The first film of the series Body as Text is Orlando, part of the cicle Anatomy of Dreams:

The film

Title: Orlando

Countries: UK, Russia, France, Netherlands, Italy

Year: 1992

Directed by Sally Potter

Starring: Tilda Swinton; Quentin Crisp; Charlotte Valandrey; Lothaire Bluteau; Billy Zane; Jimmy Somerville; John Wood; Heathcote Williams

Costume design by Sandy Powell

Sally Potter's 1992 film “Orlando”, based on Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel, is a mesmerizing exploration of identity, gender, and fashion that spans four centuries. The film opens in 16th century England, where we are introduced to the young, aristocratic Orlando (Tilda Swinton). Queen Elizabeth I takes a liking to Orlando and grants him the gift of immortality, telling him that he can "never grow old or die."

Over the centuries, Orlando experiences a series of transformations. In the 17th century, Orlando abruptly changes sex and becomes a woman. As a woman, she navigates the changing social landscape, experiencing both privilege and subjugation.

She travels to Constantinople in the 18th century, where she spends several decades.

In the 19th century, Orlando returns to England and settles into a stately home, where she continues to move through time, experiencing the rapid changes of the Victorian era and the dawning of the modern age.

By the 20th century, Orlando has witnessed centuries of human history. The film culminates with her waking up in the present day, having retained her youthful beauty and androgynous sensibility despite the passage of time.

Review

The film's visual storytelling, particularly through costume design, provides a rich tapestry of historical fashion that reflects changing social norms and personal identity.

Through this pivotal plot point, Potter subverts traditional notions of gender, presenting a protagonist who defies the rigid binaries that have long governed social norms. Orlando's fluid identity becomes a metaphor for the ever-shifting nature of the human experience, challenging viewers to reconsider the construct of the self.

Beyond the narrative, "Orlando" is a resplendent work of cinematic art, with Sally Potter's direction elevating the material into a realm of poetic, dreamlike grandeur. The film's visual language, infused with striking tableaux and surreal flourishes, transforms the screen into a canvas for the exploration of the timeless and the timely.

In the end, Orlando is an hymn to the joy: “the hero-heroine reaches the satisfied serenity of one who does not feel male or female, but a person”. [Lietta Tornabuoni, La Stampa, 1992]

Rreferences

Orlando, the book

Woolf, Virginia. Orlando: a biography. London: Hogarth, 1928 (published in New York, Orlando by Virginia Woolf)

"Document, guest-edited by Kim Jones" Another s/s 2021: 10-11 (login with Polimoda account)

"Extract 1". Another a/w 2001: 13 (login with Polimoda account)

Jones, Kim, and Nikolai von Bismarck. The Fendi Set. New York: Rizzoli International, 2022.

McKever, Rosalind. "Orlando as a Boyette". Fashioning Masculinities. The Art of Menswear, edited by Rosalind McKever, Claire Wilcox, and Marta Franceschini. London: V&A Publishing, 2022, 142-153 [Catalogue of the exhibition, London, V&A, 19 March-6 November 2022, sponsored by Gucci].

Smith, Mark. "Orlando: an oral history. Directed by Sally Potter, starring Tilda Swinton, based on Orlando: a biography by Virginia Woolf". The gentlewoman, 26/2022: 220-231.

Hitchmough, Wendy. The Bloomsbury Look. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020.

Swinton, Tilda. "Orlando: inspired by Virginia Woolf". Aperture, 235/2019.

Newman, Terry. Legendary Authors and the Clothes They Wore. New York: Harper Design, 2017.

Bruzzi, Stella. "The erotic strategies of androgyny: The Ballad of little Jo, The crying game, Orlando". Bruzzi, Stella. Undressing cinema. Clothing and identity in the movie. London; New York: Routledge, 1997: 173-199.

Stout, Mira. "Features: Raising Orlando." Vogue, Jul. 1/1993, 138-143. (login with Polimoda account)

Inspired by Orlando

Bolton, Andrew, Jan Glier Reeder, Jessica Regan, and Amanda Garfinkel. About Time: Fashion & Duration. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2020 [Catalogue of the exhibition, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 7 May-7 September 2020, sponsored by Louis Vuitton].

