The Femme Fatale subverts expectations – about story, and most of all about femininity. How might this connect to the way they’re dressed in their films?
Film writer Abbey Bender suggests a theory about the wardrobe of femmes fatales in erotic thrillers, along with stills from Basic Instinct, The Last Seduction, Fatal Attraction, Body Heat, Body of Evidence and Femme Fatale:
The femmes fatales in erotic thrillers frequently wear white because they are subverting ideas of feminine purity and allowing us to project ideas of desire/mystery/aberrant sexuality onto the clean slate of their costumes, thanks for coming to my TED Talk! pic.twitter.com/CBbLMAk1Zd
— Abbey Bender (@Abbey_Bender) July 17, 2018
Yeah, I really think I'm onto something here… pic.twitter.com/UFHOdF1DUC
— Abbey Bender (@Abbey_Bender) July 17, 2018
Some more (possibly NSFW?) examples! pic.twitter.com/69nVGC1JOO
— Abbey Bender (@Abbey_Bender) July 17, 2018
Others have since responded with more stills from films and TV shows which lend intriguing credence to the theory:
One of my favorite aspects of film noir is that exact costume design choice pic.twitter.com/f1zRQBB435
— Emily ⚾️ (@ylime620) July 17, 2018
Think I found Patient Zero: Gene Tierney in LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN pic.twitter.com/yjy2EaWsMw
— Phil Nobile Jr. (@PhilNobileJr) July 17, 2018
OK, we checked this theory against Object of Obsession, Thief of Hearts, Mirror Images, and Hot Target. You're on to something. pic.twitter.com/NZSYpx625s
— We Kill For Love (@wekillforlove) July 17, 2018
— Will Thompson (@TillWhompson) July 17, 2018
Kim Basinger as Lynn Bracken in L.A. Confidential pic.twitter.com/ZPDQUtX2LX
— Damien Mendis (@DamienMendis) July 17, 2018
Hitchcock too. I wrote an entire paper about Marion Crane’s white bra in a college film class once. pic.twitter.com/t0bNaX0tOv
— Beth (@ladymadonna512) July 18, 2018
Here for this pic.twitter.com/1Wub8Kfl6r
— Nathalie Atkinson (@NathAt) July 18, 2018
Veronica Lake, as Sally Vaughan, in I Wanted Wings (1941) pic.twitter.com/BwjsmRVSok
— Damien Mendis (@DamienMendis) July 17, 2018
I couldn’t help but jump in:
Maybe this extends to the gothic thriller too: pic.twitter.com/tmahq3sRAh
— viewinder (@viewinder) July 17, 2018
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