10 films that shaped fashion trends across different generations

When you think of stylish films of all time, many spring to mind. But when you compare aspirational films to those that actually changed the way people dressed, the number is far smaller. The 10 films we’re celebrating today are the ones that changed the game. Some started trends that were revolutionary at the time. Some introduced an iconic garment to the world. And some created looks that people had to have in their wardrobes right away, leading to a huge uptick in sales, and designers changing collections around them. Each film delivered something different, starting a movement in some way. And they are still as sartorially on-point as they were when they were released into the world...

Mughal-E-Azam (1960)

This iconic piece of 60s cinema didn’t just have a ripple effect on fashion; it had a cascading impact, the traces of which we see in bridal couture to this day. At the time, Madhubala’s character, Anarkali, put together by costume designer Manzoor, brought the dramatic salwar-kameez to the forefront (think the flowing embroidered white one with the sheer dupatta from the 'Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya' song), giving tonnes of tailor’s orders. It also put luxe fabrics like velvet, silk, and brocade in the spotlight, particularly in Mughal silhouettes like the red bridal Anarkali with its intricate gold and silver work from the scene where she imagines being Prince Salim’s bride. The jewellery was equally classic, with kundan and polki chokers, maang tikkas, and naths all coming into bridalwear due in large part to this heartrending love story. 

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

There is a reason Audrey Hepburn’s rendition of Holly Golightly makes it to every ‘fictional style icon’ list you’ll read in your lifetime; she was a sartorial fire starter. Any fashion enthusiast knows that the custom Hubert de Givenchy black dress you see in that legendary poster is often credited with the true birth of the LBD; the first of many iterations of a classic that never cycled out of fashion. Just that would’ve been enough to put this film on the list, but costume designer Edith Head imparted other pearls of style wisdom as well, including bringing pearls back as daily wear jewellery. Shift dresses, camel-hued trench coats, feathered accessories, tiaras, oversized sunglasses; all trends through the sixties owed their popularity—at least in part—to Hepburn’s portrayal of the beautiful Upper East Side socialite.

Bobby (1973)

Before this 1973 film hit the screen, a mainstream Bollywood heroine wearing a bikini would have been borderline unthinkable. But behold; Dimple Kapadia and her legendary red bikini, that opened the portal to a more progressive approach to the ‘heroine’. One of the first big-banner Bollywood films to feature a leading actor in a bikini, Bobby paved the way for swimwear to be normalised in Hindi cinema, reflecting in an inclusion of more swimwear options in brand/designer collections, catering to the growing demand sparked by the film. Costume designer Bhanu Athaiya also started a series of other off-shoot trends—the knotted top from Bobby Braganza’s birthday party made polka dots sell like hot cakes, the outfit from when Raj goes to Bobby’s house made the coquettish ‘schoolgirl’ look incredibly popular, and the bell-bottoms and mini-skirts Bobby wore were in great part responsible for ushering those late 60s Western trends into 70s India.

Annie Hall (1977)

Diane Keaton’s Annie Hall still deserves to be acknowledged for the bastion of style she became in the late 70s, courtesy of this classic rom-com. Her irreverent, self-effacing rendition of this character gave us a veritable style game changer, taking the deeply feminine ideas around clothing for women and dismantling them.

Through her traditionally masculine aesthetic, Annie Hall (crafted by Keaton and costume designer Ruth Morley) was the true harbinger of androgynous dressing for women, in a decade that was miles away from exploring it of its own accord. The character was—and continues to be—aspirational to women that felt trapped by traditional femininity.

Through the late 70s and early 80s, menswear took up more space in women’s wardrobes, with large, boxy blazers, loose-fitting wide-legged pants, vests, and accessories such as bowler hats, fedoras, and neckties. Oversized clothes and layering both came into play, and traditionally ‘male’ fabrics like tweed were co-opted by women more and more. The ‘androgynous’ revolution had begun a couple of decades ago, post World War II, but it was this seminal film that brought it into the zeitgeist.

