I loved this film when it first came out. I loved Simon Pegg, who even though seemed slightly Americanised, was so silly and British I couldn't help but smile, I loved New York, the city I had only just left for the first time at the start of the year and who held a particular hold on my imagination, I loved the depictions of the fickle world of magazine publishing, I loved the banter and the wit and the cocktail drinking. But most of all, most of all, I loved Kirsten Dunst's adorable wardrobe.
As I mused in a (much) earlier blog post (how things change and how they stay the same!) her style in this movie was such an extension of her off-duty personal style it was almost as if she had styled herself. Of course, in the four years since this movie came out Kiki has changed - she broke up with Jake, she went to rehab, she got a bit of a potty mouth, she started smoking - and her style has gone a bit rough around the edges. Less Lula, more Self Service. But there's something about her - I think it's that coltish grace, that blonde, blonder hair, her particular mixture of froideur and sensuality - that makes her immensely watchable on film and the perfect clothes horse. She wears clothes really well. Always has. I remember adoring her on the pages of my old Teen Vogues, in chucks and bretons with her off-kilter toothy grin. I loved her in Wimbledon in blazers and pretty shirts. I still love her now in trench coats and sofia coppola bags in awful, awful movies.
This movie was all about the shirt. Dunst's character Alison is rarely seen out of one, and her collection runs the gamut of Peter Pan collars, boatnecks, button downs and florals. It was working wear, but with a slightly casual lilt. I think what I like most about Alison's wardrobe was that she never looked dressed up. That was kind of the point, as her character was only at the magazine to pay the bills while she was writing her novel (of course I loved her!). You could tell that from her wardrobe. Her heart wasn't really in it. She paired skirt suits with tee shirts (I tried that one the day after I saw the movie), she wore vintage dresses to fancy events, wore very little makeup and left her cropped blonde mane to its own devices. The result was charming, as Dunst herself is charming - in this movie, in life. It was the look of a New York City Girl who didn't want to subscribe to the New York City regime (yet still reap all of its benefits). It's the kind of career look that I always dreamt of, never corporate, never stuffy, as casual as physically possible. Although the offices of Sharps Magazine was hardly a relaxed office, it seemed like Alison, in her milkmaid braids and baggy silk tee shirts, was just wandering in from the weekend constantly. It was like a whole working week of casual fridays. That has always been my future office attire dream.
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