Fashion and fiction intertwine as we consider the Vintage Style of Julie Christie's character in Don't Look Now
In the year that celebrates the 80th anniversary of the British film Institute and a 1970s trend revival (think Marc Jacobs brown knitwear and amber lighting or Saint Laurent wide-brimmed hats), Laura Baxter of 1973 thriller Don’t Look Now is having her moment. Played by Julie Christie, her layered tweeds and mustard yellow night slip inspired a generation, and are remembered in Fiction in Fashion, an exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum that launched this week. She sits alongside Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly (Breakfast at Tiffany’s) and Jean Seberg as Cecile (Bonjour Tristesse) amongst others, documenting how fiction and fashion are often interlaced.
Don’t Look Now tells the haunting tale of John and Laura Baxter, a couple mourning the loss of their daughter. Unlike many horror films of its time, it is as tender as it is terrifying. Emotionally charged, it concentrates on the psychological effect of grief and death, set against the backdrop of 1970s fashion at its most memorable: brown knitwear, woollen suits, roll-necks, tweed, Christie’s perm, Sutherland’s curls.
"Don't Look Now concentrates on the psychological effect of grief and death, set against the backdrop of 1970’s fashion at its most memorable"
In 1967 Times Magazine said of Christie, “what Julie Christie wears has more real impact on fashion than all the clothes of the ten best-dressed women combined.” She became a pin-up for Swinging Sixties London in printed mini-dresses and bouffant hair. For Don’t Look Now, in keeping with her playful mod edge, she wears bright red leather boots, a shade that eerily flickers throughout the film, ever reminiscent of the red raincoat that her daughter was wearing when she died. Christie’s is the wardrobe of a grieving mother: dark tones and heavy fabrics worn one on top of another, but as is often the case in horror films, there is something strangely appealing in the dress code of danger. Suddenly there is an allure in her belted trench coat and A-line skirts.
There is also the infamous sex scene between Christie and Sutherland. Graphic, intimate and shocking for its time, intercut with scenes of the couple getting dressed afterwards: Christie in a metallic lurex cardigan and leather boots, Sutherland in an zig-zagged striped tie.
Display: Fiction in Fashion is at the Fashion and Textile Museum until January.
Text by Mhairi Graham
Further Reading: Julie Christie talks activism vs celebrity with Jefferson Hack in an AnOther Flashback from AnOther Magazine A/W04.
