The Virgin Suicides

On Sunday some amazingly talented and generous friends, one extremely cute model and myself finally photographed a lookbook for my first collection! It was a long day but so much fun, and I can’t wait to share the results with you.

For now though I thought I better get around to talking about the other film that I kind of based my collection on/was inspired by. Like Stealing Beauty, it’s another one that’s already had plenty of time and discussion for it’s amazing visuals in the blog world and everywhere I guess- Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides.

There is so much to talk about with this film. I particularly like Tavi’s discussion of it here. For me though, in terms of this collection at least, I was particularly taken with the 70's suburbia and dreamlike quality of the visuals, as well as it’s excellent not-too-spelt-out discussion of what I think is a very particular and very common female experience of puberty, coming of age and loss of innocence and the various confusing and contradicting messages that society sends girls at that particular moment in our lives (specifically a western culture version of these experiences). I feel like it pairs particularly well with Stealing Beauty  because of this common theme between the two, as well as the obvious ‘virgin’ theme that runs through both of them (though I am less interested in that).

I also feel like the films go well together because of the way that the main characters are portrayed. I mentioned in my post about Stealing Beauty how the main character, Lucy, was criticised as being stupid, or undeveloped and hollow. Similar criticisms are also sometimes levelled at Sofia Coppola’s films, that her characters are ‘empty’ or that there is little substance to her films beneath all that sensual visual style. Like I said about Stealing Beauty, I really disagree. I feel like the girls in The Virgin Suicides, and also the main character in another of Coppola’s films Lost in Translation (an all time favourite of mine) don’t need masses of dialogue or explanation in order to be able to associate with and understand them. Their characters are developed through silences, through the way they create their own interior spaces of reflection (the girls bedroom in The Virgin Suicides and the way Charlotte bums around in undies and decorates her hotel room in Lost in Translation) . I feel like these spaces sort of represent an intense interior world for these characters. Coppola also depicts them in silent activities of reflection: Cecilia’s diary is a huge point of focus in TVS and Charlotte is often pictured in reflective activity such as listening to self help tapes, looking out the window or visiting a temple. I like the way these films don’t have to spell out what these characters are thinking, it is enough just to communicate that they are confused, and looking for something. These are characters in crisis. Anna Rogers put’s it wonderfully: "Her protagonists are unformed characters in crisis at bifurcation points and open to the changeable flux of the world. As a filmmaker, then, her speciality is visually mapping the world of someone who is lost in his environment, who is alienated from those surrounding him and, for want of a better phrase, suffering an existential crisis... What often becomes apparent from this is the probing and often melancholic nature of her subject matter: the perennial human need to understand, to fit in and find an identity for oneself and the coping mechanisms invoked when the world remains indifferent to this need."

This whole self-relective thing comes through in Stealing Beauty too in a similar way, with Lucy often depicted in her own world with her headphones on, or writing bad poetry in her diary. (She’s a teenager and she’s trying to work out who she is and what she wants ok! Let her write some bad poetry if she wants to, geez :P)

So essentially, my collection was inspired by young women in their search for identity and sense of self in this confusing culture of ours. They are not prepared to sit back and accept the fate that society is prescribing for them perhaps. They are looking for something more. They have rich and mysterious and fascinating interior landscapes. In their search for identity they are trying to do what we are all trying to do I suppose. To me, this thoughtfulness and questioning makes them intelligent women and wonderful characters. I tried to get across this feeling of reflection and confusion and 'existential crisis' in the shoot on Sunday, but also just cute and youthful femininity too! The collection itself features a lot of the iconography associated with women of this particular age as represented in these films- lots of white fabric, floaty dresses, some little mini-dresses and white blouses. I guess that the biggest visual inspiration for the clothes I made is the 70’s costumes and vibes of The Virgin Suicides. More of that very soon though... for now, inspiration pics!

And some Lost in Translation stills for good measure:

P.S. I just today picked up my copy of the new Frankie, which has a little feature on Frances Baker!! So incredibly exciting, I am just about jumping out of my skin! Just wanted to say Hi to any new readers and thank you so much for stopping by :)