Fashion Pressure

The Alfred Hitchcock woman is not an easy one to understand.  She is a complicated creature, plagued by the overwhelming sense of schizophrenia and the unsettling notion of her own mystery.  She is a somewhat twisted individual that has  not only influenced film for decades, but also more recently fashion.

A major trend this fall season, in fact, is the Hitchcockian woman.  From enveloped coats, to ultra-professional suits to motherly styling, the Hitchcock woman has made an evoking appearance at Fall 2011.

Alfred Hitchcock was known for his rather hostile nature towards women.  Some even say that he genuinely took pleasure in watching women, including his actresses, suffer.  And while a lot of his female characters seemed annoyingly weak, a large number of his women were known for their cattiness and murderous qualities, and it’s perhaps this woman that we see this season for Fall 2011: the independent yet bitchy woman who, once pushed over the edge, is a force which knows no bounds.

Perhaps it’s Donna Karan who explored this side well this season, with her mysteriously aristocratic collection.  With luxurious furs that make us wonder how they became to be on the woman, tight updone hair and almost hypnotizing smoky draping, the entire collection reflects the natural and disturbing enigma of the Hitchcock woman.

Meanwhile it’s designers like Bottega Veneta who seemed to enjoy using the secretary like references that were so dominant in Hitchcock’s films and made some of his women so alarmingly professional and calm.  Who would have suspected that the loyal Mrs Velroc, in his film “Sabotage” would murder her gangster husband in the kitchen.  There’s something extremely disturbing about a man being murdered in what was perhaps the most feminine space of all: the kitchen.  This feeling of psychotic feminine dominance is expressed so well in Bottega Veneta’s collection, which perfects the mysterious secretary look so well.

And let’s not forget Jean Paul Gaultier’s adaptation of the Hitchcock female persona for Fall 2011.  He not only mastered the dramatic updo and frighteningly professional suits, blouses and glasses (think Prada Fall 2010), but also explored one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most chilling topics: the mother.  The motherly figure is a dangerous one in Hitchcock’s films, always driving their somewhat paranoid sons to either murder of madness (or both).  The male protagonist would often have a very twisted or unnatural mental relationship with his mother, either excessively detesting her or abnormally admiring her.  Gaultier’s almost grandmotherly references- the giant grey wig, the 60s receptionist reading glasses, the old fashioned office heels- reflect this type of matriarchal power: motherly from afar, but deadly from within.

It’s encouraging to see that Alfred Hitchcock’s realm continues to inspire and influence today’s world, especially in something as relevant as fashion.  Not an easy trend to wear and not a typically warm one either, but the Hitchcock woman is a separate specimen on her own and demands power in her own right.  Either way, exploring something as iconic as the Hitchcock woman is bound to turn heads: who said looks couldn’t kill?