Clueless (1995)

Clueless is more than just instant girl’s night catnip. It’s a film that—both through Cher and several other characters in the film—set a style tone that very much set the preppy diktat for the late 90s. Costume designer Mona May created the stuff of legend with Cher’s yellow plaid skirt suit and the white ‘It’s Calvin Klein, daddy!’ dress. But there’s a series of looks that filtered into the 90s teen style sensibilities courtesy the red Alaïa dress Cher wears when she gets robbed, her PE outfit, her Fred Segal collarless shirt and the lace-trimmed white dress in the film’s final scene. This film didn’t just shoot plaid sales through the roof, it popularised ‘prep’ as a style movement altogether, pivoting from the ‘grunge’ aesthetic that was big in 1994. For co-ord plaid, bralettes as outerwear, and unironic knee-high socks, we’ll always have Cher Horowitz to thank.

The Matrix Onwards (1999)

If you’re wondering why futuristic leather was such a pivotal part of the sartorial vocabulary in the early 2000s, turn your eyes to The Matrix. The trilogy, which began in 1999, didn’t simply kick a few trends into the noughties; they brought forth an entire style movement. Long, sleek trench coats, narrow, black-lens Blinde sunglasses, and combat boots rose to the fore as the most popular items, but what the trilogy did for black leather, PVC, and monochromatic black was definitely one of the most notable things about the film’s style impact, with their futuristic sharpness inspiring collections by Balenciaga and Alexander Wang, among others.

While cinephiles and fashion aficionados know the film’s interwoven influence with cyberpunk culture, it is also interesting to look at how costume designer Kym Barrett started a conversation about androgynous dressing. This trilogy was a fashion-influence behemoth.

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1999) & Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001)

While these are technically two films, they qualify as one, style-changing entity because 2001’s K3G came hot on the heels of KKHH; and they both made the same important leap for style in Indian cinema. With costumes designed by Manish Malhotra and Shabina Khan, both films brought shock-value dressing to the masses (at the time). While it would be incorrect to say Western dressing hadn’t begun to seep into the style choices of the 90s-early 2000s youth, it hadn’t quite gained the momentum it did until Shah Rukh Khan turned up with his ‘Cool’ silver pendant or tight blue-green Polo-logo tank. Similarly, mini dresses soared after Rani Mukerji slung a guitar over one in 'Koi Mil Gaya', and baseball caps found a new audience after college Anjali made them cool for teenage girls. Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham’s iconic ‘Poo’ (played by Kareena Kapoor Khan) in herself was a bastion of outrageous style; think the pink pleather outfit from the memeable ‘Tell me how it was!’ scene, or her red-co-ord from 'You Are My Soniya'. Hrithik Roshan’s Rohan single-handedly made the leather jacket, the sleeveless button down, and biker goggles mass phenoms in the early 2000s.

Legally Blonde (2001)

This 2001 cinematic gem created a feminist icon in more ways than one with Elle Woods. Reese Witherspoon’s spunky, effervescent character is a classic metaphor for the underestimation of the ‘girlie girl’. Blonde and beautiful with double-Ds and a toothpaste-commercial smile, no one expects Elle to get into Harvard—except herself. The part of her journey that left an indelible imprint on the fashion zeitgeist was that she did it in head-to-toe pink. Elle Woods was directly responsible for the pink renaissance—and, by extension, the return of all things proudly feminine—in fashion.

Envisioned by costume designer Sophie de Rakoff, the character was powerful in dismantling the idea that brilliant women can’t be sharp, talented, and ambitious while they’re wearing a floral dress, or handing out their resumes on scented stationery. The character made women comfortable about enjoying their femininity with ‘girlie’ colours, prints and silhouettes; from fuzzy pink slippers to sequinned bikinis, bows, ruffles, and lace. And marching into corporate spaces with it, too.

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013)

Part of the sit-up-and-notice-Deepika era, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani was a roaring success for myriad reasons. There was the college nostalgia it tapped into with the trip to Manali, the chemistry between Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone; and Padukone’s outfits in both halves of the film that changed millennial dressing for the next several years.

Manish Malhotra and Samidha Wangnoo’s imagination saw ‘nerdy’ rectangular black-frame glasses, denim jackets, floral dresses, and puffy parkas for ‘scholar Naina’, but it’s what this film did for festive dressing that really counts. Her stunning cobalt-blue chiffon saree in 'Badtameez Dil' was definitely the best remembered. But versions of the fuchsia-mustard lehenga she wears at the mehendi, or the fire-engine red sequined shararas she wears in 'Dilliwaali Girlfriend' started emerging at weddings and events across the country. It changed the energy of the festive look, giving an alternative to the decadence that Mughal-e-Azam had brought about, infusing the space with popsicle hues, bolder silhouettes, and lighter fabrics.

