audrey Hepburn in super mod Givenchy designs and while that could be enough visual stimulation, what I really enjoy is Audrey's character in the film and her motivations for dressing in increasingly theatrical ways. Not to delve too much in the film, but Audrey plays a rather wealthy young woman who thinks she is becoming involved with an art thief and starts to plan a heist. In the process of her supposed future as a criminal she begins dressing as if she is in a spy film--she wears dramatic black lace complete with facial mask and attempts to speak in code. Essentially, she's dressing as she images someone involved in international intrigue and danger will dress, but she's not really involved in anything quite so serious or scandalous. In reality, she's a young woman who is perceiving things as much more exciting than they are and dressing accordingly and it's wonderful. I mean, she's playing a girl after my own heart who's life is not quite interesting but wants to dress as if every day is the plot to a thriller.
I love that feeling when you walk out of a theater or finish a good book and you're still engrossed in the world of the book or movie. Perhaps it changes your stride, makes you look over your shoulder in suspicion every few feet or wish that your friends would spontaneously burst into a musical routine in the middle of the street. Part of that fictional world is still clinging to you and although life is completely normal, you can see this phantasmal image of what could be hovering just outside of reality. In How To Steal A Million, Audrey manages to live as if she's in that fictional world and while it bewilders some of the people around her, she's often so delusional and self-satistified she doesn't notice a thing wrong with her behavior. I'd love to live in that world.
When packing for New York it was such a struggle between practical shoes and interesting dresses and not wanting to accused of "peacocking" but wanting to dress your most interestingly because you're finally surrounded by people who are dressed just as passionately as you. One of my outfits in particular felt so outside of my typical style while sharing the silhouette I feel comfortable in and featuring sandals I've worn quite often this summer. Putting it on I felt squeamish for a minute, wondering "is this really me?" But the greater part of me when back to that idea of theatrical dressing and wondered "does it have to be you?" Can't fashion sometimes also just be dress-up? A chance to walk down the street in an outfit that makes you feel as if you're a few blocks away from international intrigue and you're smuggling a million dollars in diamonds in your purse instead of a granola bar and some chapstick...Sometimes you just want to reject reality.
I love that feeling when you walk out of a theater or finish a good book and you're still engrossed in the world of the book or movie. Perhaps it changes your stride, makes you look over your shoulder in suspicion every few feet or wish that your friends would spontaneously burst into a musical routine in the middle of the street. Part of that fictional world is still clinging to you and although life is completely normal, you can see this phantasmal image of what could be hovering just outside of reality. In How To Steal A Million, Audrey manages to live as if she's in that fictional world and while it bewilders some of the people around her, she's often so delusional and self-satistified she doesn't notice a thing wrong with her behavior. I'd love to live in that world.
When packing for New York it was such a struggle between practical shoes and interesting dresses and not wanting to accused of "peacocking" but wanting to dress your most interestingly because you're finally surrounded by people who are dressed just as passionately as you. One of my outfits in particular felt so outside of my typical style while sharing the silhouette I feel comfortable in and featuring sandals I've worn quite often this summer. Putting it on I felt squeamish for a minute, wondering "is this really me?" But the greater part of me when back to that idea of theatrical dressing and wondered "does it have to be you?" Can't fashion sometimes also just be dress-up? A chance to walk down the street in an outfit that makes you feel as if you're a few blocks away from international intrigue and you're smuggling a million dollars in diamonds in your purse instead of a granola bar and some chapstick...Sometimes you just want to reject reality.
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