FANS ATTUNE TO HIGH FASHION

Edge of excess

Luhrmann promotes 'The Great Gatsby'

Old fashion vs new with Gatsby and Tiny Times

High fashion and film have enjoyed a long relationship, taken to a new level in the 1990s by HBO television series "Sex and the City," which showcased latest collections by designers on the characters. Patricia Field, the stylist of the show and its subsequent films, also designed a "Sex and the City" inspired collection for UK retailer Marks & Spencer.

Earlier this year, Baz Luhrmann's big screen adaptation of "The Great Gatsby" saw its leading actress, Carey Mulligan, channeling Daisy Buchanan in striking Prada designs created for the film by costume designer Catherine Martin, who drew straight from the Prada archives.

Summerville, who also created actress Rooney Mara's edgy transformation in 2011's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," said she turned to "Hunger Games" fan sites when designing the aesthetic of the second film, and found high-fashion looks suggested for both Katniss and Effie Trinket, the film's outrageously dressed Capitol spokeswoman.

Lions Gate also created a Capitol Couture website, an online magazine set in the fictional world of Panem, that showcased the styles explored in the film, from the Districts to the Capitol.

Actress Elizabeth Banks, who plays Effie, said her character's high-fashion looks represented a bigger picture of the film's theme of revolution.

"We don't wear the clothes because they're cool-looking, we wear the clothes because they represent the excess and the power of the Capitol. It's always meant to be a juxtaposition of what's going on in the districts," Banks said.

One look that Summerville said she was proud of curating for Effie was a fitted dress adorned with hundreds of feathers painted to look like Monarch butterflies, taken straight from the Alexander McQueen spring/summer runway. Banks wore the dress with high heels and a butterfly hair piece.

"Everything is uncomfortable, everything is constricted, and that's also a really strong reminder of the society they live in. Their only freedoms come in the form of personal adornment, they don't have true freedom yet," Banks said.

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