《花样年华》：旗袍里的时尚风向

Tell Me More: Acclaimed director Wong Kar-Wai releasedIn the Mood for Love in 2000. The film takes place in 1960’s Hong Kong and follows Chow Mo-wan and Su Li-zhen, two young married people who move in to the same building on the same day whose spouses are often away traveling. Eventually, they realize that their spouses are cheating on each of them, and their budding friendship gives way to feelings that go unrequited, as they don’t want to stoop to the same level as their respective partners. Already, their friendship is raising eyebrows in their small community, where friendships between men and women (who are married) are neither common nor accepted. Eventually Chow and Su attempt to start a life together, but their intended encounter results in a missed connection. Each time they seek each other out over the course of their lives, they miss each other, never to meet again.

In the Mood for Love is the most romantic film that will break your heart into the most amount of tiny little pieces, so tiny that you will be unable to glue them back together. 

Signature Style: Director Wong Kar-Wai is known for his lush cinematography, courtesy of Christopher Doyle, the award-winning cinematographer with whom he has worked for most of his career. In In the Mood for Love this translates into slightly faded, saturated colors, and an overwhelming amount of visual stimuli on screen. The perspective is often changing, with camera shots taken from behind a plant or a nightstand, all to make the viewer feel like they are right in the room, standing very still so as to not be noticed.

And the fashion? Oh the fashion! Su exclusively wears tailored cheongsams, or qipaos, as they are also known, made popular by Shanghai's elite in the 1920's. Done in sumptuous floral fabrics that closely follow the lines of Maggie Cheung's body, the dresses become another symbol of the repressed passion in the film. Meanwhile, Chow always wears a suit, his hair perfectly slicked back, a bastion of masculinity. The costume designer behind this and many other Wong Kar-Wai films, William Chang Suk-ping, once said in a rare interview that he asks himself, What is the ambience before beginning to put the visuals together (he is also the art director), and the result is intoxicating visuals that allow the viewer to get completely lost in the moment. 

Chang Suk-ping has also unwittingly influenced fashion at large, despite having once said,I dont like fashion. Its transitory. His visions of beauty have influenced designers like Miuccia Prada who based a whole collection around his vision, and the countless other fashion editors who have created editorials inspired by the look. Once youve seen this film, its hard not to let romance dictate your aesthetics, and always be in the mood for love.