Tilda Swinton

Saillard, Olivier, and Tilda Swinton. Embodying Pasolini - Tilda Swinton et Olivier Saillard. New York: Rizzoli, 2022. [Published on the occasion of the performance, Rome, 25 June 2021; costumes Danilo Donati, Sartoria Farani].

Frankel, Susannah, and Vanderperre, Willy and Olivier Rizzo. “Tilda Swinton and the nature of horror”. Another a/w 2018: 352-271 (login with Polimoda account)

Saillard, Olivier, and Tilda Swinton. Impossible Wardrobes. New York: Rizzoli, 2015 (V. 1: Impossible wardrobe; v. 2: Eternity dress; v. 3: Cloakroom Vestiaire Obligatoire).

Martin, Penny. "Tilda Swinton"; portraits by Benjamin Alexander Huseby; styling by Jonathan Kaye. The gentlewoman, 5/2012.

“The five senses of Tilda”. Dazed, May 2010 (login with Polimoda account)

Hack, Jefferson - Clarke, Cath - Calhun, Dave - McDean, Craig McDean, and Panos Yiapanis. “Tilda Swinton”. Another, 16/2009: 274-288 (login with Polimoda account)

Santoro, Nicoletta. "Tilda Swinton." Vogue Italia, 9/2007: 598-619. (login with Polimoda account)

Guest literary editor. Another 7/2004 (login with Polimoda account)

Enninful, Edward. "Tilda Swinton." Vogue Italia, 2/2003: 346-353. (login with Polimoda account)

Gualersi, Mario Cervio. "Tilda e il suo doppio". Vogue Italia, 11/1992: 30, 32. (login with Polimoda account)

Sandy Powell

Lanthimos, Yorgios. The favourite, 2018.

Scorsese, Martin. Hugo Cabret, 2012.

Vallée, Jean-Marc. The young Victoria, 2009.

Scorsese, Martin. The Aviator, 2004.

Scorsese, Martin. Gangs of New York, 2002.

Madden, John. Shakespeare in love, 1998.

Softley, Iain. The wings of the dove, 1997.

Neil, Jordan. The crying game, 1992.

Porter, Sally. Orlando, 1992.

Jorgensen, Jay and Sandy Powell. Edith Head. The Fifty-Year Career of Hollywood’s Greatest Costume Designer. Philadelphia: Running Press and New York: Life Time Media, 2010.

History of clothing and dress

Hewitson, Madeline, Charlotte Ribeyrol and Matthew Winterbottom. Colour Revolution. Victorian Art, Fashion & Design. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2023. [Catalogue of the exhibition, Oxford, University of Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 21 September 2023-18 February 2024].

Lynn, Eleri. Tudor fashion. New Haven and London: Yale University Press and Historic Royal Palaces, 2017.

Quinton, Rebecca. Glasgow Museums Seventeenth-Century costume. London: Unicorn Press, 2013.

Calloway, Stephen, and Lynn Federle Orr. The Cult of Beauty. The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900. London: V&A Publishing, 2011. [Catalogue of the exhibition, London, V&A, 2 April-17 July 2011; Paris, Musée d’Orsay, 12 September 2011-15 January 2012; San Francisco, de Young Museum, 18 February-17 June 2012].

Hayward, Maria (ed.). Dress at the Court of King Henry VIII. Leeds: Maney Publishing, 2007.

Arnold, Janet (ed.). Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe unlock'd. Leeds: Maney, 1988.

Historical pattern

Arnold, Janet - Passot, Sébastien - Thorton, Claire, and Jenny Tiramani. Patterns of Fashion 6. the content, cut, construction and context of European women's dress c. 1695-1795. London: The School of Historical Dress, 2021.

Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion 5. The content, cut, construction and context of bodies, stays, hoops and rumps c. 1595-1795 edited by Jenny Tiramani & Luca Costigliolo. London: The School of Historical Dress, 2018.

