What classic films have made an indelible impact on the world of fashion?

Hollywood and fashion are inextricably intertwined. From its birth, the film industry has been obsessed with fashion–both on-screen and off–with moviegoers demanding to be transported to a magical place where everyone is gorgeous and fashionable. With all that influence, movies have played a major role in the world of fashion by contributing to trends and by helping to change fashion mores.

There have been many iconic classic films– too many to list them all here–but some do stand out for their lasting impact on the fashion world. These are the classic films that you can check on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, or wherever you watch films.

Most Iconic & Fashionable Classic Films

1. “Morocco” – 1930

Starring Marlene Dietrich, “Morocco” was a romantic drama about a cabaret singer and a love affair gone awry. The film was quite scandalous for its time because of the frank nature of some of the scenes–most notably when Dietrich performs in a man’s suit and kisses another woman. The film and Dietrich herself were so trendsetting that it is now commonplace for women’s fashions to incorporate menswear. In part, we have Marlene Dietrich to thank for that.

2. “The Philadelphia Story” -1940

“The Philadelphia Story” starred the inscrutable Katharine Hepburn, who played a Main Line Philadelphia socialite with a wardrobe to match her wealth and status. Memorable glamorous moments from costume designer Adrian Adolph Greenberg include a toga-inspired bathing suit coverup, another Grecian-inspired engagement gown, and plenty of pencil skirts and smart suits. This film defined 1940s fashion trends–at least for those with disposable income!

3. “Gilda” – 1946

Rita Hayworth stars as a sultry femme fatale singer in 1946’s “Gilda.” This film noir is riveting and full of intrigue, so much so that it might make you forget about the stunning costumes, but not really. Each ensemble is more glamorous than the last, but the piece de resistance is a black strapless satin gown created by costume designer Jean Louis.

4. “Rear Window” – 1954

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, “Rear Window” starred Grace Kelly as a socialite. The renowned Hollywood costume designer Edith Head was the creator of Kelly’s wardrobe for this film. The most iconic look was a black and white dress featuring a deep off-the-shoulder “V” neckline and a Dior “New Look” skirt of chiffon tulle. Hitchcock’s genius was in the details and this dress, as well as the other fashions in the film, all had those little touches of genius.

5. “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” – 1953

“Gentleman Prefer Blondes” starred Marilyn Monroe and featured one of the most instantly recognizable dresses from movie history–the shocking pink gown from the Marilyn’s “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” musical number. The satin strapless dress featured a straight neckline, bare arms and a big bow on the back. It was accessorized with long matching gloves, lots of diamonds, and has often been imitated, most notably in Madonna’s “Material Girl” video.

6. “Seven Year Itch” – 1955

Another Marilyn Monroe film, the “Seven Year Itch” was a 1950s style rom-com. Most remembered for featuring the well-known white halter dress designed by William Travilla, a costume designer who dressed Marilyn Monroe in eight of her films. She famously penned a note to him that said, “Billy Dear, please dress me forever. I love you, Marilyn.”

7. “Sabrina” – 1957

“Sabrina” starred the ingenue Audrey Hepburn in a coming of age story about a young girl who comes back from France a new woman with a new wardrobe to match. Hepburn forged a relationship with designer Hubert de Givenchy, who was just starting out at the time, and her wardrobe was part Givenchy and part Edith Head. The two standout looks are both simple, yet with a subtle sophistication that will come to define Hepburn’s style. They included a black cocktail dress with ties at the shoulders, and a stunning black and white embroidered ball gown.

8. “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” – 1961

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” was another Audrey Hepburn film with Givenchy and Edith Head collaborating. The most important look was the black gown accessorized with a tiara, a beaded bib necklace, and long black gloves, and which was originally designed by Givenchy and altered for the film by Edith Head.

So, did we miss any important classic films? What do you think are the most fashionable classic films?

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Image: Pinup Girl via Shutterstock

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Is sustainable consumption an oxymoron? Forward-thinking companies are increasingly using storytelling as a branding device to educate and engage consumers who want to know the impact of their purchases.

Another fire in another factory. The murder of a labor leader fighting for garment worker’s rights. Rivers turned indigo by waste water from denim manufacturing. How long can we keep yet another worrying headline separate from our love for cheap clothing?

As we recognize what consumption is doing to our planet, changing consumer patterns reflects both a yearning for simplicity and an expectation of transparency – especially among the younger consumers companies covet. That quality of wholeness we prioritize in our food – the connection to the handmade, local and distinctive, quality ingredients, and the story behind the artisan and the passion for her craft – is beginning to inform all of our purchasing decisions.

