Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Will Woody Allen revive 1930's fashion for men?

Tiki Tom

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,397
Location
Oahu, North Polynesia
Couldn't decide if I should put this under "the moving picture" or here.

"In his new movie, Woody Allen exalts the fashions that ruled in the ’30s, when glamour and comfort went hand in glove."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...allen-do-an-annie-hall-for-men-s-fashion.html

Given the bombardment of images we get over the internet, I'm not sure a single movie can carry the clout and fashion influene that it once might have carried. In short, I doubt the movie will have the sort of impact that this article suggests.

Still I was happy to read that the skinny suit is on its way out. Quote: "Overall, the menswear silhouette has begun loosening up over the past few seasons. It's a slow shift, but many brands are moving away from that very skinny, strictly tailored suit that was the look for many years."
 

Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,252
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
No.

I am as big a fan of Allen as you will find, but his movies have zero impact beyond a small domestic audience, and a somewhat more enthusiastic audience outside the US. He's done so many films set in the twenties/thirties/forties already... But in a fifty year career, his only movie that had any influence on fashion was Annie Hall.
 

tropicalbob

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,954
Location
miami, fl
No.

I am as big a fan of Allen as you will find, but his movies have zero impact beyond a small domestic audience, and a somewhat more enthusiastic audience outside the US. He's done so many films set in the twenties/thirties/forties already... But in a fifty year career, his only movie that had any influence on fashion was Annie Hall.
You're right about the audiences, but Allan's very big in France and a film like this could make an impression on the designers. Fashion design is all about constant change, and the super-skinny, super-tight look, meant for 14-year-olds, is about due for a reversal, as it's been around now for about ten years. I've had the feeling that a lot of these clothes are going to look as ridiculous and uncomfortable as they really are in the very near future.
 

emigran

Practically Family
Messages
719
Location
USA NEW JERSEY
Woody Allen is a period and décor wizard... see Curse of Jade Scorpion as just one example... clothes, lamps, office sets, fabrics... fabulous...
But I agree that probably anywhere out of the USA (particularly NYC or LA) his work is much less appreciated.
 

Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,252
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
Actually, his films are generally far more appreciated in Europe than they are here. And I suspect that much of the rest of the world is a lot less fixated on his ugly personal issues, and can more easily keep them separate from his work: we are more puritanical and unforgiving of the messy aspects of human nature here.

But yeah, if his many beautifully designed twenties-to-forties-set films of the past (Zelig, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Radio Days, Sweet and Lowdown, Shadows and Fog, Bullets Over Broadway, Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Midnight in Paris, Magic in the Moonlight) haven't had an impact on fashion, I don't know why this new one would be any different.
 
Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
Even the Baz Lurhman's movie version of "The Great Gatsby" a few years back - which got a lot of press and press about the clothes, and a line of clothes dedicated to the movie at Brooks Brothers - didn't really move the men's fashion needle. Hence, I doubt the more niche-like Allen movie will have any impact. But as noted above, Allen's movies are incredible period-detail eye candy for Fedora Lounge members.
 

Upgrade

One of the Regulars
Messages
126
Location
California
Nowadays, people tend to associate "baggy" with "ill-fitting".

For example, here's the NBA draft pick in their suits from 2003 vs. 2013

aAIFbCB.jpg
 
Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
Wow, that says a lot - which is why they say a picture is worth...

In both pictures though, the majority of the trousers are meaningfully too long. That's odd, isn't it?
 

Mathematicus

A-List Customer
Messages
379
Location
Coventry, UK
Ah, trousers in early 2000s! I used to hate them: so baggy, so shapeless.

However, when the crotch-wrenching models came...

I still have a suit bought around 2003 which almost fits; it's the only recent suit I enjoy to wear.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
109,249
Messages
3,077,272
Members
54,183
Latest member
UrbanGraveDave
Top