Arriving amidst much excitement is a series of sketches by Prada for their collaboration with costume designer Catherine Martin on The Great Gatsby. Vogue exclusively broke the images. Vogue of course is a fashion magazine and Prada is a fashion label; The Great Gatsby is a film and what the characters wear within it are costumes. There is overlap because The Great Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann apparently brought Prada on board, or more specifically their creative director Miuccia Prada to work alongside Catherine Martin, Luhrmann’s wife. To all intents and purposes this is a partnership. Perhaps to those unfamiliar with the intricacies of costume design it may unfold thus: Miuccia and Martin discuss the clothes characters will wear, agree, Prada goes off and makes them, Luhrmann points his camera and the result is enjoyed by all. Rarely however do these situations play out that simply.
Fashion has enjoyed – or maybe that should be endured – a long relationship with cinematic costume. From the disastrous days of Coco Chanel designing for films during 1930s, fashion has attempted to exploit the medium as a form of self promotion. Possibly ‘exploit’ is too strong a word, though unless a designer’s work is recognisable on screen we have to question exactly what is the point of such a collaboration in the first place? Take Giorgio Armani’s designer wardrobe for Richard Gere in American Gigolo; it made the brand. The film is an out-and-out catwalk parade. We remember the clothes, we remember Gere wearing the clothes, but how many people remember the name of Gere’s character? This was certainly a blessing to Armani as Julian was a loathsome individual who traded in people and paid the price. Even so, these garments expressed his character perfectly; Julian loved clothes and we needed to know that he loved himself wearing them.