The Great Gatsby — Dressed Cinema

Nov 15

Nov 15 The Great Gatsby

One of the highlights of 2013, as far as costumes are concerned, is certainly the Baz Luhrmann's film adaptation of the Jazz Era classic by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. Catherine Martin won an Academy Award for best Costume Design as well as for best Production Design. With hundreds of extras to dress for this extravagant mega production, Martin collaborated with Miuccia Prada for some of the women's costumes as well as Brooks Brothers for the men's costumes. One month before the film's release, the "Gatsby Collection" created by Brooks Brothers and Catherine Martin was released. The limited-edition capsule collection was inspired by Martin's men's costumes, which were actually inspired by Brooks Brothers archives. Catherine Martin said, "Brooks Brothers is mentioned numerous times in Fitzgerald's writing as a representation of the ultimate gentleman's purveyor of fine clothing to the American man of distinction. It is this most basic and fundamental connection that has made our collaboration so authentic." One of the reasons it was such a great idea for Brooks Brothers to release a collection inspired by this film is the fact that Martin did an amazing job of making her costumes historically true to the fashion of the Jazz Age while still making them look modern. This balance is what makes Martin's costumes so relevant today, and in turn makes the film's male audience want to look like the men they see onscreen.

Although the main characters did not feature any festive stripes on their tuxedos, many of the extras did wear a lot of it, and the following Brooks Brothers tux was seen on these two extras below.

The second collaboration in this film was between Catherine Martin and Miuccia Prada, who collaborated on many of the female dresses, the main one being the dress seen on Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan), which was inspired by these Prada dresses from her Spring 2010 Ready-to-Wear Collection.