North, Susan and Jenny Tiramani (eds.). Seventeenth-Century women's dress patterns. Book 2. London: V&A publishing, 2012.

North, Susan and Jenny Tiramani (eds.). Seventeenth-Century women's dress patterns. Book 1. London: V&A publishing, 2011.

Johnston, Lucy. Nineteenth-Century fashion in detail. London: V&A Publications, 2005.

Hart, Avril and Susan North. Historical fashion in detail. The 17th and 18th Centuries. London: Victoria and Albert Museum Publications, 1998 (reprinted as Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century fashion in detail).

Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion 4. The cut and construction of linen shirts, smocks, neckwear, headwear and accessories for men and women c. 1540 – 1660. London: Pan MacMillan, 2009.

Wilcox, Claire and Valerie Mendes. Modern fashion in detail. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1991 (reprinted as Twentieth-Century fashion in detail).

Arnold, Janet. Patterns of fashion. The cut and construction of clothes for men and women c1560-1620. London: MacMillian, 1985.

Waugh, Norah. The cut of women's clothes, 1600-1930. New York: Theatre Arts Books, 1985.

Waugh, Norah. The cut of men's clothes, 1600-1930. New York: Theatre Arts Books, 1964 (repr.).

Arnold, Janet. Patterns of fashion 2. Englishwomen’s dresses and their construction c.1860-1940. London: MacMillan, 1977.

Arnold, Janet. Patterns of fashion 1. Englishwomen’s dresses and their construction c.1660-1860. London: McMillan, 1972.

Gender studies

Vita, Anita Dolce. DapperQ Style: Ungendering Fashion. New York: Harper Design, 2023.

Broomberg, Adam. Glitter in My Wounds. London: MACK, 2021.

Janes, Dominic. Freak to Chic. ‘Gay’ Men in and out of Fashion after Oscar Wilde. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2021. [Berg Fashion Library (login with Polimoda account)]

Geczy, Adam, and Vicki Karaminas. Libertine Fashion Sexual Freedom, Rebellion, and Style. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020. [Berg Fashion Library (login with Polimoda account)]

Reilly, Andrew Hinchcliffe, and Ben Barry (eds.). Crossing Gender Boundaries. Fashion to Create, Disrupt and Transcend. Bristol: Intellect, 2020.

Venegas, Luis (ed.). The C*Ndy Book of Transversal Creativity. The Best of C*Ndy Transversal Magazine, Allegedly. New York: Rizzoli, 2020.

Future gender. Aperture 229/2017.

Mauriès, Patrick. Androgyne Fashion and Gender. London: Thames and Hudson, 2017.

Russo, Marialba. Travestimento. Roma: Postcart, 2016.

Getsy, David. Abstract Bodies. Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015.

Rheims, Bettina, and Frédéric Sanchez. Bettina Rheims: Gender Studies. Göttingen: Steidl, 2014.

Karaminas, Vicki, and Adam Geczy. Queer Style. London: Bloomsbury, 2013. [Berg fashion library (login with Polimoda account)]

Lord, Catherine, and Richard Meyer. Art & Queer Culture. London: Phaidon Press, 2013.

The gender agenda issue. i-D 286/2008.

White, Sophie (ed.). "Dress and gender". Fashion theory, vol. 9, fasc. 2/2005. (login with Polimoda account)

Suthrell, Charlotte A. Unzipping Gender. Sex, Cross-Dressing and Culture. Oxford: Berg, 2004. [Berg fashion library (login with Polimoda account)]

Goldin, Nan. The Other Side. New York: Scalo, 2000.

Griggs, Claudine. S/He. Changing Sex and Changing Clothes. Oxford: Berg, 1998. [Berg fashion library (login with Polimoda account)]

Garber, Marjorie. Interessi Truccati. Giochi di Travestimento e Angoscia Culturale, edited by Maria Nadotti. Milano: Cortina, 1994.

[Published 18/10/2024]