Self sufficient beauty. Leo Tolstoi "Anna Karenina". Book and Film Images.

Tolstoi defined clearly the style of Anna Karenina, he said: "less is more":

“Kitty had been seeing Anna every day; she adored her, and had pictured her invariably in lilac. But now seeing her in black, she felt that she had not fully seen her charm. She saw her now as someone quite new and surprising to her. Now she understood that Anna could not have been in lilac, and that her charm was just that she always stood out against her attire, that her dress could never be noticeable on her. And her black dress, with its sumptuous lace, was not noticeable on her; it was only the frame, and all that was seen was she--simple, natural, elegant, and at the same time gay and eager."

The above means that Anna was very well dressed, exactly as Chanel wanted, i.e. when you remember the woman and not the attire. Anna belongs to women who create a special atmosphere around them without doing anything. She is more of Sophia Loren type. Usually this kind of women do not go in line with fashion, they have a self sufficient beauty. Such a beauty needs a minimum to support it.

If I had to dress Anna Karenina today, I would've chosen something "simple".
   
That is why I prefer Anna Karenina on the right, picture. Out of all Anna Kareninas that show up in Internet I prefer the one on the right picture, and I also came to the conclusion that Jane Austen should be filmed by the British, Guy de Maupassant by the French, Tolstoi by the Russians and so on.

 

Anna Karenina 1967

Anna Karenina 2012

Jacqueline Durran (stylist of the latest film on Anna starring Keira Nightly) said: “Never in my experience on film sets have I seen anyone with such a range of diamonds and pearls. But I have to say it was very useful for Keira to have at her fingertips all this fine jewellery, as Anna would. It was the aura of Anna Karenina that we were creating…” 

 

Anna Karenina is neither a fashion maximalist like Marie-Antoinette nor she is a friend of diamonds like Marilyn Monroe. Instead of decorating bony Keira too much, Jacqueline could have expressed her designer talent on other women characters from the the film.

Betsy, a "friend" of Anna, a representative of the highest society. She is exactly the one, whom a Costume designer would want. Betsy is materialistic, glamorous, rich and stylish. It is Betsy who should wear all the expensive jewelery of the world. Out of two Betsys I prefer the second one, a more stylish one (I am still comparing the same two movies).

Interesting parallels

I was working on a look inspired by the beginning of the 20th century. In short, I was looking for a contemporary "long view look", which became popular in the last several years.

I stumbled upon one website, www.alsheyma.com (right), which has long view looks. It is interesting to find parallels - European fashion of 1913 and Muslim fashion of 2013.

Japanese philosophy on colours

The Japanese philosophy about the best colours to wear is different from European individualistic approaches. The Japanese think that, regardless of your individual type, the most important thing is to be in harmony with the weather.

Here are few illustrations from Kyoto Costume Museum.

An outfit for winter, which symbolizes a plum tree covered by snow.

Spring costume, which is the same plum tree without snow.

Summer costume, which represents a citrus of Emperor flowering in early Summer.

Autumn costume representing the colours of the Japanese maple tree.

Celine or business women vs housewives

The ancient Chinese say that one of the most important thing in order to reach harmony is to find movement while resting, and seek rest in movement.  

The same principle applies to outfits, is not it? It seems to me there should be more relaxation in the outfits of business women, as well as more elegance and concentrations should appear in housewives' looks.  Like complementary colors form white, different sides of women's personalities can be combined in one look, especially if women wear it all the day long, one day after another.

Celine in the March 2013 Vogue illustrates relaxation (right). Yet such outfits are more for business ladies than for housewives.