Film critic Margaret Pomeranz admits fashion is one of her passions, only second to film. “I love beautiful clothes” she says, “I think they’re an art form in themselves.”
Pomeranz injects her own style, including her weakness for beautiful jackets, into her role as co-host of ABC’s At the Movies. “I love finding pieces that are idiosyncratically me, and I try to put a sense of fashion into the show” she says.
She insists getting fashion right is a crucial creative component for a film. “Every costume designer would say that every character has to have that right look”, she says. It expresses who they are and adds to the overall look and style of the film.
Pomeranz’s choice for standout film fashion is Dianne Keaton’s character in Annie Hall (1977). Keaton played Woody Allen’s eccentric leading lady, Annie Hall, a role she won an Oscar for. At the time, all eyes were on the character’s signature eclectic style.
Ralph Lauren worked closely with the film’s costume designer, Ruth Morley, to create Hall’s androgynous look; an oversized man’s white shirt, a black waistcoat with polka-dotted necktie, baggy chino pants and bowler hat. Lauren’s masculine line became a popular style for women in the late ’70s.
The look caught on because women wanted to identify with Hall’s persona, according to Pomeranz. “This was definitely a fashion for an individual character that I think really made its mark,” she says, “Mainly because of the individuality of the character, and everybody wanted to identify with that sort of free spirit.”