Polly Maggoo – where are you?

So, before my black and red party shenanigans yesterday, I rushed out in excitement (so much so I LEFT my intended black and red outfit at home….more about that here) to go see two films as part of the Fashion in Film festival.  They both portrayed negative views in fashion.  One was Ceiling, directed by the Czech-born Vera Chytilova and the other was of course the unmissable Qui êtes-vous Polly Maggoo? directed by the fashion photographer William Klein.  Ceiling was really quite a bleak and very despondent look at the fashion world through the eyes of a bored, dissatisfied model.  Drawing on Vera’s own experiences as a model, she throws caution to being sucked into the vapid material world – obsession with foreign clothes and cars, sexual liasons with rich boyfriends.  This dissatisfaction is further heightened when she encounters her ‘innocent past’ via her ex-university classmates.  However, even though the message was negative, you could still tell Chytilova’s appreciation for style and fashion as there are some wonderful shots of Marta (the bored model) posing in various locations in beautiful clothes.  The ending is also quite satisfying as well as Marta escapes the world she loathes 

Moving onto the less bleak but ten times more ridiculous interpretation of a similar theme, I watched Qui êtes-vous Polly Maggoo? with wonder and amazement.  This is I think one of the funniest and most surreal films I’ve seen about fashion yet.  Here is a very good summary if you don’t know what it’s about (want to keep this short and sweet!).  The film is extremely satirical yet I don’t feel Klein is really trying to say that beneath the life of a model like Polly Maggoo (played by American model Dorothy McGowan), there is nothing at all but rather, she is still her own person, she still has autonomy despite the pretension and artifice that surrounds her.  I was so entranced by her face and spent an hour Googling her name only to come up with nothing.  All I know is she was an American model yet there are no pictures!  She bears resemblance to Twiggy and conforms to the 60’s model typecast.  So does anyone know where is this Polly Maggoo? 

I have to admit, I was not even pondering the deeper meaning and full intentions of the director when I was watching it because superficial me was too busy being amazed by the ridiculously conceptual clothes, the bizarre 60’s op-art backdrop, the surreal fashion magazine house as headed up by the hilarious Miss Maxwell (played by Grayson Hall), a figure clearly modelled on Diana Vreeland, Klein’s ex-boss.  So stylish is this film that again, you wonder whether the message Klein is trying to portray about the fashion world is lost.  Or perhaps, you can exist in that world and appreciate the sublime parts of it whilst retain the ability to laugh about the absurd side of fashion at the same time.   

For a long time, this film was impossible to get hold of but with the power of eBay – you can buy it here.  On this DVD, it also has the In and Out of Fashion documentary where William Klein reflects upon his five decades in fashion.  Something that I’m desperate to see as well!