Cruella – Disney’s prequel to 1996’s 101 Dalmatians – is another affirmation of that thinking, as several of the garments worn by the titular character are utterly architectural in scale and construction. One particularly impressive gown, so voluminous it’s able to envelope a car, is embellished with more than 5,000 handmade petals, painstakingly affixed by an army of seamstresses.
Despite her personal aversion to the F-word, Beavan and her team have created some of the most fabulous fashion seen on film for Cruella – a movie in which style is central to the plot. Its narrative follows the generational clash between arch establishment couturier Baroness von Hellman, played by Emma Thompson, and young upstart designer Estella Miller, the future Cruella de Vil, depicted with a serviceable English accent by American Emma Stone.The storyline begins in the grim post-war London of the 1950s, then runs through the hippyish 1960s, but things really get swinging in the 1970s. This period setting provides the opportunity to contrast the avant-garde punk stylings of ascendant fashion rebel Estella/Cruella with the demure designs of the Baroness, whose frocks are based on the elegant “New Look” pioneered by Christian Dior in the 1950s.The baroness’ atelier, where much of the movie’s action is set, was based on archival imagery of the Dior workrooms in Paris, according to director Craig Gillespie. It was there that the 21-year-old Yves Saint Laurent took over from the legendary Monsieur Dior after his death in 1957 – in Cruella, a bespectacled doppelgänger for the young YSL serves as personal assistant to the baroness.
Talking to Vogue, Beavan revealed her inspirations for the clothing Cruella wears and the designs she sends down the runway. “In terms of references, we had masses including [Vivienne] Westwood, [German singer] Nina Hagen, [fashion label] BodyMap and Alexander McQueen,” she said.Indeed, many commentators have highlighted the obvious allusions within Cruella’s designs to “Vivienne Westwood’s deconstructed punk Victoriana and Alexander McQueen’s high-octane extravagance,” as Vanessa Friedman of The New York Times put it. But there are also touches of Jean Paul Gaultier, Cruella’s fellow enfant terrible (Estella through and through), and the hyper-theatrical couturier John Galliano.
When Cruella upstages the baroness by arriving at an event in the back of a garbage truck, with a 20-metre train of trash-chic trailing behind her, it’s a double homage. First, to the fictional homeless-influenced “Derelicte” collection from classic fashion parody film, Zoolander. And secondly, to the real-life inspiration for “Derelicte” – Galliano’s controversial spring 2000 collection for Dior, which featured models dressed in newspapers and black silk garments redolent of repurposed bin liners.
It would take reams to detail every garment worn by the film’s two protagonists: Emma Stone undergoes 47 costume changes as Estella/Cruella, while Emma Thompson’s Baroness wears 33 outfits. Suffice to say, while neither the anti-hero nor the villain could be classed as “good” – there’s not one scene in this movie where either of them look bad.
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