Paris A/W15: Collections and their Cult Film Counterparts

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Givenchy Menswear A/W15
Givenchy Menswear A/W15

The big-screen moments echoing the Paris runway

Maybe it wasn’t the slit scan techniques featured in John Whitney’s pioneering 1961 short Catalog that Kenzo’s creative directors Humberto Leon & Carol Lim had in mind when piecing together their stratospheric A/W15 collection. Their jumpers, however, tell otherwise. As the menswear season in Paris concludes, we contrast some of the biggest collections with their corresponding scene in film – the cinematic moments that perfectly echo the ideas reverbing off the catwalk.

Words by Trey Taylor

Givenchy = From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Something sinister underpinned Riccardo Tisci’s carpetbag collection, replete with hellish curiosities. Mouths were clamped shut with metal sutures; make-up artist Pat McGrath channelled The Joker with smeared, shell-caked faces. There were enough eerie accessories to kickstart an occult spinoff of Antiques Roadshow. The atmosphere instantly brought to mind Robert Rodriguez and Sarah Kelly’s pulpy vampire flick From Dusk Till Dawn – pecifically, Santanico Pandemonium’s (Salma Hayek) salacious nightclub number. The glowing neons echoed the black suits’ blood red piping, the ruby red dais became a cabaret stage. While satanic on the surface, Tisci’s foray into the fifth circle of hell was totally sinful sex.

Loewe = The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

Francis: “Is that my belt?”

Peter: “Can I borrow it?”

So goes the exchange between brothers Francis and Peter in Wes Anderson’s epic The Darjeeling Limited. Pro tip: it’s always easiest asking to borrow something after you’ve already tried it on. Jonathan Anderson knows that, as his second outing for Loewe revelled in a playful tug of war between garments – models were literally fighting over bags in the images shot by Jamie Hawkesworth. The outsize white trousers and pastel overcoats exalted Anderson’s signature retro romanticism (Wes, that is). Serving up a strong sense of bonding, much like the three brothers in the film, these guys decked out in holidaymaker get-up could just as easily be sulking in the background of The Darjeeling Limited as extras.

Kenzo = Catalog (1961)

“UFO’s are Coming Back” declared Kenzo’s Humberto Leon and Carol Lim with that, and similar futuristic statements (albeit in Wingdings), slapped on their interstellar sendout. Their superfuture populace wore reflective bomber-capes and orange jumpsuits, ready to take off at a moment’s notice. It seemed as though John Whitney’s Catalog was given new life on Kenzo’s striped jumpers. Fashioned out of a WWII anti-aircraft gun sight, Whitney built an analog computer-camera “magic machine” responsible for similar graphic prints. When Special FX wizard Douglas Trumbull came upon Whitney’s pioneering slit scan techniques, he was inspired to use it for a sequence in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Even the best artists steal. Lim & Leon tapped into slit scan CG for their hybrid astral jumpers.