Where would the fashion industry be without television and film (and vice versa)? Haven’t we all dashed out to buy a Cillian Murphy flat cap in the hope of being mistaken for a Birmingham thug after a dose of Peaky Blinders on Netflix? Or a pair of block heels so we can copy Carrie Bradshaw, queen of New York, in HBO’s And Just Like That … ? Might we have imagined ourselves to be Prada-inspired, mid-century clothes horse Beth Harmon in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit? Or fancied a frilly frock as sported by Terence Stamp in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert?
BBC’s Peaky Blinders. Photo: BBC
Even if we’ve never actually dressed up with quite so much flair or affectation, we’ve all probably thought how a certain on-screen style might suit us; and some of us have acted on those thoughts.
Advertisement
Trailing in the considerable wake of the billowing, bejewelled ball gowns of Bridgerton (Netflix), for example, came fashion’s accessible versions. Whether real-life wearers fancied themselves debutantes in early 19th century England, being wooed by dukes and flirting with high-society scandal, is unknown, but saucy necklines and puff sleeves certainly meant profits for high-street suppliers of Bridgerton-inspired clobber.
In 2021, online shopping company Lyst reported a 93 per cent increase in searches for corsets, no less, as soon as the Bridgerton girls began fluttering their feathered headbands. Search figures for empire-line dresses and elbow-length gloves went the same way.
A scene from Bridgerton (2020). Photo: Netflix
Comparatively inaccessible fashion wasn’t going to miss out on the fun, either. Chanel and Dior tapped into Regency-era fever in their haute couture collections the same year; and Dolce & Gabbana weighed in by offering brocades and enamelled flower necklaces. Making the most of Anya Taylor-Joy’s turn as chess prodigy Harmon, Prada subsidiary Miu Miu had its spring-summer 2021 catwalk lead directly to the 1950s and 60s.
Overt brand collaboration, meanwhile, has long been a friend of film. Witness Prada’s creation of costumes for the 2021 movie The United States vs Billie Holiday. From Quantum of Solace (2008) to No Time to Die (2021), James Bond’s suits were tailored by Tom Ford. Other clothing company acknowledgements in movies’ closing credits are, of course, legion.
Anya Taylor-Joy in The Queen’s Gambit. Photo: Netflix
So much for Western tastes. In the late 1990s, the Korean wave started to swamp Asia. According to a 2021 academic paper on humanities and social sciences, it hit an early peak in China in 1997, with television drama What is Love? By 2014, with 14.5 billion viewings on mainland online platforms, Korean fantasy-comedy-romance series My Love from the Star was persuading chunks of its audience to shop for “Korean-style” clothes: odd shirt collars and skinny ties, anybody? (The paper adds that the appropriation of the show’s title by “many online shopping platforms” helped sales.)
