The Influence of Film and Fashion and the Impact on Cultural Traditions of Behavior - Essay Example

?Client’s The influence of film on fashion and the impact on cultural traditions of behavior Films have had a strong impact on the both the spread of trends and on the behaviors that go along with those trends. Film influences on fashion has acted to further democratize the consumer as the trends created in films have become available to people of all class levels. The way in which people dress has usually been developed with the additional mirror of behaviors in films that exemplify trends through attitude and patterns of communication. The way in which people mimic dress and behaviors from a film, if it becomes a part of widespread trends, will change some of the foundation of how people interact and behave towards one another. The film industry has also used this as a tool to create messages with the intent of changing and challenging cultural trends. In looking at the way in which fashion and behavior has been influenced by film, it is clear that the film industry has had a monumental impact on the way in which the event of going to the movies has a broader influence than merely the entertainment value that is offered. The existence of fashion in film is a form of communication that lends to the overall intent of each scene. According to Munich, the fashion in film gives further meaning to the communication that is intended by the look that has been created to enhance the overall design and look. Fashion and costuming becomes a part of the set design, the color of the walls being in balance with the color of the dress, the forms and structures of each element of the scene, including the clothing that the actors wear, a carefully constructed ‘painting’ that gives to each scene the depth that will provide the messages that the meaning intends to convey. The look is a part of the overall communication, tying the fashion to cultural meanings and emphasizing new ways of viewing when done well. The meanings behind fashion have often been in creating a sense of social class, but through film these meanings become conveyed to all classes. According to what Munich has written, “Film offers fashion to the masses and is an avenue to its democratization” (5). To understand this idea, the concept of classes as determined by the bottle of Coca Cola is a good parallel. A bottle of Coca Cola is a classic example of how the consumer culture is equalized through transactions. A bottle Coca Cola is worth the same amount of money to someone who is poor as it is to someone who is wealthy. No one pays more or less for a better or worse bottle of the product (Pendergrast 15). In this same vein of thought, Munich has suggested that fashion has been equalized through the same process as fashion becomes accessible for cloning to those in lower class levels as well as higher class levels (5). The visual opportunity to see styles and concepts allows for fashion to infiltrate sectors of the society that would not have had this opportunity in other time periods where accessibility was as easily attained. In designing clothing for the public, a designer must not only have a sense of how the evolution of the history of fashion has transpired, but must have a sense of what is important within the culture so that the clothing continues that communication. Film influences the direction that cultural thought processes are developed, and how the dress of a film has been developed in order to understand those thought processes further can be transferred as a part of the communication and message. An example of this type of influence can be seen through the film Annie Hall directed by Woody Allen. In the film, the lead character Annie Hall, played by Dianne Keaton, wears a specific wardrobe that has a masculinized representation. The wardrobe includes menswear in the form of hats, ties, and menswear style fabrics. The look was casual, oversized, and detailed with feminine pieces to give a sophisticated, cross gender look. After the release of the film, the look as it was created by Ralph Lauren, was duplicated throughout all levels of fashion outlets, creating a sensation in the fashion industry (Steele 336). This spread of the look throughout the industry allowed for the democratization as suggested by Munich and further discussed by Steele, as all levels of fashion outlets took elements of this look and provided it to the public. This democratization created a significant shift in the fashion industry as Steele states by saying “The accessibility of film fashion has become a hugely significant in their appeal. In the 1970s and the 1980s fashion had become about what people wear, not what they might fantasize about wearing” (337). Because of the influence of film in general, people were further equalized and pulled out of their class distinctions by the availability of fashions that reflected high end styles at consumer friendly costs. While fashion is a part of the influence created by film, it is more than just the clothing that is translated into the popular culture. As an example, there was in increase in the sales of long black coats after the release of the movie The Matrix. The dark sunglasses and long, black trench coat began to be seen on young men, adapting an aloof attitude and creating a sense of detachment from the real world (Miller 49). This was seen in the 1980s as the concept of ‘breakdancing’ was picked up on from movies as it moved throughout the United States as a form of expression that took place on cardboard boxes in convenient ‘street’ locations. When the movie Breakin was exported to China in 1987, the power of the influence was such that the break dancing craze then began to emerge as a Chinese cultural behavior (Wu 30). The equalization process of fashion as it is revealed within films can be shown to have more than clothing as a product. Dancing, as shown in this film, became a cultural phenomenon in the United States, then was transported into a nation with a very different root culture, but still took hold and came into fashion. The hip hop culture as it was spread throughout Middle America from the West Coast and from the East Coast is primarily due to the translation of that culture onto film. The fashions, the methods of interaction, the ideas behind the culture, and the cultural behaviors have spread through films such as Flashdance, which was released in 1984 and used scenes with the dance crew Rock Steady Crew, until they became highlighted in Breakin and Breakin 2, and finally in Electric Boogaloo. Along with influences on Chinese culture, these films influenced France, Japan, and Cuba in significant translations of the hip hop culture fused into their own cultural adaptations of what they perceived from film (Price 91). As these films were more lighthearted in nature, the development of more serious studies on hip hop culture further increased the interest in the fashions and attitudes that were perpetuated within hip hop. Films like Idlewood and ATL developed concepts of hip hop culture from a position of depth, the films having a deeper sense of humanity and less stereotypical behaviors in order to create a better understanding of the cultural phenomenon (Leiter 57). These films created a sense of reality and gritty detail to the isolation of regions of cultures within the United States, taking the equalizing virtue of fashion in film to present a stark contrast of the reality of the separation of classes within the country. The irony is, of course, that