Couturiers on screen

January 31 2008: With Audrey Tautou and Shirley MacLaine both about to play Coco Chanel in movies and Jude Law signed up to play Halston, Hadley Freeman looks at how fashion designers have been played in films
  
  


Couturiers
The Devil Wears Prada
Who's the designer? James Holt (Daniel Sunjata), the very trendy young New York designer in whom magazine editors take a keen interest.
Hmm, sounds familiar, reminds me of ... Marc Jacobs.
Credibility as a designer? Low - those clothes really are bad.
Photograph: Allstar
Couturiers
102 Dalmatians
Who's the designer? Jean-Pierre Le Pelt (Gérard Depardieu), the fur-loving designer who is frequently covered with red paint by protesters. Whether that's outrage at his use of fur or horror at his Fred Flintstone-meets-Billy Ray Cyrus personal appearance is not clear.
Hmm, sounds familiar, reminds me of ... John Galliano on a bad day, with a dash of Jean Paul Gaultier.
Credibility as a designer? Not very high
Photograph: Allstar
Couturiers
Zoolander
Who's the designer? Mugatu (Will Ferrell), the poodle-quiffed designer who, for reasons that are best described as tenuous, recruits male models to kill the prime minister of Malaysia.
Hmm, sounds familiar, reminds me of ... Now that would be libellous.
Credibility as a designer? As anyone who's seen Lagerfeld Confidential, the documentary about Karl Lagerfeld, knows, the reality is far stranger than the fiction.
Photograph: Allstar
Couturiers
Pret-a-Porter
Who are the designers? First off, there's Cort Romney (Richard E Grant), the queeny British designer with a strange kiss-curl hairdo and a fondness for Edwardian dress mixed with punk details. Then there's Cy Bianco (Forest Whitaker), the super-cool underground British designer who mixes streetwear and couture references in his very sexy clothes.
Hmm, they sound familiar, they remind me of ... Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, respectively.
Photograph: Allstar
Couturiers
The Incredibles
Who's the designer? Edna Mode, the sharply bobbed no-nonsense grande dame behind all the superheroes' costumes.
Hmm, sounds familiar, reminds me of ... Anna Wintour.
Credibility as a designer? With that hairstyle, we daren't voice any doubt.
Photograph: PR
Couturiers
Sweet Home Alabama
Who's the designer? Melanie Carmichael (Reese Witherspoon), the hot young designer in New York with a fondness for off-the-shoulder dresses and anything that ends at a really unflattering length.
Hmm, sounds familiar, reminds me of ... Um, someone who works for a catalogue?
Credibility as a designer? Absolutely nil. In one scene she wears a denim jacket with jeans. Eww!
Photograph: Allstar
 

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