FASHION IN FILM: THELMA & LOUISE

 

Today we're going to talk about a cult movie from 1991, Thelma and Louise, which I've only watched recently. I found it on channel La7d. I'm in a Facebook group where users post about movies that are on television in that moment, and that's exactly how I got lucky and found this gem. The director, Ridley Scott, is pretty famous for a variety of different genres, which I guess is very on brand for him, considering he's an icon of postmodernism. As a PoMo -an old fashioned abbreviation for Postmodernism- lover myself, it was to my surprise I noticed this movie has nothing to do with this style of film making. This is probably one of the most famous road movies ever, and it's strongly remindful of Bonnie and Clyde's story. Just a week before this, I had watched Paris, Texas, by Wim Wenders, another movie that takes place in the desert of the Southern states, although it has a slower and quieter style of narration. What struck me the most about Thelma and Louise were, obviously, their outfits! They wear a lot of denim, truck driver tank tops, a few 'country bride' dresses, and Western inspired jackets. I took these photos from my TV screen, and i did not, in fact, edit them, or even crop them. So, there you go, low res and all. I might as well act pretentious and say that these pictures might be what Hito Steyerl calls poor images. Maybe there's even something humble and somewhat romantic about my TV stand, and the channel logo in the bottom right corner. Something like Tavi Gevinson's whimsical photos from her magazine Style Rookie. Anytime I do something low effort in terms of fashion, I think maybe I can redeem it by calling it whimsical or quirky... but the truth is, Tavi wasn't low effort in what she did. She's a raging dreamer. The biggest dreamer I've ever seen. Much like Tavi, Thelma and Louise are very spontaneous women. Not little characters with extreme mannerisms, just two girls on the run, hungry for love, with little money and lots of bad ideas. This is not going to be a film commentary. I take that seriously, and it would take a long time for me to sit down and mature some thoughts on the movie. This is just a little blog post, no real aspiration here to do anything but talk about fashion. So let's do that. I was thinking, where can I find clothes that look like the ones in Thelma and Louise? Right away, two high fashion brands came to mind: Saint Laurent and Céline. I'm only going to feature the first one here. Other than the denim, the best pieces in the movie are probably the iconic Johnny Cash style jacket, and Guns n' Roses-looking tops. The hair and makeup is also on point. I feel like Guess should make a collection campaign inspired by Thelma and Louise! I wonder if they've done that already. I also noticed that even a side character, the biker, was extremely fashionable!  
















Saint Laurent teddy embroidered jacket, S/S 2018


Saint Laurent 90s style jeans, S/S 2023



Saint Laurent light wash denim short sleeve button up, S/S 2023


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