By Anna Battista
Liliana Cavani’s Il portiere di notte (The Night Porter, 1974) is unanimously considered as one of the most controversial films in the history of Italian cinema. Set in 1957 in Vienna, the story focuses on a chance encounter between Max (Dirk Bogarde), a former SS officer in a concentration camp, and Lucia (Charlotte Rampling), one of the prisoners with whom he had a sadomasochist relationship during the war. At a certain point in the film Max remembers in one of his flashbacks Lucia wearing only a pair of trousers, suspenders, long leather gloves and a beret with a turquoise mask on top of it singing for a group of SS officers. Lucia’s look in this specific scene often turned into an inspiration for different fashion designers who tried to look at the fetishistic side of the film, at the leather and the berets in a nutshell, emphasising the perversity of the Max/Lucia relationship.
Marc Jacobs went down The Night Porter way in his Autumn/Winter 2011-12 collection for Louis Vuitton. Critics thought the men opening the doors of four ornate elevators at the back of the runway were porters at a grand and glamorous hotel, but they actually looked like perfect hints at Max and at his job. There were further references to Cavani’s film and to its costumes in the collection: sheer pencil skirts, sculpted jackets with round shoulders and fur-sleeves, patent leather bustiers, rubber skirts, patent trench coats and fetishistic dominatrix-like lace-up boots prevailed, but all were matched with peaked berets covered in the LV trademark logos or recreated in patent PVC or in a furr
y material. Also the miniature red, gold or turquoise masks worn on top of the berets à la Lucia in the Salomé scene were references to Cavani’s film.
The masks – together with platform pumps and handcuffs – also reappeared in the printed dresses. There were further Night Porter references in the high-waisted jodhpurs that called to mind uniforms, in the bags (the 1958 top-handle Lockit bag – even this year seemed a very apt reference since The Night Porter takes place in 1957…) affixed to the models’ wrists via handcuffs and in the handcuffed models clad in see-through PVC macs.
Some fashion critics interpreted as French maid’s uniforms the naïve dresses with white plasticised Peter Pan collars while they seemed to be hints at the childish dress Max gives to Lucia during their relationship.
Louis Vuitton will be setting up a summer pop-up shop in Cannes, opening just in time for the 64th Film Festival. The shop will sell ready-to-wear and accessories in a decor inspired by the seaside and cinema, so it’s easy to wonder, will the LV shop also sell PVC berets à la Night Porter?
All images copyright Louis Vuitton / Chris Moore
