Inspiring Fashion Trends from the 1980s movies

In our last blog, we highlighted some iconic fashion trends influenced by the movies in the 50s. This week we move ahead in time and explore the trends from the 80s. The era of stirrup pants and other such iconic trends were immortalised by some of the greatest movies, such as:

American Gigolo: 

Fashion in films usually focuses on women’s apparels, but American Gigolo defined men’s fashion in the 80s. The stylish power suits designed by Giorgio Armani and worn by Richard Gere started a generation of men adopting silk, linen, and Italian cotton suiting. The Armani wardrobe remains a touchstone for well-dressed men till date.

Flashdacnce: 

Starring Jennifer Beals, Flashdance, inspired fans to wear leg warmers and leotards as a fashion accessory.  The movie also pioneered the trend of oversized sweat shirts with one shoulder on display. In fact, the inspiration for this trend is still visible in the reappearance of leggings and asymmetrical detailed outfits. 

Desperately Seeking Susan: 

This film starring the ultra-fashionable pop star, Madonna, introduced the girly-punk that ruled the decade. The movie not only popularised, but showed new ways of wearing mesh tanks, bustier as a top underneath the blazers, chunky jewellery and heavy makeup.  

Pretty in Pink: 

The movie is about a young girl with talent for sewing, unique sense of style and passion for vintage. As the story suggests, the movie created huge fashion trends -- from ladies gym inform to linen suits. Undoubtedly, the movie made a huge wave of fashion trend among the younger generation.

Slaves of New York: 

This movie features a green faux fur coat, which was an instant hit in the fashion circuit. Stephen Sprouse, an American fashion designer, designed the clothes for Slaves of New York. The green coat, the eccentric hats and the overall avant-garde style of the designer created fashion trends, which were remembered in the fashion circuit for a long time.

There were other movies like ‘Wall Street’, ‘Liquid Sky’, ‘Heathers’, and ‘The Breakfast Club’ that created some iconic fashion trends in the 1980s.  

Five Memorable Fashion Trends Inspired by Movies

Movies have played a very important role in setting fashion trends for generations. Here some unforgettable fashion trends that have inspired designers till date:

The Seven Year Itch: 

This movie, which ruled the trends of 1950s, showcased the whimsical fashion sense of Marilyn Monroe. Her iconic dresses, especially the white halter that that was blown up over a street vent, has now become a legendary symbol of sensuality.

Funny Face: 

Audrey Hepburn set a trend through her movie ‘Funny Face’. In the movie, Audrey plays the girl-next-door who goes on to becoming a fashion model. In Funny Face, she introduced the all-black look with her black turtleneck, black cigarette pants, and black pair of flats. And, this trend was followed for generations.

Cat on the Hot Tin Roof: 

In this 1958 movie, Elizabeth Taylor created quite a sensation with her white cocktail dress. Still popular in the fashion circuit, this white chiffon keen-length halter neck dress is considered as an embodiment of elegance.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s: 

The ‘Little Black Dress’, which was designed by Coco Channel in the 1920s, gained popularity when Audrey Hepburn wore it in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ in the 1960s. The dress created such a huge trend that even till date the ‘Little Black Dress’ or ‘LBD’ is a staple in most wardrobes.

Annie Hall:

The 1977 ‘Annie Hall’ created yet another popular trend, when Diane Keaton wore all men’s suit with style. This fearless experimentation in fashion quickly caught on, and women all over the world were seen following this trend.

The Rise of E-commerce in Fashion

World’s biggest national and international fashion brands are venturing into e-commerce. In 2014, about 40 million consumers shopped online in India. This number is anticipated to go up to 65 million in 2015.

A decade ago no one anticipated that e-commerce would rise to such an extent. Today, e-commerce has not only evolved, but has also opened up many doors -- from creating new ways of shopping to providing an established platform for young designers to showcase their talent.

Flipkart

 The other trend that is seen recently, is the rise in e-commerce mobile apps. In fact, it is reported that leading portals like Myntra and Flipkart will eventually become mobile app-only stores.

Myntra

This trend of mobile apps in e-commerce is just the beginning. Both Myntra and Flipkart have witnessed that customers have started to prefer mobile apps than shopping through laptops and computers. In fact, this trend is said to be followed by over 70% of the customers in India in the coming years.

Fashion Inspirations from Wendell Rodricks and Anjana Sharma

The students of Whistling Woods- Neeta Lulla School of Fashion are mentored by acclaimed designers and professional from the fashion industry. Furthermore, our ‘Masterclasses’ expose the aspiring designers to the ever dynamic world of fashion. Our latest Masterclass held on 17^th April, 2015 was all about drawing inspirations from the works of leading Designer Wendell Rodricks and, Anjana Sharma, COO and Fashion Director of Stylista.

 

At the Masterclass, Wendell and Anjana discussed various aspects of fashion design with the students. Wendell started off by sharing his journey and experiences as a designer. He also spoke about how he draws inspiration from the the colours, serenity and beauty of  nature, sea, flowers and trees, which he demonstrated through a beautiful presentation and showed how he translates his inspiration into breathtaking designs.

