‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ (1961), ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ (2006), and ‘Black Panther’ (2018) are Hollywood milestones which share leaving a legacy in the fashion world and shaping the way people dress from high circles to ordinary people due to their mainstream appeal, they also highlight how fashion is important to produce a film and the tendencies of an era to the point that movies capable of such feats are remembered after generations while their appeal explain the symbiosis between fashion and cinema.
Britain’s Vicky Mather, an award-winning filmmaker and artist who is also a Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for London College of Fashion’s MA Fashion, Film and Digital Production course, in an interview with Big Picture Film Club says that “Fashion and cinema are visual conversations, and those conversations can amplify when these two cultural entities collaborate.”
In some stances, fashion helps tell a cinematic story while in other cinema assists in telling a fashion story, as high-couture houses also employ cinema talents to promote their art and products, and Mather sees an alignment in such relations as talents are bridging both worlds, such as stylist and film director Tom Ford and actress Chloë Sevigny.
“Fashion filmmakers are naturally good at aesthetics. Sometimes this style-first approach can lack substance, narrative, and meaning. Still, the language of cinema can help fashion expand its power through visual storytelling and can capture the essence of a fashion collection through creating a visual world for the clothing to exist within,” believes Mather.
Renowned Brazilian actress Isabel Fillardis started her life as a model at the tender age of 11 years-old becoming a professional at 15 operating in the São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro venues for major brands like Coca-Cola, MacDonald’s L’oreal Paris, and was the first Black artist to star in a TV ad for Lux Luxo and its soap named Pérola Negra (Black Pearl) before enrolling in the upcoming talents of TV Globo and giving life to the character of Ritinha in the telenovela ‘Renascer,’ telenovelas are popular in the South American country and gave platform for talents like Sônia Braga, Wagner Moura, and Fillardis to jump to the silver screen.
Having experience and success in fashion and cinema, Fillardis explains how the symbiosis between cinema and fashion operate in an interview with the Big Picture Film Club: “Cinema is a great doorway to world culture, and fashion dictates an era, a period, or a season (where the story takes place), while helping and collaborating with the overall layout and conception of the film itself.”
A nuanced social climber and a trademark luxury brand
The collaborations between fashion and cinema have led to real-life friendships, such as the one that Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto enjoys with his compatriot, Takeshi Kitano, and German director Wim Wenders, both auteurs and respected artists in the cinema world who have employed Yamamoto’s creations in their stories. Tom Ford might be more known for his clothing prowess, but he is also an acclaimed director, having under his name ‘Nocturnal Animals’ (2016) and ‘A Single Man’ (2009).
There are movies where fashion plays a distinctive role, such as ‘Clueless’ (1995), and ‘Collateral’ (2004), in composing the characters, or are about aspects of the fashion world, such as ‘Blow-Up’ (1966), ‘Neon Demon’ (2016), and ‘Phantom Thread (2017). Among those that carved a legacy and influenced mainstream society are Audrey Hepburn’s tale of a social climber in New York ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ (1961), Meryl Streep turn as a demanding fashion magazine editor in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ (2006), and the African high-tech superhero ‘Black Panther’ (2018).
Fillardis sees a classic film ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ as it “is a film with many layers but it is a film that brings sexist portrait of the 1961 society, where it portrays superficiality, portrays a woman who wants to be rich and believes that is happiness and is surprised when she meets a novelist, a writer, and falls in love.”
Some of the layers of the film, based on a homonymous Truman Capote novel, are in the way it deals with the character development of Holly Golightly (Hepburn) as “the film explores happiness and utilizes fashion as both a shield and a projection of what the main character aspires to be, representing what she believes constitutes happiness. Many people dress up to present themselves as someone else, but deep down, they aren’t like that. So, it’s an interesting film because it’s very layered.”
The Brazilian actress goes beyond to denote how relevant is ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s as “it marks a sophistication for cinema at that time, Audrey with that elegant posture and incredible wardrobe, the hairdos, the pearls, and Tiffany with all that ornamentation dictating the scales, and the way to see how fashion influences character development and contributes to a film.”
In the real world, the picture helped cement the status of the luxury store Tiffany & Co. to the point that it became an attraction for tourists, and their jewellery is coveted by those who want to impress or express their feelings to their loved ones. The picture also influenced the other storytelling products with its depictions of high class and taste, as believed by Mather. “The incorporation of a brand (Tiffany’s) into one of the most famous films of all time, plus Audrey, plus the art direction, the cinematography and New York, and so on presents us with a pure aspirational fantasy world that gives birth to contemporary series that are clearly historically influenced by the film, like for example, Netflix’s Emily in Paris.”
The elegant and funny hell that introduced viewers to the fashion world
Much like ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s,’ and ‘Emily in Paris’ (2020 – ), ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ is another story that uses comedy aligned with fashion to bring a tale depicting aspects of social class, image, and values also serving as showcase stage for Streep’s talent and skill while getting the average viewer closer to the life of a New York fashion magazine.
“The fashion magazine world in 2025 is more dynamic than in the version satirised in ‘The Devil Wears Prada,’ a very funny film that is highly entertaining and watchable- so is ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ (2016). It’s the same thing, and I have met people who remind me of the characters portrayed, but I also remind myself of these characters, so who am I to judge! ‘Thats all!’,” observes Mather.
