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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
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How ‘The Idea of You’ nailed age-gap dressing | |
By Leah Dolan, CNN | |
Updated: | |
4:20 AM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
Picture it: A spare concert ticket comes your way, leading to a chance | |
encounter with an internationally renowned pop star. When performing at | |
one of the most famous music festivals in the world, they stare past | |
the blinding stage lights into the crowd to lock eyes with you. What | |
transpires, naturally, is a whirlwind romance on the European leg of | |
their sold out tour. | |
It’s a fantasy that — in some variation or another — has captured | |
the human imagination for decades. Films such as “What Price | |
Hollywood” and “A Star is Born” first dabbled in the idea of | |
famous and non-famous relations almost 100 years ago. By 1999, the | |
genre had reached new heights after the release of “Notting Hill” | |
— the seminal Richard Curtis film which saw Julia Roberts, a graceful | |
American movie star, fall for Hugh Grant, a bumbling British bookstore | |
owner. Even more recently, “Starstruck,” the coincidental title of | |
both a 2010 Disney Channel original movie and a 2021 BBC Three series, | |
brought the agony and ecstasy of dating an A-lister as a mere member of | |
the public to the small screen. | |
Now, director Michael Showalter breathes new life into the trope with | |
“The Idea of You,” out on Amazon Prime May 2. Based on the 2017 | |
Robinne Lee novel by the same name, Showalter’s version is set in LA | |
— the birthplace of lofty pipe dreams — starring both Anne Hathaway | |
as Solène Marchand, a glamorous 40-year-old art gallery owner and | |
divorced mother of one; and Nicholas Galitzine as 24-year-old Hayes | |
Campbell, the fan favorite of fictional boy band du jour, August Moon. | |
After a meet cute in Hayes’ trailer at Coachella, sparks fly and | |
Solène finds herself being pursued by not only a fully fledged | |
celebrity, but someone 16 years her junior. The internet hasn’t been | |
shy in drawing parallels between Lee’s novel and the age gap | |
relationship of Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde. And although the book | |
was published four years before the pair began dating, Lee admitted she | |
was intrigued by Styles’ life in particular. “Inspired is a strong | |
word,” . | |
But more than just a piece of starry-eyed fan-fiction, “The Idea of | |
You” is a Bildungsroman in disguise. Particularly in relation to the | |
acutely female struggle for identity and individuality after | |
motherhood. “We talk about coming-of-age stories as being something | |
that happens in (the) earliest part of your life,” said Anne Hathaway | |
at the film’s SXSW premiere. “I don’t know about you, but I feel | |
like I keep blooming.” | |
Flawed, hopeful, vulnerable yet composed, Solène’s three-dimensional | |
character disrupts the misogynistic binary of cougar or crone. It was a | |
consideration costume designer Jacqueline Demeterio took seriously when | |
sourcing her wardrobe. “Solène’s 40. I mean, 40 is not old,” she | |
said. “I didn’t want it to be this older lady meets this younger | |
boy… and has this ‘Pretty Woman’ (makeover) moment.” There | |
wasn’t a stitch of leopard print, teenage fashion or “Golden | |
Girls” style pussybows. “She has her look,” said Demeterio. | |
“She’s not trying to look young, but (her style) has evolved with | |
time and with her body. You make adjustments, but you still dress | |
cool.” | |
From the first scene, Solène’s sartorial compass is established in a | |
denim puff-sleeve dress from Chloé’s Fall-Winter 2023 collection and | |
a pair of blonde suede Isabel Marant boots. It was the first look | |
Hathaway tried on during fittings with Demeterio in New York. “I was | |
like, ‘Yeah, this is Solène.’” | |
Her fashion needle doesn’t deviate much throughout the film, as we | |
see Solène in more Marant (a suede tote bag makes several appearances | |
as an intentional nod to realistic rewearing), Etro, Gabriella Hearst, | |
Valentino and vintage Chanel. These are the types of sophisticated yet | |
understated labels you might expect a successful gallery owner to buy | |
— quietly luxurious, sometimes sustainably minded and with a price | |
tag accessible to a woman in her peak earning years. | |
But while Demeterio — who is a similar age to both Solène and | |
Hathaway — was able to draw on personal taste and experience to flesh | |
out the character, getting into the mind (and closet) of a | |
20-somethings heartthrob was different. “I tried some different | |
directions with the wardrobe,” she said. “At first I went a little | |
David Bowie, a little androgynous with the silk blouses and flared | |
trousers. But I felt I was getting a little too showman and I didn’t | |
want it to be a distraction.” And if the fashion sense of one young | |
musician felt hard to pin down, there was also the question of | |
outfitting August Moon. “There’s so many ways to go with a | |
boyband,” Demeterio said. “There’s the BTS suits and matching | |
Prada, or vintage pieces mixed in with streetwear, which is where I | |
went with that.” | |
Harry Styles was of course on the moodboard for Hayes — the patchwork | |
tattoos and soft knit cardigans were a dead giveaway — but Demeterio | |
insists this wasn’t an impression. “I didn’t want it to be, you | |
know, he’s Harry,” she said. “Nick and I were sending images back | |
and forth and one of his (ideas) was Matty Healy.” (On screen Hayes | |
performed at Coachella in a pair of suit trousers and cotton vest — | |
an outfit formula beloved by The 1975 singer). What stuck were elevated | |
classics: A Bottega Veneta tank top, expertly fitted Loewe trousers or | |
luxurious cardigans (again, by Isabel Marant). “Someone of his level | |
would have his stylist go and buy designer pieces, even though it’s | |
just (say) a cardigan. It’s the way it sits,” she said. And for | |
those who want to recreate the A-lister off-duty look at home: Tailor | |
your T-shirts, says Demeterio. “Nick would bring in his personal | |
wardrobe like, ‘Can I have this shortened? Can your tailor come and | |
shorten this?’” she laughed. “I created a monster of perfect | |
T-shirt proportions.” | |
Perhaps the most important element of Demeterio’s work was accurately | |
reflecting the character’s 16 year age gap through clothes. When | |
Hayes tracks down Solène at her Silver Lakes art gallery, for example, | |
Nick appears in a slouchy cardi, white tank and snapback cap while | |
Hathaway is dressed in a structured velvet blazer. They are | |
star-crossed lovers, their doomed fate spelled out in apparel rather | |
than astrology. During one of their last encounters, Hayes stands at | |
the door, his enveloping oversized hoodie rendering him as diminished | |
and slight as a wide-eyed adolescent. “I went back and forth on | |
that,” Demeterio said. “Because I thought, does he look too | |
juvenile? But this is showing the emotional struggle through the | |
wardrobe. It was really because of what society was saying about the | |
age gap, so I wanted it to be in your face a little bit.” | |
But if “The Idea of You” subverts any clichés in this particular | |
rom-com genre, it’s that the celebrity must be more glamorous than | |
their normie love interest. Constance Bennett in “What Price | |
Hollywood” is discovered in her waitress uniform by Lowell Sherman, a | |
suited-and-booted big-time director. In “Notting Hill,” Grant was | |
relegated to a rotation of periwinkle blue button-downs while Roberts | |
swanned about in her leather blazer and black beret. As for Hathaway, | |
we find her in Chanel and leave her, happily ever after, in a rust-red | |
Gabriela Hearst suit. | |
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