Face To Face

Photographed By Ellinor Forje

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to engage in an in-depth conversation with Marc Jacobs’s muse, Zoe Cassavetes (positioned at the extreme left, followed by Lucrecia Martel, Giada Colagrande, and Massy Tadjedin), following a press conference held at the Hotel Excelsior Venice Lido Resort.

I was curious to hear her thoughts on the pieces by Miu Miu used in her film "The Powder Room" having read a review by Tavi Gevinson, in which Gevinson relates the collection in question to Sofia Coppola's film "Somewhere". Miuccia Prada herself stated to "Style" that her inspiration for the clothes came from "Everybody's obsession with being famous." André Leon Talley alludes to a scene in the movie as "The most accurate depiction of the state of American culture in recent years..."

After a long day of too many impressions, I can assure you that my first question did not come out in the clear and concise manner suggested by the paragraph above. No. No. This is how it went: "I just re-watched some of the 'Miu Miu Musings'... They were talking about the little black dress. Shala Monroque said something about Audrey Hepburn... Wait, that's another question... Backtrack... The dresses in the Miu Miu Spring 2011 collection... Wait... Am I on the right collection?... Coppola's, 'Nowhere,' I mean 'Somewhere,' Vanity and.... American culture..."

Jiberish.

Cassavetes looked at me with an expression that seemed to suggest, "Okay, I didn’t realize all this was going on...," and then actually said, "I live in France."

On a more serious note, Cassavetes was inspired by the art déco features of the clothes. This, combined with watching her grandmother revamp herself in a powder room, effectively sets the stage for the film. The haunting atmosphere emerged naturally during shooting and was not something Cassavetes had intended from the outset. It does, however, serve as a prelude to what is to come in the tales. I believe I mentioned earlier that these ladies are quite bold.

I also asked Cassavetes whether there was a double entendre in her use of the term "powder room". She replied that she had not really thought that deeply about it, at least not intentionally. In essence, the "powder room" is simply a "powder room" with a single entendre.

And what of the eerie environment, and the sequence of models moving through it in the final film? How is that to be interpreted?

"Women are witches... Women are mysterious," Cassavetes said.