The Great Gatsby is one of my favourite novels and I've read it countless times, as you can guess I was extremely disappointed not to study it last year, instead I was forced to face the horrors of Small Island (a novel which I detested even with the BBC adaptation starting Naomi Harris and Benedict Cummberbatch).
However I made my own chance to study The Great Gatsby in another context, with my current art project on the "1920's American Dream".I've spent hours looking, drawing and painting everything art deco from furniture to posters to fashions. Looking at the costumes in The Great Gatsby film adaptations and the beautiful dresses at the V&A, I began to compare them to fashion today. Baz Luhrman's film now due to be realised in May 2012 (a day before my birthday in fact), is the most likely cause for the influx of 1920's art deco inspired fashion on the catwalks in the past few seasons.
I began looking simply at typical art deco fashions with the beautiful Mia Farrow in the 1974 adaptation and Carey Mulligan in the 2013 adaptation of the book.
My own oil pastel drawing of Mia Farrow
Carey Mulligan
Mia Farrow
I wanted too see how these styles which had been recreated for the 1974 and 2013 films had been recreated on the catwalk recently. While Gucci and Etro's SS12 collections reflected the glitz and glam of the decadent era with sequins and rich golds, Ralph Lauren's SS12 used the classic recognisable 1920's cuts but with the popular SS12 sorbet coloured palette.
Looking into 1920's style I realised how truly iconic and recognisable it is with it's dropped waistlines, swishing skirts and new, shorter hemlines reflecting the changing position of women as a result of the war and work of suffragettes as well as the wild and exciting times in a post WW1 where anything seemed possible and you could be whoever you wanted to be.
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