One way brands are beginning to respond is by using video to simply and powerfully communicate the story of sustainability behind the products and services they’re selling.  While the ability to reach out to style-lovers without negating fashion’s design and feel-good focus can be challenging, evocative visual stories can be a powerful tool in sharing the importance of a more considered approach. Here are some of our favorite video visions for the future of fashion:

Honest Us from Vinícius Bobsin on Vimeo.

1. Honest By founder Bruno Pieters tells the story of his enigmatic brand and what it means to live an authentic life in ‘Honest Us.’ Directed by Vinicius Bobsin and lasting only a few seconds, the mesmerizing short captures the mood of the innovative Honest By collection perfectly.

piece x piece from Elizabeth Brunner on Vimeo.

2. In this video, San Francisco-based designer Elizabeth Brunner shares the inspiration and process behind her visionary line, Piece x Piece. Bringing to life the story behind her innovative garments – which take months of collaboration, exploration and experimentation to make – she illustrates the power of how a simple decision skillfully executed can create meaningful change.

Organic Cotton – Grown in the USA from Patagonia on Vimeo.

3. An industry trail blazer, Patagonia was one of the first companies to tell consumers about the eco impact of its product line via the ‘Footprint Chronicles.’ In their latest video, they document the characters involved in the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative (TOCMC) one of the company’s first suppliers of organic cotton grown in West Texas.

Detox Fashion by Greenpeace.

4. Greenpeace effectively used Anime to describe a futuristic warning of things to come their latest  for their Detox Fashioncampaign. Overcoming difficult messages by using a fun, comic book style, the film remains a thoughtful and provoking on-topic perspective on why beautiful fashion shouldn’t cause toxic pollution.

Top Image: Piece x Piece

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When it comes to storytelling, film is a powerful medium. With visuals, we get pulled into the heart of a story; we take part at the same time that we learn. Skilled documentary filmmakers know the art of getting across a complex idea in a tangible way, one that’s not only informative but also touching. They can make us cry, they can make us laugh, most most importantly, hopefully they inspire us to take action.

If you care about women and women’s rights, there are some excellent documentaries out there, not only about women, but also directed and produced by women. That’s a good thing, because while the world of media is male dominated, with top grossing films often directed by and depicting men, the independent documentary world is more balanced, with women more likely to work on independent films and documentaries. In fact, 39 percent of directors working on independently produced documentaries in 2011-2012 were women.

Compare that with the dismal statistics of women and girls around the world: “Sixty-six million are currently out of school; 150 million are sexually assaulted each year; and in the past 30 seconds, about 13 were forced into arranged marriages,” as PureWow recently pointed out. We can’t have enough films about these topics. Films that addresses the state of women around the world are essentials to helping us pave the way forward.

The more films by and about women, the more we support women in general. Here are some excellent ones to start with.

1. Miss Representation

Why do we have certain images of women in the media? Miss Representation takes a look at that question, showing the link between gender inequality in power positions in media, and how that perpetuates stereotyped gender roles in our culture. Produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom – who we interviewed around the time the film cam out – it is a compelling look at the under representation of women from media to politics, and a call to action for those of us who want to make change.

2. Girl Rising

The format of Girl Rising is unique: it’s a film about the stories of nine girls from nine countries written by nine writers and performed by nine actresses. The equivalent of a short story collection, each segment features the real girl acting out an episode of her own life, giving us an intimate view of what girls around the world are up against.

3. To Educate a Girl

In 2000, 110 million children in the world were not in school—two thirds of them were girls. Moved by this statistic, two filmmakers Frederick Rendina and Oren Rudavsky traveled to Nepal and Uganda to find out what it actually takes to educate a girl. To Educate a Girl is a look at the lives of young women who are working hard to achieve their dreams despite living in situations of conflict and poverty.

4. Invisible War

Soldiers in the military are up against a lot, their everyday jobs often being physically and emotionally taxing. But for some it’s even worse than that. In fact, a female U.S. soldier in a combat zone is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire. Invisible War is an investigative documentary about the epidemic of rape of soldiers within the U.S. military, a difficult topic, but one that’s necessary to talk about.

5. Half the Sky Movement

Not a traditional big screen film, Half the Sky Movement is a four-hour PBS series that was shot in ten different countries to show women and girls living under the most difficult circumstances imaginable, yet fighting to change them. Inspired by the powerful book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, the film isn’t just a film, it’s a call to arms to end the oppression of women and girls in the developing world.

Want more? The National Organization for Women has an excellent extensive roundup of films about global women’s rights that are all well worth a watch.

Image courtesy of Miss Representation

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The best of the week at EcoSalon, hand-picked for your clicking pleasure.

Fancy a challenge? We challenge you to…

Think about your bucket list – long and hard.

Read unusually – because it may open your heart and  mind and leave you changed.

