How ‘The Idea of You’ nailed age-gap dressing

By Leah Dolan, CNN

(CNN) — Image it: A spare live performance ticket comes your approach, resulting in an opportunity encounter with an internationally famend pop star. When acting at one of the crucial well-known music festivals on the planet, they stare previous the blinding stage lights into the group to lock eyes with you. What transpires, naturally, is a whirlwind romance on the European leg of their offered out tour.

It’s a fantasy that — in some variation or one other — has captured the human creativeness for many years. Movies equivalent to “What Value Hollywood” and “A Star is Born” first dabbled within the thought of well-known and non-famous relations virtually 100 years in the past. By 1999, the style had reached new heights after the discharge of “Notting Hill” — the seminal Richard Curtis movie which noticed Julia Roberts, a swish American film star, fall for Hugh Grant, a bumbling British bookstore proprietor. Much more not too long ago, “Starstruck,” the coincidental title of each a 2010 Disney Channel authentic film and a 2021 BBC Three collection, introduced the agony and ecstasy of courting an A-lister as a mere member of the general public to the small display.

Now, director Michael Showalter breathes new life into the trope with “The Thought of You,” out on Amazon Prime Might 2. Primarily based on the 2017 Robinne Lee novel by the identical identify, Showalter’s model is ready in LA — the birthplace of lofty pipe goals — starring each Anne Hathaway as Solène Marchand, a glamorous 40-year-old artwork gallery proprietor and divorced mom of 1; and Nicholas Galitzine as 24-year-old Hayes Campbell, the fan favourite of fictional boy band du jour, August Moon.

After a meet cute in Hayes’ trailer at Coachella, sparks fly and Solène finds herself being pursued by not solely a completely fledged superstar, however somebody 16 years her junior. The web hasn’t been shy in drawing parallels between Lee’s novel and the age hole relationship of Harry Kinds and Olivia Wilde. And though the e-book was revealed 4 years earlier than the pair started courting, Lee admitted she was intrigued by Kinds’ life particularly. “Impressed is a robust phrase,” she instructed Vogue in 2020.

However greater than only a piece of starry-eyed fan-fiction, “The Thought of You” is a Bildungsroman in disguise. Notably in relation to the acutely feminine wrestle for id and individuality after motherhood. “We speak about coming-of-age tales as being one thing that occurs in (the) earliest a part of your life,” stated Anne Hathaway on the movie’s SXSW premiere. “I don’t learn about you, however I really feel like I preserve blooming.”

Flawed, hopeful, susceptible but composed, Solène’s three-dimensional character disrupts the misogynistic binary of cougar or crone. It was a consideration costume designer Jacqueline Demetrio took severely when sourcing her wardrobe. “Solène’s 40. I imply, 40 will not be outdated,” she stated. “I didn’t need it to be this older woman meets this youthful boy… and has this ‘Fairly Girl’ (makeover) second.” There wasn’t a sew of leopard print, teenage vogue or “Golden Women” fashion pussybows. “She has her look,” stated Demetrio. “She’s not attempting to look younger, however (her fashion) has advanced with time and together with her physique. You make changes, however you continue to costume cool.”

From the primary scene, Solène’s sartorial compass is established in a denim puff-sleeve costume from Chloé’s Fall-Winter 2023 assortment and a pair of blonde suede Isabel Marant boots. It was the primary look Hathaway tried on throughout fittings with Demetrio in New York. “I used to be like, ‘Yeah, that is Solène.’”

Her vogue needle doesn’t deviate a lot all through the movie, as we see Solène in additional Marant (a suede tote bag makes a number of appearances as an intentional nod to real looking rewearing), Etro, Gabriella Hearst, Valentino and classic Chanel. These are the forms of refined but understated labels you may anticipate a profitable gallery proprietor to purchase — quietly luxurious, typically sustainably minded and with a price ticket accessible to a lady in her peak incomes years.

However whereas Demetrio — who’s an analogous age to each Solène and Hathaway — was in a position to attract on private style and expertise to flesh out the character, stepping into the thoughts (and closet) of a 20-somethings heartthrob was totally different. “I attempted some totally different instructions with the wardrobe,” she stated. “At first I went a little bit David Bowie, a little bit androgynous with the silk blouses and flared trousers. However I felt I used to be getting a little bit too showman and I didn’t need it to be a distraction.” And if the style sense of 1 younger musician felt onerous to pin down, there was additionally the query of outfitting August Moon. “There’s so some ways to go along with a boyband,” Demetrio stated. “There’s the BTS fits and matching Prada, or classic items combined in with streetwear, which is the place I went with that.”

Harry Kinds was in fact on the moodboard for Hayes — the patchwork tattoos and smooth knit cardigans had been a useless giveaway — however Demetrio insists this wasn’t an impression. “I didn’t need it to be, , he’s Harry,” she stated. “Nick and I had been sending photographs forwards and backwards and one in every of his (concepts) was Matty Healy.” (On display Hayes carried out at Coachella in a pair of swimsuit trousers and cotton vest — an outfit system beloved by The 1975 singer). What caught had been elevated classics: A Bottega Veneta tank prime, expertly fitted Loewe trousers or luxurious cardigans (once more, by Isabel Marant). “Somebody of his degree would have his stylist go and purchase designer items, despite the fact that it’s simply (say) a cardigan. It’s the way in which it sits,” she stated. And for many who wish to recreate the A-lister off-duty take a look at house: Tailor your T-shirts, says Demetrio. “Nick would usher in his private wardrobe like, ‘Can I’ve this shortened? Can your tailor come and shorten this?’” she laughed. “I created a monster of good T-shirt proportions.”

Maybe an important aspect of Demetrio’s work was precisely reflecting the character’s 16 yr age hole via garments. When Hayes tracks down Solène at her Silver Lakes artwork gallery, for instance, Nick seems in a slouchy cardi, white tank and snapback cap whereas Hathaway is wearing a structured velvet blazer. They’re star-crossed lovers, their doomed destiny spelled out in attire relatively than astrology. Throughout one in every of their final encounters, Hayes stands on the door, his enveloping outsized hoodie rendering him as diminished and slight as a wide-eyed adolescent. “I went forwards and backwards on that,” Demetrio stated. “As a result of I assumed, does he look too juvenile? However that is exhibiting the emotional wrestle via the wardrobe. It was actually due to what society was saying concerning the age hole, so I wished it to be in your face a little bit bit.”

But when “The Thought of You” subverts any clichés on this specific rom-com style, it’s that the superstar have to be extra glamorous than their normie love curiosity. Constance Bennett in “What Value Hollywood” is found in her waitress uniform by Lowell Sherman, a suited-and-booted big-time director. In “Notting Hill,” Grant was relegated to a rotation of periwinkle blue button-downs whereas Roberts swanned about in her leather-based blazer and black beret. As for Hathaway, we discover her in Chanel and depart her, fortunately ever after, in a rust-red Gabriela Hearst swimsuit.