the styles and behaviors of hip hop have now become a part of all class structures, crossing gender and race lines and becoming a part of the general cultural fashion. The fashions shown on film have crossed into a variety of levels of distinctions within the culture, influencing women, men, young and old, and crossing race lines in order to spread the nature of those cultural distinctions through communications of meaningful commentary within a film. Those who choose to align themselves with the beliefs that are developed within the film will often adapt to the physical appearances that reflect those belief systems. An example of a film that commented on the nature of reading the way a person is through a study of the way they present themselves can be seen in the comedy Working Girl. The film stars Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford and is centered on a lower level worker who is adept at her job, but who does not rise above her station until she changes her appearance and presentation, falsifying her true position within a company. The message was very clear. Women who wear their hair in large, teased up styles with clothing that is colorful and creative are not taken seriously. In order to compete at a high level, clean lines and understated clothing, along with a more relaxed and less fussy hairstyle were needed to be accepted as having the pedigree to compete. According to Radner “The film was not simply about women, but about recognizing an underpaid, feminized segment of the work force, contributing to a larger social sensibility” (64). As a result, the fashion of the word secretary was excluded from polite conversation as an insult, and replaced with the word assistant. While the fashion of the word changed, the underpaid sector of the work force that is primarily populated with women has remained underpaid and overworked, without much change in the nature of the social segment (Radner 64). While the idea was to promote change, the result was promoted a fashionable change in vocabulary. This same discussion was picked up again in the film Legally Blonde in which the tongue in cheek message was given that being blond and curvy was not the same as being incompetent. Melanie Griffith, when speaking about her role in Working Girl stated that “I think that women who have sexuality are judged. ‘Oh you’re blond. You’ve got breasts and a behind so you are stupid’. And that makes me really angry” (Radner 64). This message was picked up in the film Legally Blonde and taken further, the lead character’s sexuality used as a tool to get her into Harvard where she then showed that her good grades and out of the box thinking were a part of a high level of intelligence. In this case, the lead character was rejected by her boyfriend as not having the serious nature that was required of a man seeking political office. In her signature pink high heels and lipstick, the character asserted the feminine as intelligent, even if she did not belong to the same class distinction. In this case, the rich were divided by old money and new money, their financial assets not as important as their family heritage in combination with their financial assets. In both of these films, the use of fashion was a defining factor, one reigning in the creativity of women while the other promoted its use. In the case of films like Working Girl and Legally Blonde, the use of fashion is a tool to influence the way in which society has taken a specific perspective on an issue and to challenge that position within the film. The film Working Girl took the concept of dress and used it to the advantage of the main character, but the film also sent the message that to succeed one needed to know how to adapt to a higher level of the use of fashion. On the other hand, Legally Blonde took this same point and used fashion as a way to point out the dysfunction of belief systems that judged people and gave or took away opportunities merely on the basis of physical representation. Ironically, the message that placed appearance on trial in Legally Blonde did not seem to have near the influence within society than did the film Working Girl which clearly made the statement that looking the part is more important than being qualified for the part. Even though the character in Legally Blonde never compromised her own sense of style, the character in Working Girl went through a fashion transformation, thus suggesting that the exterior is an important part of the way in which the American public expresses its sense of belonging within the class system that has developed under consumerism. In the end, it is consumer behavior that is influenced by film, which is then given to behaviors within society that alter the way in which people relate to one another. The most clearly understood shift is in seeing that the hip hop culture has become a part of the general culture and is no longer isolated to the urban setting. This has occurred through film the influences of film. The adaptation of hip hop cultural influences has crossed social boundaries and is no longer defined by gender, race, or age. The fashion of the time period has become based upon the influences and developments that are not related to the entire country, but have influenced most of the country, and even into other nations, through exposure to the culture that is glamourized on film. Understanding these changes has been a combination of understanding cultural influences, as well as consumer behaviors as they have the ability to reflect what they have seen on the screen through the clothing that they purchase and the attitudes that they adopt. Changes in the way in which women are viewed in the work place has taken place through the assertion that fashion has an influence in determining the level of intelligence that a woman may have within her. Films of this nature have shown that women who have been put into the positions of less power are often portrayed with a poor sense of style, but elevation according to skills means that there is an automatic elevation of style sense. This type of influence affected the way in which women represented themselves in the business world in order to achieve their goals. Films are both reflective and influential, creating a symbiotic relationship with culture in order to reflect what is going on and to then influence how it will change in the future. Films equalize the audience, allowing for a belief that anyone can achieve the events they have seen, if only through reflecting what the characters wore in the movie. Works Cited Leiter, Andrew B. Southerners on Film: Essays on Hollywood Portrayals Since the 1970s. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland, 2011. Print Miller, Carolyn H. Digital Storytelling: A Creator's Guide to Interactive Entertainment. Amsterdam: Focal Press, 2004. Print. Munich, Adrienne. Fashion in Film. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011. Print. Pendergrast, Mark. For God, Country and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It. New York: Basic Books, 2004. Print. Price, Emmett G. Hip Hop Culture. Oxford: Abc-clio, 2006. Print. Radner, Hillary. Neo-feminist Cinema: Girly Films, Chick Flicks and Consumer Culture. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print. Steele, Valerie. The Berg Companion to Fashion. Oxford: Berg, 2010. Print. Sumathi, G J. Elements of Fashion and Apparel Design. New Delhi: New Age International, 2002. Print. Wu, Juanjuan. Chinese Fashion: From Mao to Now. Oxford: Berg, 2009. Print. Read More