18/100: Blow-Up (1966)

The enduring illusion of London's Swinging Sixties

Blow-Up (1966)

Costumes by: Jocelyn Rickards

Directed by: Michelangelo Antonioni

This movie may be for you if: you relate to the urge to randomly buy an old propellor, your dream shopping day would be Carnaby Street in the 1960’s, and you just can’t resist a sleazy photographer.

Where to watch: Someone uploaded the entire Criterion Collection cut to YouTube here! Just to note - the audio does briefly cut out for a couple of minutes, and the subtitles are only available in Spanish and Portuguese.

An incredibly chic 1960’s London photo studio! Models in mod! A murder! Mimes playing tennis! What’s not to love?

For me, it turns out, kind of a lot.

Blow-Up was one of my most highly anticipated movies when I first started putting together the 100 Fashion Films Project several years ago. The 60’s is debatably my favorite decade for fashion, and the stills of Blow-Up I had seen floating around online for years looked like a they were pulled straight from the estate sales of my dreams. A I have a lot of dreams about estate sales. Unfortunately, I finished the two hour film
(twice now) kind of bored, sartorially uninspired, and so over David Hemming’s Thomas.

Here’s the thing: the clothes are good! Like, really good.

Actress Ann Norman and real-life model Peggy Moffitt posed as fashion models in Blow-Up

So why don’t I love the fashion of Blow-Up?