Wendybird: Fashion in motion
Getting dressed the other morning, as I twirled in my flippy little skirt and enjoyed that brief moment of bare legged joy before pulling on the black opaques and enjoying my daily dose of fashion escapism and make believe, I was reminded of “Wendybird”, the lovely film made by Ellen Von Unwerth for Erin Featherston’s A/W 06 collection.
Starring Kirsten Dunst as a factory worker who escapes the daily monotony by escaping through a treasure chest of pretty dresses (styled beautifully by Leith Clark), the film paints a world of dancing curls, swishing skirts and Lolita dreams.
The film perfectly captures the playful girl-child aesthetic of Featherston’s lovely clothes, but it also depicts what I love about fashion. Looking at your wardrobe as a dressing up box that you can play in every morning makes dull Monday mornings infinately more exciting.
Getting dressed for me is always something of a chaos theory, pulling rags and feathers from here and there and emerging as whatever mix of characters happen to be spinning round my head on that particular day. Retaining a childlike wonder of dressing up and make believe keeps fashion fun and playful.
More and more designers seem to be using the medium of film to give their world a living, moving dimension. A natural extension of photography, it is an exciting form of branding that means more creativity and a more emotive connection for the viewers.
Watching this film makes me want to go buy a Featherston dress and run around a hazy meadow while sunlight filters through the trees and long grass tickles my bare feet. Which may be a million miles away from my day to day reality, but if a dress can transport me, even just for a second, then hey i’m sold!
Author: Katy Smail
a Illustration graduate from Edinburgh College of Art in 2007, and has spent the past year in a world of words, pictures, fashion and stories.
She works as a freelance fashion writer, while her illustrations 'like candyfloss sticking to wind blown lips' are found in publications like 'The Talent' and 'Curvy Annual 08', and are sold in 'Luna and Curious', Brick Lane, London.
