treason fabulous Great Gatsby Fashion 1920

  Feather Jewelry? Consider. Long strings of pearls? Consider. Brooks Brothers over a meeting of Princeton? Consider. Shoes shows cloche hats and bracelets made of bakelite? Check check, check. The Great Gatsby provides images of 1920s fashion (and a few other times) which we expect to see.

But they did not quite seem as we expect to see. The colors are rich, bespangled dresses, valves and less bold. This is not the Gatsby Gatsby John Held Jr. caricatures or Boardwalk Empire. It's dark, gritty and much more sexy than the priggish Fitzgerald could have imagined. This is a 21 Century Gatsby, set in the 1920s, which paradoxically increases from its connection with the decadent time it shows. If you want historically accurate costumes, you will be better served by PBS. If you want to understand the social and cultural significance of clothing in the 1920s, then this film offers.

Self-proclaimed protector of the novel and your "history buff" neighbors swear Luhrmann's wrong, but there is no "wrong" in an interpretation, old sport. And I know that Camp Luhrmann historical details taken care of, because as an academic who writes about fashion Fitzgerald era, I was in a room with the production designer Catherine Martin Sa asked specific questions about vintage clothing. "Would the tie Gatsby were the tissue or tissue?" She said, pushing samples on the table. "This one, because it is a natural fiber. There were no synthetic until the 1940s." Understanding the history and then decide when and where to use it is different than just ignore it. It is much more important than Luhrmann gets the cultural context of the garment. And it does.

In the film, as in life, socio-economic class defines the dress of a character. In 1920, in New York, the class has been changed. Old money and Tom Buchanan-style lost its grip on the American culture. Gatsby, reaching pushed the limits of "reasonable." Bye bye fractions. Hello tuxedo. Behind the scenes of extravagant parties, Luhrmann mixes the old guard with the new senator from West 10 gallons hat dances with a debutante, Ivy League boys wear white flannel trousers and feel movie stars. Activities no longer flowed, Dr. Veblen. Fashions thrive in the strangest places.

Tom Luhrmann has a kitchen, dark blue, a double-breasted jacket and coat. There remains. Gatsby pink linen suit and sports a modern readers remember in detail because of its connotations with sex. In its cultural context, but the paint was on the class and splendor. Pink striped and paired with a burgundy tie and gold chain bar displays real-time debut Gatsby costume. Tom and Nick on the kind of understatement dress her mother taught her, and she grew on the green quads liable. The contrast between the blue blood and Bootlegger is striking and get moviegoers without multiple references to the exercise Buchanan. If the public wants to get literally, they can hightail it Brooks Brothers. The company, which has the author and his buddies dressed Princeton, has a collection of published Gatsby inspired pants with tapered legs to the Don Draper, certainly not in 1922, but still negotiable.

Women's costumes are more subtle, but equally important for the development of character Luhrmann. Even things that are not clearly 1920 (1950 splitting ridiculous Myrtle Wilson, for example) to display the message: Myrtle does things in bed that your wife does not. Daisy Buchanan is entitled to a social hierarchy matrix connected and believes that "the best thing a girl in this world, a beautiful little fool." True to the text, she wears lavender and lace. The close fit of her dresses 1912 is 1922.

But Jordan Baker is a professional athlete, a party girl. In the book, she lives with her aunt girl a social necessity for a woman of her background. Jordan Luhrmann lives alone and as cut off from the party Gatsby, she screams for Nick to call him. Jordan Fitzgerald wears sports clothes as a sign of his profession and his sensitivity. Jordan Luhrmann is so advanced, it carries species-one in 1930, backless floor length evening dress, a blouse with sleeves wearing a matching cape and pants. Yes, pants. These are not worn as pajamas at night resorts in the late 1920s, the pants. These are palazzo pants, like the ones I wore to my cousin's wedding last summer. Historians should not haggling accuracy. The pants are on site, but the message is about. Daisy wears white cotton dresses. Jordan wears pants.

The main actors are not the only updates Luhrmann. If an Australian film director interprets the social hierarchy of the 1920s in America, everyone gets to go to the party. Public Fitzgerald was white, but the public is not Luhrmann. Expect meaty, black dancers, an Arabian Wolfsheim aspect and see some interracial couples. As usual, Luhrmann steps over the "ideal" body type, or even so closely with the time (: knobby knees and branch-like arms see also) connected. Women thick waist, short, stocky men, and some drag queens make the interpretation of Luhrmann in the 21st Century.

The Costumes of The Great Gatsby not withstand the rigors of academic analysis, but who cares about the story is "real", anyway? The costumes of the film seduce and inspire boater hats, headbands Bejeweled, fringed dresses and all. As part of the magnificent lawn Gatsby Daisy was to win over the bay, Luhrmann pulls a modern audience once more hear a story that they have heard before.