Other costume highlights come courtesy of Anouk Aimée, as wealthy playgirl Maddalena, who dazzles in little black dresses and the cat-eye shades that inspired Tom Ford’s similarly up-swept ‘Anouk’ sunglasses. His crisp shirts boast French cuffs, adorned with sizeable cuff-links his eyes are shielded by Persol sunglasses: this, we are told, is a man who pays scrupulous attention to detail. A biting study of celebrity in 1960s Rome – then a hotbed of hedonism and glamour thanks to the success of Cinecittà film studios and the international stars it drew to the capital – it follows gossip columnist Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) on a futile, week-long search for love and fulfilment on the edges of the spotlight.Įffortlessly suave, Mastroianni sports slim, elegant suits and fitted tuxedos. La Dolce Vita was the film that put Fellini on the map, earning his costume and set designer, Piero Gherardi, the Oscar for Best Costume Design in the process.

Here, as London’s British Film Institute launches a dedicated Fellini season (timed to coincide with the director’s centenary and including the re-release of La Dolce Vita), we look back at five of his most fashionable films, from the supremely seductive to the fabulously frivolous. Much as Fellini’s work has inspired some of the world’s best directors, so his costumes have influenced some of fashion’s greatest minds – from Karl Lagerfeld and Miuccia Prada to Tom Ford and Jeremy Scott – while continuing to delight sartorially minded viewers. As his quote suggests, Fellini lent heavily on costume design throughout his career, working with a plethora of abundantly talented designers to create outfits that not only looked remarkable, but also enhanced the narrative of his films.

“Don’t forget that costumes, like dreams, are symbolic communication.” So said Federico Fellini, the late, great Italian filmmaker, whose oeuvre evolved from his 1950s ventures in Neorealism ( I Vitelloni, La Strada) to his imaginative 1960 opus, La Dolce Vita, and dreamlike masterpiece 8½, before exploding into the realm of flamboyant spectacle in the mid-60s.

Federico fellini director style