Track down a copy of the UK box office hit The Age Of Stupid, in preparation for its creator’s latest work, Just Do It.

Keep your morning coffee away from spiders – it makes them go nuts.

Spice up your love-life by hitting the road (but hey, keep it legal).

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ColumnThe film “Truck Farm” proves that small scale urban farming efforts are part of the solution.

I’ve seen Truck Farm pop up around the web over the last year, in fact I remember when it was up for a NAU’s 2nd annual Grant for Change. But beyond some cool looking photos of a garden in the back of an old, black, Dodge truck – the kind of photos that make their way onto green and design blogs and give you a general feeling of goodness – I didn’t really have a grasp of what Truck Farm was. Until last week.

Packed into an auditorium with hundreds of other people at Mountainfilm in Telluride, I didn’t know what to expect. Can you really make a 48 minute film about growing a garden in the bed of a truck?

After a presentation on food the day before by the film’s directors, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, I knew that it would be smart and funny and most likely touch on some of the things in which I believe strongly. What transpired was one of the best films I have seen in awhile. Sewn into the story of a Brooklynite transforming the bed of his truck into a garden are glimpses into how we start changing our food policy, from the ground up.

Watch the trailer for Truck Farm here.

Truck Farm is quirky and humorous, yet it hits on the themes that we so often discuss when it comes to food: thinking about where our food comes from, the importance of reconnecting to what we eat, building community and being part of an underground movement that feels empowered to make change.

Along the way, the acclaimed Marion Nestle takes a bite of the Truck Farm‘s salad and smiles, gourmet chefs pay for truck grown herbs, even if the bounty is small, teens at a community garden donate a pepper plant to be put in the bed, and after taking the truck on a school tour, children are inspired to start building gardens in whatever objects they can find.

But Truck Farm itself is only the beginning.

There’s a point in the film when one of the chefs interviewed points out that he loves the concept, but he’s still not sure if it’s part of the global solution to food issues.

But what if it is the solution?

Since the success of the Brooklyn Truck Farm, individuals around the country have started their own versions. Even strolling through Telluride I saw one parked downtown, and in Denver you can buy Truck Farm produce at the farmers market. The number of urban farms and their capacity have increased exponentially. We may not be solving the problems of the global food supply with these efforts, but they’re certainly heartening.

Efforts like these prove that there is a group of people out there that are truly concerned with where their food comes from and honoring the connection to what they eat. Above that, they’re willing to think creatively about what it’s going to take to encourage entire communities to move in that direction.

Cheney and Ellis remind us that the demand is there; that in urban spaces, restaurants want locally grown goods, be it from a rooftop farm or the back of a truck. And if the demand is there, we need to start thinking about increasing the supply, from window gardens to planters of herbs.

With two food related films under their belts (Cheney and Ellis are also the brains behind King Corn), the duo knows the importance of educating and empowering food leaders. Enter their FoodCorps national service program, an initiative with visionary “volunteers for a yearlong term of public service in school food systems,” a place that we know desperately needs help. Run as an AmeriCorps program, in its first year Food Corps has placed leaders in ten states to start seriously working on building gardens, connecting kids to farmers and more.

As Ellis says, when it comes to changing the food movement, “gardens are such a powerful place to start.” Makes you want to go build a garden in your truck doesn’t it?

If we all take the steps to grow some of our own food, even if it’s a small amount, then we become part of the solution, and the more of us that do it, the bigger our movement becomes. And maybe then, we can start talking about this as being part of a global solution. After all, couldn’t we all use a little more “think globally, act locally”?

Images: The Tasty Buzz, Truck Farm

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Movies can spell trouble for women. Usually, a female-centric flick entails a morose, unlucky-in-love woman who pines for love. Ultimately, she finds it with a reformed bad boy. When does this happen? Usually after she’s realized that her wacky commitment to her career has made her unsuitable for love. Shed of her silly life aspirations, she settles into domestic bliss for the rest of her life. Or as long as the end credits take to roll. Anyone else asleep right about now?

Instead, let’s think about the ladies of authority, the women of wit, the steel magnolias of cinema. For every loveless lass brought to life by a Rom Com Queen, there’s a kick-ass character of empowerment. Here are our 15 favorites.

Sigourney Weaver Say what you will about James Cameron and his obsession with special effects – this man knows how to write a strong woman. Ellen Ripley of the Alien franchise embodies the strength of Future Woman as no other Hollywood screen siren. Not to mention, her turns in “Working Girl” and “The Ice Storm” gave depth to otherwise complicated (okay, horrible) women.

Greta Garbo Some call her the most fascinating woman in film history. Garbo’s 1930s screen siren was well ahead of her game with strong roles such as Queen Christina, Mata Hari and more.