For Fillardis ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ is also a cinema classic, to whom one of the highpoints of the picture is to talk about fashion and its “backstage corners, the pain and pleasures, its realities” while bringing it to the mainstream public “so we see cinema contributing and informing people, showing behaviours inside a society, inside a layer which is this world of fashion, showing complex and human figures which are behind each character.”
The former model sees a brilliant turn by Streep, who as Miranda Priestly “hides behind all that sophistication, all of that to protect a significant vulnerability, and it portrays exactly what many people have already lived through or are still living with, hiding their pain behind all these major labels, brands, and clothes.” The movie worked, and since we are in a period of legacy sequels and remakes, there is a second part of this story being prepared for cinemas, so Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci will engage in more power and ego disputes while well dressed and will be joined by Justin Theroux and Lucy Liu. ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ will be in cinemas next year, 20 years after the original film’s release.
The African Panther that cuts through prejudice and brings self-esteem
If ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ brought power and ego with sharp-dressed people, Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’ had it but also brought a new look at African fashion with its patterns, designs, and cloths in a picture that not only influenced fashion but also how societies identify Blackness with its bold visuals and narrative surpassing the limitations of the superhero genre with political and social consciousness. A long-time voice for Black civil rights, identity, and representation in Brazil, Fillardis sees in the Ryan Coogler-directed picture a milestone for Hollywood, world cinema, and even Brazilian cinema culture due to the societal changes it brought.
“‘Black Panther’ is another significant mark in national (Brazilian) cinema. ‘Black Panther’ is also a layered picture with many layers inside one film. ‘Black Panther’ brings Black empowerment, the intelligence, the technology and the contribution by Black people to humanity, the aesthetics of the movie for bringing Black royalty shows a new behavior and empowerment not only in fashion and for those who make fashion but to a whole Black populace to understand and reaffirm its identity in Brazil and the world. It is also a significant milestone in national cinema, bringing together diverse influences, a complex array of layers, and multiple directions, as well as vast political and social leanings, which have led to this great rediscovery of Africa,” says Fillardis.
Mather sees in the success of ‘Black Panther’ and the way it portrays Blackness and Black culture in the US and Africa, and part of it comes from the alignment between its fashion sense and cinematic choices. “Both film and fashion are storytelling vehicles that when available to a range of creative people, act as tools for creativity and self-expression, like for example: Afrofuturism, which expands Black narratives into aspirational futures utilising the codes and conventions of science fiction as a genre- so cool!”
For Mather, ‘Black Panther’ opens doors for cinema and fashion storytelling of marginalised groups and the need to have their truth on the screen: “If filmmakers are given the creative freedom along with the collaborators they need to make short form films with contemporary designers, fashion film can be a vehicle for visual activism. It can represent identities and ensure they are celebrated instead of watered down, and the medium can be used to authentically explore complexities and nuance through visual metaphors that widen representation and cultivate a deeper understanding and respect for one another.”
Still, for the results of ‘Black Panther’ to be achieved once more or even surpass the bar it has set, there is a need to have conversations about diversity in decision-making positions within both industries.
“If every story in the world was told by, for example, a middle-aged white man, we would end up living within the confines of that ‘way of seeing’ ultimately shaping our beliefs, values and assumptions for generations- how boring! Expanding representation both in front and behind the camera- as well as the sewing machine, is essential for us to deepen our knowledge of other cultures to develop a wider understanding of cultural identities and expand our global perspective,” exposes Mather.
Knowing more about each other’s craft
‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s,’ ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ and ‘Black Panther’ are movies that show how fashion can help to build characters and tell a story through visual resources that are appealing to the eyes and senses, making cinema a memorable sensorial experience that can also have societal impacts, even leading to conversations and changes.
To achieve such results, it is interesting for people from cinema and those from fashion to not just acknowledge their siblings but also to study the craft of the other, as believe Fillardis and Mather.
“Fashion helps in the development of an identity, whether it be of a character or a movie. Fashion indicates which season we are in, the place we are situated, and the behavior of that character. Therefore, fashion contributes to the construction of a story, one that wants to be told,” evaluates Fillardis.
Mather corroborates Fillardis’ vision: “Fashion is wildly entertaining, super fun, can laugh at itself, but on a more serious note, it’s a reflection of who we are. When you can identify a specific point in time through a film, the styling, makeup, art direction, cinematography or soundtrack- your film becomes a cultural artefact- it’s the same for fashion.”
In addition, Mather who also teaches the subject at London College of Fashion exposes that: “It’s imperative at London College of Fashion that if we are going to be working in this area of branded filmmaking we have the opportunity to not only make it super engaging, but as filmmakers the students have the luxury of being able to just walk upstairs and talk to fashion designers who are trying to reimagine the production of fashion garments in an environmentally, socially and ethically conscious way, and as filmmakers we can do the exact same in terms of film production and storytelling.” Mather is focusing on the future of the fashion and cinema industries to make sure that more professionals know more about both areas, which are indeed forms of art.
‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s,’ ‘The Devil Wears Prada,’ and ‘Black Panther’ have carved their way into the cultural lexicon and will continue to have an influence for years to come, being the subject of study for both veterans and those considering joining its ranks. These movies bring respect to both the silver screen and the closet.
Photo: Isabel Fillardis / Thaís Monteiro
