November 12, 2016 |
For some reason, Miu Miu is saying Bette Davis to us. Bette as Margo. In All About Eve. Admittedly, the clothes don’t really look like anything worn by Davis in the film. They’re more Hitchcock heroine. A Grace Kelly or a Tippi Hedren. The difference between them, the clothes and Hitchcock’s lady puppets, is that the clothes have personality. Passion. Drama. Why would an opera coat be called an opera coat if it didn’t have drama? Opera is all about drama. Why else do you think it is sung by a dramatic-looking lady with a dramatic-sounding voice? That kind of lady can make her voice tremble. That is passion. The kind that, despite never singing opera, Margo embodies. The kind of passion that the Miu Miu collection embodies. You can imagine Margo sweeping into a room, dressed in an opera coat, say the nude-coloured PVC number, with a tie-dye fur stole in pink draped across her shoulder (she likes the frisson between the natural and unnatural) and declaring to anyone who will listen that she is not to be had for the price of a cocktail like a salted peanut. Before turning on her heel so that her coat flares out around her, revealing the full power of the circle-cut creation that hangs solely from the shoulders. It acts like a nice punctuation mark to her statement and leaves the inhabitants of the room speechless. Mouths agape. But then, heaven help her. She loves a psycho. Even if that psycho is her. She detests cheap sentiment but loves highs and lows when it comes to her clothes. The idea of a satin-lined pencil skirt that ends mid calf sends spasms of pleasure through her body. Not many people can take that length, certainly not Eve. But Margo can. She has the legs for it. And it really is the most fabulous pairing of fabrics. The denim doesn’t show the dirt, which is a godsend, as she has taken to throwing a lot of drinks at people recently and there is always a little splash-back. Her dry-cleaning bills were slowly getting out of control. And nothing feels quite as sensuous as satin against bare skin. It would explain why she has also taken to wearing the jackets, fastened with a single brooch, over bare skin. She likes the hint of skin. And that, if needs must (the things people will do for the sake of a role), she can just push it back over her shoulders to create the most flattering heart-shaped neckline. She always got her way with a flash of heart-shaped cleavage. And thus her favourite role – that of a nice, normal woman who shoots her husband dead – was born from just a flash. She liked the idea of being normal just one more time. After all, she thought as she wrapped her furry stole round herself tighter, what was she besides a name spelt out in light bulbs? Infants behaved the way she did. They carry on when they can’t have what they want. Hell, they would even get drunk if they knew how. So, there was no reason to stop acting in a slightly unhinged and dramatic fashion. After all, her closet full of Miu Miu clothes called for drama. She couldn’t let them down.
Taken from Issue 46 of 10 Magazine, photographer Jason Lloyd-Evans
