Elements of Style Blog

(I love this poster at right by Iain Claridge)

I am apparently WAY behind in my movie viewing this year having just seen Coco Before Chanel and last night Tom Ford’s debut A Single Man. Blog posts aplenty have been done months ago about these films.  But better late than never, right?

A Single Man is so visually stunning you could hit pause at almost any frame in the film and leave it on your TV as media art.  No surprise coming from the carefully trained and discerning eye of design God Tom Ford (whose $360 sunglasses infuriatingly snapped in half after only a year, but I digress). The story is dark and depressing but for me it was touching and comforting in a way.  It’s a simple concept, really, but so artistically executed you can’t help but be riveted. The set decor is magnificent and worthy of a separate post, but I was most inspired by the fashion which was elegant and bold but oh-so-classic- typical of Mr. Ford. Julianne Moore is a deliciously inebriated, depressed sex pot of a woman who works hard to maintain a frothy and shellacked exterior to mask the broken and hopeless interior. Everything down to her pink cigarettes is glamorous, but as she takes a drag on one you can see her eyes glaze over with memories of times past and lists of regrets. There is something about her dichotomy of emotions that makes her a classic movie icon.

Here are some outfits inspired by Julianne’s character in the film- equal parts 60′s mod, bejeweled glamor and tasteful restraint: