Costume dramas

Silver-screen sirens haunt the autumn/winter 2002 catwalk shows. Take Gucci's display, for example, in which vampish models echoed film-noir heroines in black silk satin cocktail frocks. Or Tom Ford's showcase for Yves Saint Laurent, which featured Catherine Deneuve-style Belle de Jour bourgeois-slut dresses. But there's nothing new in this. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has just finished showing a retrospective of the work of Hollywood's legendary Forties costumier Adrian, which proved how heavily generations of fashion designers have leant on the masters of celluloid costume. Adrian and his peers Travis Banton, Irene, Edith Head, Orry Kelly and Jean Louis have arguably set more fashions than the Paris couture ever could.

The definition of a truly great fashion film is one that inspires audiences, not ateliers. And film's autumn/winter 2002 season will premiere three candidates for fashion film of 2002: François Ozon's 8 Women, Madonna's Swept Away, directed by Guy Ritchie, and the Catherine Zeta Jones/Renée Zellweger double-hander Chicago.

Ozon's 8 Women, a French art-house-thriller-meets-musical (released in the UK on 29 November), is an immaculately dressed movie. Not since the Adrian-designed 1939 film The Women has the screen brought together such an iconic all-female cast: Deneuve, Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Béart, Isabelle Huppert and Danielle Darrieux.

The Fifties setting gave the costume designer, Pascaline Chavanne, carte blanche to reference Christian Dior's New Look (shown in 1947 but echoed throughout Dior's couture collections until his death in 1957). You know from the first frames – when Deneuve appears in a leopardskin coat and clinging peacock-blue day dress – that 8 Women will have female audience members swooning for Fifties chic.

Chavanne lacquers Dior couture with good old-fashioned Hollywood glamour. "As early as the Thirties, Hollywood idealised haute couture," says Chavanne. "The allure of Catherine Deneuve was inspired by the melodramas of Lana Turner. For Fanny Ardant, we were inspired by Ava Gardner in John Huston's The Barefoot Contessa and by Cyd Charisse in The Band Wagon." Ardant's spray-on scarlet dress with matching bolero jacket and lipstick is infinitely more va-va-voom than anything on the runways this season.

"8 Women is an anti-naturalist film that focuses on stylisation and the artificial to heighten feminine beauty and glamour," says Ozon. The artifice – perfect maquillage, coiffed and coloured hair and gowns that fit rather than hang – will inspire audiences to reject the hippie-dippy boho fashion we're all thoroughly bored with by now.

If Marni, Etro and Dolce & Gabbana revive Love Story stripey scarves and beanie hats one more time, Ali MacGraw will start demanding royalties. This is not to suggest that fashion designers have never contributed to great fashion films. Monsieur Dior himself clothed Marlene Dietrich for Hitchcock's 1950 thriller Stage Fright, while Hubert de Givenchy exclusively dressed Audrey Hepburn in a string of late-Fifties/early-Sixties fashion films, including Sabrina, Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffany's and How to Steal a Million.

But there are far more tales of fashion-and-film fall-outs than of happy unions. Gloria Swanson fired Coco Chanel because she deemed the costumes for her 1931 film Tonight or Never too understated. Elsa Schiaparelli's belle époque beauties for Mae West in Every Day's a Holiday (1937) didn't fit and had to be altered in Hollywood.

Ever since the Paris couture was suspended during the Second World War, it has been Hollywood, not haute couture, that has shaped public taste. If any indication of the balance of power were needed, note that it's the designers, not stars, who do the begging come Oscar night.

John Galliano may live to regret turning down Madonna's request that he design her costumes for Evita (1996). The role of Eva Peron provided Madonna with her greatest screen success to date, and the clothes, copied from Evita's archive by the designer Penny Rose, were widely admired. Peron was a customer of Dior's from 1947 until her death in 1953, as well as a glutton for Ferragamo shoes and furs. The Madonna film inspired a Fifties fashion revival, and Max Factor launched an "Evita" make-up range on the back of the film.

Swept Away, Madonna's latest assault on celluloid (released in the US on 11 October), should be a great fashion film. But Swept Away isn't designed but, rather, styled by Madonna's image pixie, Arianne Phillips. It's a product-placement feast for Madonna's favourite designers. "Madonna wears pretty much all of them," Phillips admitted to Harper's Bazaar, of a wardrobe including canary-yellow Versace couture, Juicy Couture tracksuits, Hermès halter tops and Dolce & Gabbana, Missoni and Gucci. Compared withDesperately Seeking Susan – when Madonna worked her bangles, cut-off tights, black lace bras and crucifix look – Swept Away is a fashionable, rather than fashion, film.

Rumour had it that Madonna was considered for a part in the movie Chicago in the early stages of development. The film hits the screen on 25 December in the US, with Catherine Zeta Jones and Renée Zellweger as the murderous jazz babies Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart. This stylised Twenties musical will do for the flapper dress what Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge did for the corset in 2001. As in 8 Women, the hair and make-up will be equally influential, particularly Zeta Jones's black Louise Brooks bob and Zellweger's peroxide-blonde Jean Harlow curls.

The big screen is no longer the shortest route to the public in this multi-media age. But it is still a more inspiring, accessible showcase than the catwalk. The great fashion moments on screen are immortal and relentlessly recycled: Marlene Dietrich wearing Travis Banton's black cock-feather cloche in Shanghai Express; Faye Dunaway's Bonnie and Clyde beret, tight sweaters and midi-skirts; Diane Keaton's three-piece trouser suits and white shirt in Woody Allen's Annie Hall; and Nicole Kidman's belle époque hourglass gowns in Moulin Rouge.

Understand the power of the fashion film and doubtless you'll be ready for your close-up come 2003.

DRESSED TO IMPRESS: 20 FILMS THAT CHANGED FOR EVER THE WAY WOMEN DRESS

Male and Female (1919) Gloria Swanson invited Coco Chanel's lover Paul Iribe to design her (real) pearl-encrusted gowns for this classic movie.

Mata Hari (1932) Inspired by Paris couturier Paul Poiret's Ballets Russes Orientalism, Adrian dresses Garbo as the infamous, exotic Mata Hari.

The Women (1939) Noted for the Technicolor fashion-show sequence that Adrian designed for this classic starring Joan Crawford.

Gilda (1946) Rita Hayworth earned her place in fashion history by singing "Put the Blame on Mame" while wearing Jean Louis's black satin strapless cocktail dress and matching elbow-length gloves.

To Catch a Thief (1954) Though Edith Head borrowed heavily from Christian Dior for Grace Kelly's French Riviera costumes, the impeccable ice-blonde Kelly never looked lovelier than in this Alfred Hitchcock film.

Funny Face (1957) The all-time greatest fashion film, with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn. Givenchy's wardrobe for Hepburn is, of course, magical.

That Touch of Mink (1962) A year after Breakfast at Tiffany's, Doris Day shimmers in ivory satin Norman Norell coat dresses and a little black number that makes Audrey Hepburn in Tiffany's look like little orphan Annie.

Cleopatra (1962) Liz Taylor holds the record for the most costume changes in one film. Only Liz's costumes and chic maquillage save this four-hour epic from being a bore.

Dr Zhivago (1965) The costumier Phyllis Dalton inspired a Russian-fashion revolution with Julie Christie's sable hats, high-necked lace blouses and peasant dresses.

Blowup (1966) Ostensibly designed by Jocelyn Rickards, Blowup featured costumes echoing Mary Quant and Rudi Gernreich and a cameo from the model Veruschka.

Belle de Jour (1967) Luis Buñuel's homage to the discreet charms of the bourgeoisie stars Catherine Deneuve, with best supporting dresses by Yves Saint Laurent.

Bonnie and Clyde (1967) Theodora van Runkle sexed up Faye Dunaway's beret with skin-tight midi-skirts, tight ribbed sweaters (worn without bra) and heels that would make a getaway nigh-on impossible.

On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970) A rare treat for film-fashion lovers, this Streisand musical features empire-line costumes designed by Cecil Beaton, with delectable contemporary A-line midi-dresses by Arnold Scaasi.

Cabaret (1972) Sally Bowles's divinely decadent Twenties costumes were flea-market gems bought in Berlin. Emerald nail polish, urchin bobbed hair and Liza Minnelli lashes launched a craze.

Annie Hall (1977) Some women still copy Diane Keaton's three-piece pinstripe Ralph Lauren suits worn with white shirt and tie. It's the look that launched Lauren women's wear.

Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) The style copied by a million wannabes was Madonna's invention: cut-off tights, mini skirts, lace bras and rather too many bangles.

Working Girl (1988) Melanie Griffiths' rise from typing-pool to boardroom set the style for Eighties female executives.

Evita (1996) Penny Rose expertly copied Eva Peron's haute-couture wardrobe for this Madonna epic.

Moulin Rouge (2000) Costumed by the director Baz Luhrmann's wife, Catherine, Moulin Rouge single-handedly revived the belle époque S-bend silhouette.

8 Women (2002) Expect a full-on Fifties glamour revival thanks to Ozon's film. Inspiring.