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| from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette |
For our CT(Clothing Technology) 11 class, we were asked to watch a film from the professor's list and relate the question "Is fashion important?" to the film. I chose the movie "Marie Antoinette" that was starred by Kristen Dunst and written & directed by Sofia Coppola.
The first time I heard of the film, it immediately caught my attention because I am personally a fan of films of the classical genre. A part of why I enjoy watching classical films is because of its setting and costume. Even before I became a Clothing Technology student, I have always gave importance and appreciated the costume production of a movie. Having said this, my first point is that fashion is important because it could be a form of documentation. I mean, historians and anthropologists often study articles, documents, and artifacts to understand people and our history, but I've always believed that fashion could tell a lot about a certain group of people's history; their culture, the work they had to endure, the environment they had to deal with, etc. Through fashion we could be able to see the evolution of society and our world.
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| taken from http://www.swoonbrides.net/?p=347 |
As I have mentioned in my previous blog post, fashion is also a social classifier. It has aided in solidifying the social construct up to date. In the movie, we see that certain people wear different types of clothing depending on the social class they belong to. Marie Antoinette being the queen wore clothing that looked similar to those who belonged to the upper class/elite group but still had other identifiers (height of the wig, jewelry, ornaments, etc.) that singled out her sovereignty. Her maids wore uniforms that were for maids and even if they were in the lower-class, they still dressed better than the peasants or workers who lived outside Versailles.
I have come to discover that fashion, or the act of dressing up appropriately, is a form of good manners. When you watch the movie, you tend to wonder how do they have enough time to put on 4-5 layers of clothing just for a stroll in the garden or lunch with their colleagues? After several tumblr and pinterest posts on fashion etiquette, I realized that showing up in appropriate clothing (or showing that you've put effort into your choice of clothes that day) is really a way of giving respect to the other party. It's probably disregarded when we were taught to say please and thank you, but I believe it's something everyone should start practicing. Also, I read in a magazine before that when Lucy Torres Gomez was asked what being "best dressed" meant after obtaining the title she said something like, being best dressed is wearing the right thing in the right time. Just thought I could share that with you :-)
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| taken from http://www.swoonbrides.net/?p=347 |
After hearing all those hefty reasons on the importance of fashion, the last I'd like to give is a more shallow and personal one. I believe fashion is important because it gives pleasure to both men and women. Marie Antoinette was known for being vain, luxurious, and extravagant. In the film we see that she started out juvenile and once she was exposed to the luxury she could have, she grew more fond of it. We see that our love for fashion (especially females) continues to grow with us as we age. Personally, it's also something that delights me, something I could look forward to, and could be a vent or diversion when I'm caught up with other things. I saw myself in Marie Antoinette especially in the parts wherein she went "shopping" or chose all the new shoes and clothes (and food) she wanted. But again, too much of everything isn't good; and that is something we could learn from the movie.
Sources:
[Photograph of Marie Antoinette]. Retrieved August 10, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette_(2006_film)
[Photograph of Marie Antoinette]. Retrieved August 10, 2015 from: http://deseased.tumblr.com/post/66019569376/photographed-in-paris-at-the-centre-historique-des
[Photograph of Marie Antoinette]. Retrieved August 10, 2015 from: http://www.swoonbrides.net/?p=347
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