sofia coppola's 'priscilla' and the beauty of its costumes

From Marie Antoinette to The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation to The Beguilded, I am an avid fan of anything created by the incredible mind of Sofia Coppola. So, when the release date for her most recent movie Priscilla was announced, I was counting down the days until I could see it. After having read the book it was based on, Elvis and Me, written by Priscilla Presley herself, and familiarising myself with the storyline that is the life of Priscilla Presley, when I did finally get to see the film, I was able to focus not only on the plot and Sofia Coppola's stunning cinematography, but also the beautiful costumes that so perfectly encompassed the energy that Priscilla radiates in each era of her life. Each look felt representative of what was happening for Priscilla in the film, all whilst being an accurate portrayal of what she wore in real life.

Throughout the film, two looks really stood out to me as being symbolic of what Priscilla was experiencing:

Elvis and priscilla's wedding

Photo: Courtesy A24

The lace details of the dress, its formless shape, the dainty tiara - this costume is not only a divine piece of art created by none other than the atelier of Chanel, but is also a symbol of Elvis and Priscilla's intimacy at this point in their relationship. Leading up to their wedding day, Elvis and Priscilla were in fact not that sexually intimate, with Priscilla marrying as a virgin. Her wedding dress being shapeless, a modest and amorphous shape, in association with the floral patterned lace that covers her bust and upper body, ultimately portray Priscilla's purity and virginity. The lace draws emphasis towards flowers as a symbol that implies Priscilla is untouched. A flower, specifically a white one, is known as a symbol of virginity, and with the focal point of Priscilla's dress being said floral lace, Coppola has emphasised to viewers that Elvis and Priscilla, despite having been together for 6 years at that point, were yet to engage in sexual intercourse. Elvis admired Priscilla's sense of untouched-ness, first being drawn to her when she was only a child. Although Priscilla wanted to take their relationship to a more adult place, Elvis wanted her to remain pure as he wanted the woman he married to conform to his conservative ideal of feminine purity. Priscilla's very traditional style wedding dress is an encapsulation of Elvis' said desire for purity.

thanksgiving

Frank Carroll / Sygma / Getty Images

At this point in Priscilla's life and the movie, we can see Priscilla begin to detach herself from the extreme beauty standards Elvis held Priscilla to. Elvis expected Priscilla to be submissive of him, manipulating the young and consequently vulnerable Priscilla into dressing, acting and presenting herself in the exact way he wanted. He wanted her to have dark, voluminous hair, dark eye makeup to make her blue eyes pop and wear clothes that highlight her femininity. In these famous photos of the couple from Thanksgiving in 1970, Coppola's recreation is almost identical to the original. Priscilla wears a lilac shirred long sleeve top with a pair of deeper purple pants. In wearing pants, Priscilla defies her husbands desires and marks the beginning of Priscilla's development of an identity individual from Elvis. Her hair is a lighter shade of brown, parted down the middle and almost flat to her head, a stark difference from her hair prior. Throughout the film until this point, we associate Priscilla with her iconic winged eyeliner, and for her to have a natural eye look, without said eyeliner, Priscilla radiates a sense of freshness which is very dissimilar from the intense makeup she wore when she began living with Elvis in Memphis. The culmination of her pants, hair and eye makeup symbolise Priscilla beginning to subconsciously seperate herself from her husband.

Although only having focused on two of the looks from this stunning film, there are many more gorgeous costumes from the movie that I could delve into ... part 2?