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For many contemporary designers, movies were an introduction to the power of fashion. And whereas most children were focused on the plot, they were often more interested in the visuals and — in particular — the clothes. Maximilian Davis, the Milan-based creative director of Ferragamo, for example, remembers being fixated on the color palette of the 1999 Stanley Kubrick drama “Eyes Wide Shut” when he watched it as a preteen; Willy Chavarria, who designs his namesake brand in New York, first saw the 1973 horror classic “The Exorcist” when he was 12 and was entranced by a khaki dress. As adults, both men have watched these films again and again, weaving elements from the big screen into their collections. Here, they and seven other designers talk about the cinematic fashion moments that continue to inspire them.
Michael Kors, 65: “Eyes of Laura Mars” (1978)
It’s the quintessential fashion movie. Faye Dunaway’s clothes, by the legendary costume designer Theoni Aldredge, are remarkable, and watching Dunaway, as the fashion photographer Laura Mars, shoot Lisa Taylor, the model of the moment, in Columbus Circle wearing slit culottes was my first introduction to a photo shoot. The disco soundtrack, the Barbra Streisand theme song and the fact that it featured the top hair and makeup people of the time — John Sahag and Joey Mills — made the whole thing seem like an actual slice of the New York fashion world. Plus how many movies have a cameo by Calvin Klein in the opening credits? The film’s version of big-city glamour will always be a part of my fashion vocabulary.
Colleen Allen, 29: “The Color of Pomegranates” (1969)
When I was in college at Central Saint Martins, someone shared a still from the film’s wedding scene and I fell in love with it. The movie is loosely based on the life of an Armenian poet, depicting the rituals of his daily life, and every shot looks like a Renaissance painting. The very first frame is of juice bleeding from pomegranates onto a beige tablecloth, and it’s incredibly rich but also natural; that’s how I like to work with colors. There are a lot of really gorgeous reds, pink and purples, which are in my palette, too. It’s a good reminder of the universal nature of colors and how they live in our subconscious: white as purity, red as passion and so on. In showing the evolution of a character, they’re really important.
Simone Rocha, 38: “In the Mood for Love” (2000)
The cinematography and lighting are incredible, and my dad’s from Hong Kong, where the film’s set, so I was attracted to it straightaway. It’s influenced some of my collections, like spring 2015, which was focused on my Chinese grandmother. The tactile florals on Maggie Cheung’s character, which have this fragility that contrasts with her strength and stoicism, were inspiring but, more than anything, I was taken in by the pace of the film, the way the characters speak to and look at each other and the overall restraint. Some pieces in that 2015 collection were very pared back — I did a black dress with an irregular hem and a marabou feather on it, for example — while others were overtly feminine. Sometimes I put the soundtrack on when I’m working.
Maximilian Davis, 29, of Ferragamo: “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999)
Between the ages of 7 and 10, I spent weekends with my grandmother in Trinidad and we’d watch films together, back-to-back, from 6 p.m. to midnight. She allowed me to watch 18+ movies, so I was exposed to a lot. When we watched “Eyes Wide Shut,” I didn’t understand everything that was happening, but the colors, lighting and mood stayed in my mind. I returned to it during lockdown when I was working on my first collection for my own brand, Maximilian. I was looking into my Trinidadian roots and exploring Carnival, and there are so many headdresses and masks in “Eyes Wide Shut.” I also appreciated the simplicity of the costumes and their silhouettes — from Nicole Kidman’s undergarments to her camel coat. I watched the film again a few times when I was designing my first collection for Ferragamo. It included black evening wear, and the runway was made of red sand. Even the audience watching the models walk felt very “Eyes Wide Shut.”
Willy Chavarria, 57: “The Exorcist” (1973)
I saw this movie when I was 12 — which, at the time, was crazy. Now, I think a 10-year-old could watch it and be like, “Oh, the special effects are so bad.” But it was such a big deal when it came out, and I loved it — and as I got older, I grew to love it more. It’s not just the story, which is essentially about good versus evil; the aesthetics are also really beautiful. I love the color palette of the costumes: Chris MacNeil’s pale khaki dress with a cream-colored ribbed turtleneck has been a direct inspiration for me. The way William Friedkin directed it also influenced me artistically — the slow buildup, what’s said without speaking. He creates a mood to tell a story. I know it’s a little weird, but I’ll sit and watch “The Exorcist” probably once a year.
Henry Zankov, 44, of Zankov: “I Am Love” (2009)
I’ve seen this film at least ten times. Raf Simons, who was at Jil Sander at the time, did the costumes and it was filmed at Villa Necchi [the modernist house designed by the architect Piero Portaluppi], which I love and visited many times when I lived in Milan. I’ve used the pistachio green from the garden room in my collections. And there are so many other beautiful colors in the film, like when Tilda Swinton’s character is walking to the dry cleaner in a bright orange dress with an orange Hermès bag. But the appeal isn’t just aesthetic. Swinton’s character is Russian like I am and, as an immigrant in the United States, I also have a longing for my mother country and culture. Watching the movie brings back feelings from my childhood.
Clare Waight Keller, 54, of Uniqlo: “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001)
When the film came out, I was working at Gucci with Tom Ford and we were all crazy about it. Wes Anderson was bursting onto the scene as this person with such a specific color palette who created these playful, otherworldly sets. The characters are off their trolleys, but we felt connected to them because those kinds of characters actually exist in the fashion world. Gwyneth Paltrow is so iconic as Margot, an eccentric posh girl in a fur coat. We were using real fur at Gucci back then, and I did a lot of research based on that coat. When I was at Chloé, I did a collection around tracksuits, and the movie’s ones were definitely a reference. As vintage as it looked, the film felt really relevant to contemporary fashion at the time. Margot looked like she’d just come out of a Prada show.
Rachel Scott, 41, of Diotima: “Teorema” (1968)
There’s so much about this film that speaks to me. It’s about a quintessential Milanese family, and I lived in Milan for four and a half years. It’s also about a bourgeois woman who comes undone because of desire, and you see that in how she presents herself. How people dress is a kind of language, and that’s so beautifully expressed but also questioned in this film. The style is very archetypal: the matriarch dresses a certain way, as do the daughter and the housekeeper. But it’s the spirit of the women and their complexity that I always come back to. When I’m designing, I think a lot about the bourgeois Jamaican woman who presents really properly but also goes to Carnival or a dance hall party to be totally sexual. I’m always exploring how those extremes can exist within one person.
Marie Adam-Leenaerdt, 28: “Le Daim” (2019)
The French director Quentin Dupieux’s movies are short but radical. I also like that they’re low budget. It’s not the budget that makes a movie high quality, and that’s true of fashion, too. To me, his movies are more like paintings in that each one focuses on a single subject. They remind me that every detail counts, and that art can and must be a space for experimentation. I really love “Le Daim,” or “Deerskin” in English, which is about a man who buys a suede jacket and becomes obsessed with it and violent with people he meets who wear a similar one. Dupieux takes small, real-life subjects and adds something to make them absurd. That’s what I like to do with clothing.
These interviews have been edited and condensed.
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