Gully Boy (2019)

Sneaker culture seems at large, giving off the illusion that it—and streetwear—have been part of the Indian fashion vocabulary for ages. However, hype sneakers and streetwear only really began percolating the Indian market in the late noughties, still decidedly niche, burgeoning through the early 2010s, and finally booming only in 2019. We owe that boom, in no small part, to Zoya Akhtar’s 2019 coming-of-age musical drama Gully Boy. Inspired by the lives of Indian street rappers DIVINE and Naezy, the film, with costume design by Arjun Bhasin and Poornamrita Singh, leaned in hard to streetwear; a veritable cornucopia of sports, skateboarding and athleisure giants like Supreme, Champion, Stüssy, Puma, and Nike, local brands like Urban Monkey and Ninety One. Jordans went from niche to covetable prestige, with the demand for them rising. Since 2019, post the success of the film, the spike in sneaker reseller stores in India and local streetwear brands has been staggering; proof that the cool, ‘gully’ aesthetic of the film brought a style movement to the country in one fell swoop.

And we have more!

While these films didn’t change the tide quite like the ones we’ve mentioned, they definitely caused more than a mere ripple...

Blow-Up (1966)

The classic psychological mystery by directing legend Michelangelo Antonioni had more sex appeal than it could handle, and the slit dresses on Jane Birkin tipped it over.

Grease (1978)

This film had men wearing Danny Zuko-esque leather jackets and Sandra Dee-esque black spandex bodysuits through the better part of the decade. 

Top Gun (1986)

Aviators and olive jumpsuits practically sold themselves when this Tom Cruise trailblazer came out.

Chandni (1989)

Sridevi’s chiffon saris were iconic enough to make this fabric wildly popular through the '90s. 

Rangeela (1995)

We have Urmila Matondkar’s crop tops and skater skirts to thank for truly ushering in the era of audacious ‘Western’ dressing for Indian women.

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

Kat’s cargo pants, Doc Martens, and combat boots, and Bianca’s plaid skirts and knee-highs; all directly filtered into high-school dressing.

Devdas (2002)

Paro and Chandramukhi’s jewel-toned saris, pearl and kundan maang tikkas, jhumkas, and chandbalis definitely found their way into festive dressing through the early 2000s.

Mean Girls (2004)

Peak Y2K dressing—the slogan tees, the tartan skirts, the ironic baby pink. The Plastics defined a generation.

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

What this sleek, fashion dramedy did for corporate wear was unreal; it took it from boring and basic to thoughtful, chic, and a chance to express yourself. Dhoom 2 (2006) Aishwarya Rai Bachchan had a series of sharp looks through the film (just think of Crazy Kiya Re as a sample), but the blue beaded cutout bodysuit she wore could basically be spotted everywhere for a year when the film came out.

Dhoom 2 (2006)

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan had a series of sharp looks through the film (just think of 'Crazy Kiya Re' as a sample), but the blue beaded cutout bodysuit she wore could basically be spotted everywhere for a year when the film came out.

Jab We Met (2007)

Kareena Kapoor Khan’s Geet was remembered most for the quotable quote "Main toh apni favourite hoon!", and turning all Indian millennial girls into teaming Patiala salwars with long T-shirts.

Fashion (2008)

The Priyanka Chopra Jonas-starrer by Madhur Bhandarkar had a lot of interesting costumery, but it kickstarted the leather-corset-over-white-shirts more than anything else.

Dostana (2008)

A lot of Priyanka Chopra-Jonas’ beachwear was pretty covetable from this film (and holds up under style scrutiny 16 years later).

Cocktail (2012)

Deepika Padukone was officially catapulted into being a style icon with this one—just like the jersey off-shoulder knotted crop-top was in every twentysomething’s wardrobe.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011)

The easy-cool of the three boys’ pastel boat shorts, floral shirts, and amber-tinted sunnies was enough to make soft resortwear stick for Indian millennials through a big part of the 2010s.

This article originally appeared in the Cosmopolitan July-August 2024 issue.

Image credits: Imdb.com

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