Katharine Hepburn Ms. Hepburn was the daughter of a suffragette and was taught to speak her mind. And how! From her Tracy Lord to Rose Sayer to Eleanor of Aquitaine, Hepburn’s cool composure is a model for tough, resilient women.

Pam Grier Grier was a staple in early blaxploitation films playing strong, assertive women. In 1973s “Coffy,” she was noted as the first female African-American star to headline an action film. She is perhaps best known as Foxy Brown, a character with similar attributes.

Mae West Before there was Marilyn Monroe’s breathy, little-girl-lost sex symbol, there was Mae West. Born in 1893 to Vaudeville stars, West wrote and starred in films that were unabashedly about female empowerment. One of the earlier plays she penned, “Sex,” landed her in jail for obscenity charges in 1926. West was known to quip “A dame that knows the ropes isn’t likely to get tied up.” Here’s to the original dame.

Angelina Jolie A friend of mine recently worked on a Jolie film. Jolie wasn’t the original choice for the role, but the studio insisted she be cast. Why? Because this woman inspires audiences all over the world to run into movie theaters throwing cash into buckets. (That is, most of the time she does. Exception: “The Tourist.”) Why? Because she’s an action hero. “Salt,” “Wanted,” and the Lara Croft series prove this woman knows how to conduct herself on a runaway car.

Meryl Streep Streep, currently the most honored actor of all time, has played more powerful women than one could list in a few mere sentences. One favorite might her turn as Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen in “Out of Africa.” More recently, her turn as Miranda Priestley in “The Devil’s Wears Prada” was like staring into the eyes of a steel dragon. Up next for Meryl? She’s to portray Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady.” We are so there.

Linda Hamilton Hamilton’s Sarah Connor from the Terminator series blasted onto big screens in 1984. But it was her turn as the iconic character in 1991s “Terminator 2” that had people talking. Hamilton kicked cyborgs to the curb and gave the world a view of a mama you did not want to mess with.

Anne Bancroft Bancroft’s turn as a seductress in “The Graduate” gave new life to female sexuality. Amidst a tremendous career, she is also recognized for her iconic turn as Annie Sullivan in “The Miracle Worker.” Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson.

Dorothy Dandridge Dandridge was a trail blazer for women of color in Hollywood. Her turns as Bess in “Porgy and Bess” and well as “Carmen Jones” are etched as iconic roles in film history. Though her life was cut short by a tragic death at age 42 in 1965, she undoubtedly paved the way for acceptance for all women in film.

Uma ThurmanThurman is perhaps best known for her role as Beatrix Kiddo in the Kill Bill series – in which she could not be killed. But her turns as June Miller in “Henry and June” and as Mia Wallace in “Pulp Fiction” makes this actress a pillar of empowerment.

Jodie Foster Actor, director, producer – this two time Oscar winner for Best Actress does it all. Foster, a child actor, first catapulted into international acclaim for her turn as a trash-talking child prostitute in “Taxi Driver.” But it was her role as FBI agent Clarice Starling in “The Silence of the Lambs” that introduced her to a whole new generation of viewers. Her sensitive portrayal of Sarah Tobias in “The Accused” gave a voice to rape victims.

Helen Mirren Mirren has long established career portrayal strong women with a frank sexual empowerment. And yet, it was her turn against type as Queen Elizabeth I in “The Queen” that had a whole new generation bowing to this woman.

Barbara Stanwyck Stanwyck is perhaps best known for her role as the matriarch of the 1960s TV series, “Big Valley.” (Not to forget her performance as Mary Carson in “The Thorn Birds.” Ever.) But Stanwyck was established as a screen siren well before her turns in TV. Her role as Jean in “The Lady Eve” is a female powerhouse.

Penelope Cruz Penelope Cruz is known in her native Spain as “the Spanish enchantress.” We know her for adeptly portraying resilient womanhood. Her portrayal of the stalwart Rainmunda in “Volver” will convince anyone that this woman knows how to handle herself on and off the screen.

Still, there are more. What about Judi Dench as M? Susan Sarandon as Thelma? Not to mention Marlene Deitrich’s Lola Lola or Barbara Streisand’s Katie. Then there’s Hilary Swank’s Maggie Fitzgerald. And Cate Blanchette as Elizabeth I and Emma Thompson as Emma Thompson. We could go on…

Images: chang-er, Wikimedia Creative Commons, Wikimedia Creative Commons, Wikiemedia Creative Commons, db4dawn, Wikimedia Creative Commons, Wikimedia Creative Commons, kr4gin, People Quiz, iluvrhinestones, classic film scans, Wikimedia Creative Commons, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Mirren: Wikimedia Creative Commons
Stanwyck: mijori
Cruz: Wikimedia Creative Commons

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