FASHION
Revisiting Femme Fatale Fashion
By: Madison Manckzo
In a chapter from the piece “Fashion in Film” by scholar Ula Lukszo, she describes femme fatales as “phallic women whose sexuality is dangerous, even at its most alluring.” According to Lukszo, their extravagant clothing seen on the screen is meant to be a sign of “villainy, moral looseness, and emotional turmoil.”
This extravagant clothing comes in the form of curve-accentuating dresses, heels, fur coats, over-the-top headwear, and evening gloves. Their ensembles are a combination of the mysterious and the sexy, calling attention to their beauty while keeping the cards close to their chests, concealing their emotions with dark designer sunglasses.
Femme fatale fashion has returned in a big way. Whether this was the designers’ intentions or purely coincidental, it’s impossible to ignore the recent rise of furs (faux, thankfully), sleek black gowns, and endless flashy jewels. No one is now capturing the femme fatale's essence better than Saint Laurent and Versace.
Saint Laurent’s Women’s Winter 2022 Collection, for example, is filled with models clicking down the runway in stiletto heels and ankle-length furs. Versace continues to be a staple of high-fashion classic glam with a twist.
Donatella Versace even describes her current runway concept “A Goddess Gone Grunge” as “a strong liberated woman; she is gorgeous; she knows it. She is the Goddess of Freedom.” Sound familiar? The idea of a beautiful and free woman with a dark side is the pinnacle of the modern femme fatale. Even after almost 80 years, a woman, evidently, still feels powerful and seductive in a little black dress.
One could argue that views towards female sexuality have changed little since the peak of the femme fatale in the 1940s. While women nowadays are usually not expected to be Stepford wives, they are still often stigmatized for embracing themselves as feminine sexual beings. The difference, however, is that in the 40s, female figures willing to contradict this idea were few and far between. That’s what makes classic femme fatales so iconic –– they pushed a boundary that didn’t even exist yet.
Photos: Versace & Saint Laurent
Kathie Moffat, Cora Smith, Gilda Mundson; what do all of these women have in common? They used their cunning, disarming beauty, and extravagant fashion to lead men into danger. Femme fatale characters are known for being selfish, deceitful, manipulative, and deviant – but women have been called far worse.
The origins of the femme fatale date back to noir films of the 1940s, in which the woman would use her sexuality in ways that were incredibly radical for the time period. Common noir plots include these women cheating on and even murdering their husbands, many of whom were abusive.
The femme fatale is almost siren-like in her allure, wrapping the male protagonists around her perfectly-manicured fingers to further her agenda. She was the complete antithesis of society's ideas about women at the time –– that they should be selfless, nurturing homemakers who had dinner on the table just in time for their husbands to return home from their nine-to-five.
Long story short, the femme fatale is a badass.
