Costume Changes

2016 | Wearing Time, Miami

Sunday 31 January 17:30

Total running time c. 97 mins

 

Doll Clothes

USA, 1975. Directed by Cindy Sherman. With Cindy Sherman. Black & white. English. c. 2 mins

Made in 1975, before her famous Film Stills series, Cindy Sherman’s kooky animation Doll Clothes anticipates the artist’s major theme of self-fashioning. Sherman is a paper doll who comes to life in order to exercise her freedom of choice over a selection of cut-out outfits – until a hand from above intervenes.

 

Grey Gardens

USA, 1975. Directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer. With Edith Bouvier Beale, Edith “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale, Brooks Hyers and Norman Vincent Peale. Color. English. c. 97 mins

The Maysles brothers’ film is a generous, rambling portrayal of a mother-daughter relationship of the former socialites and beauties “Big Edie” and “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale, Jackie Kennedy’s aunt and cousin. The two women are shown talking, squabbling, singing, and reminiscing over old photographs while performing daily routines in their vast, semi-derelict East Hampton estate, Grey Gardens. It is hardly surprising that the Maysles’ film has become something of a must-see in fashion circles. Little Edie steals the show with her highly individual, eccentric, unwittingly “vintage” style: “I didn’t have time, taking care of mother, to get out and buy clothes. So I used what was left of mine and mother’s in the attic.” While there is a tendency to focus on the women’s glamorous past, Little Edie’s sheer joy in wearing clothes helps anchor the film in the present, lending it a satisfying visual richness. Her frequent and ever-surprising costume changes create its unique sense of rhythm and flow.

 

Screenings and talks are complimentary and take place at Fashion Project, Bal Harbour Shops, Level 3.

For questions contact info@fashionprojectbhs.com or 786.245.2200.

www.fashionprojectbhs.com