Wendell was also inspired by his birthplace, Goa and its natural beauty. It inspired him to create some brilliant designs, which he shared and presented with stories of Goa and how it translate into his designs.

He believes that creativity and practicality should be given equal importance in the field of fashion. He also encouraged the aspirants, not to limit themselves to just one aspect of fashion, but to enjoy and explore as much as they can. Along with exploring, designers need to be well-aware about the different fabrics and textiles while creating new designs and his one golden advice to the students was that, “a designer should never be afraid of scissors.”

Anjana Sharma, on the other hand, shared great insights on fashion and market trends. Her discussion helped the students to better understand why the balance between commercial knowledge and creative brilliance is of importance, in the fashion industry.

This insightful Masterclass culminated with the two honorary guests conducting a one-on-one mentoring session with the graduating batch, where they shared their design ideas for their ‘Graduation Day’ collection. 

Overall, the Masterclass and post-Masterclass session gave our students some great insight regarding the aesthetics of fashion designing alongwith inspiring the aspirants to put their soul into their art.

Trends for Wedding Season 2015

The wedding season is just around the corner and the recent fashion weeks (Lakme and Amazon Fashion Week) have given enough inspiration this time round. The wedding attire during the warm weather usually calls for bright colours and light fabrics. But this year’s collections have redefined the expected giving fashion a whole new level. Here are some of the trends that will be seen in the coming wedding season.

Black and White: Breaking from traditional colours like red and maroon, designers are going for the classical neutral colours- black and white. In weddings where most people go for bright colors, designers like Anamika Khanna have shown a newfound appreciation for the black and white combination. 

Mix-match Fabrics: The other aspect that designers are playing with is the fabrics. They are playfully blending fabrics like jute and silk and sheers that are being draped over linens. Designers like Payal Singhal have used soft materials to complement sturdy fabrics. 

Simplicity: Wedding wear generally has heavy work done on it. But this season designers are adopting simplicity by using minimal patterns. They are also going for deep colours like blue to bring out the effortless beauty. 

Bold Prints: The other side of simplicity was also explored by fashion designers this season. Be it geometric, floral or animal motif prints are a huge part of bridal wear. 

Neon attack: Neon is here to stay for a long time and now they are also entering the bridal wear. As a colour neon captures attention, therefore, will suit a bride perfectly. Fashion Designer Anushree Reddy showed the power of neon beautifully in her collection. 

These are just few trends that are prominent this wedding season that brides will don for various occasions. So, explore your own style and enjoy this wedding season!

Rainy Fashion

Shine Bright like a Diamond

Clothes, shopping and fashion are some of the things that humans cannot live without. A large amount of money is spent on buying the latest trends and boy, do we spend! The graceful gowns, the stylish dress, and the trendy denims all lead to lighter pockets. Manish Malhotra, Rocky S, Gucci, Gabbana and the who’s who create some of the most alluring garments that we have no other choice but to bag! Yet the prices of these apparels pale against some of designers who have created extraordinary creations and of course a price tag to match. We have compiled a list of the most expensive garments ever made, and most of which have used a girl’s best friend: Diamonds.

Debbie Wingham's The Abaya

British designer Debbie Wingham created The Abaya, which would have sounded like any other creation if not for the fact that the price tag flaunted is a cool £11.7 million. The dress is a loose over-garment, a robe like dress, worn mainly in the Middle East. It is a detailed work, but the main appeal of the creation lies at the center of the dress in which the world’s rarest and most expensive diamonds dazzle. It is said that one in every hundred million diamonds is a natural red color which on average are found every 50 years, but are too small to grab attention, so getting a cluster of them is quite an achievement. 

Debbie Wingham working on The Abaya

Besides using red diamonds, the dress is crafted using fifty 2 carat white and black diamonds, which are all set in platinum. The dress is hand-stitched in 14 carat white gold thread, all of which has made this one pricey dress. 

Debbie Wingham's work

This British designer seems to fancy diamonds a lot. Wingham’s creation for the Ukraine Fashion Show was encrusted with fifty 2 carat black diamonds and the dress amounts to a staggering £3.5 million. 

Debbie Wingham's work

The work on the bustier is handmade (which is six months worth of work) and boasts a center piece of five carats of black diamonds, securing a position on every girl’s wish list.  

Faisol Abdullah's Nightingale of KL

Another designer by the name of Faisol Abdullah created a Nightingale of KL, which is a vibrant red gown with a splendid 750 pieces of diamonds and Swarovski crystals and that is not all, the added 70 carat tear drop diamond surely adds a spark to the dress.

Marilyn Monroe

Let’s conclude with a bit of history. The gorgeous Marilyn Monroe delivered a sultry ‘Happy Birthday’ to President John F. Kennedy wearing a sheer and sheath flesh-colored jewel-encrusted dress. Rumor has it that the gown was so tight that Monroe was sewn into the gown.

Marilyn Monroe's gown

These are just a few examples there are many more designers who have created some extravagant clothing using the ever-loving diamonds taking luxury to whole different levels.