Passionate fans of spy films and '60s fashion will certainly remember Anthony Mann's A Dandy in Aspic (1967).
The plot revolves around double agent Eberlin (Laurence Harvey) who is asked by the British secret services to kill a KGB agent named Krasnevin, believed to have murdered a number of British agents. The killing mission, to be carried out together with cynical British agent Gatiss (Tom Courtenay), should take place in West Berlin.
Unfortunately for him, Eberlin is Krasnevin and the news throw him into a state of anxiety and frustration increased by his partnership with Gatiss, who openly hates him, and by the behaviour of the Soviet authorities that consider him as a key agent in the UK and therefore refuse to send him back to Moscow.
Eberlin's frustration also grows since he started an affair with naïve London-based photographer Caroline (Mia Farrow).
From a technical point of view the film - based on the eponymous novel by Derek Marlowe - features interesting architectural shots (the film was shot on location between London and Berlin), but also lens and set distortions and striking photographic composition (Mann actually died during the filming, and Harvey finished the production in his place).
Zooms, close ups, scenes in which a car coming from far away in a tunnel creates a clever sense of depth, and actors being framed from below, contribute to generating a tangible tension in the story and between the various characters.
A soundtrack by Quincy Jones and a young Peter Cook starring as libidinous agent Prentiss are among the further highlights of this film, but the best thing for fashion fans is the fact that Pierre Cardin provided costumes for both Laurence Harvey and Mia Farrow.
Cardin's menswear designs create a subtle contrast that perfectly hint at Eberlin's affiliation with both the British secret services and the KGB.
Eberlin looks indeed like a perfect dandy, but his clothes are styled in a subtly different way from the ones donned by the British agents.
The contrast is clear for example when he is summoned to a meeting at a country house where he is told about the Krasnevin hunt, and he is wearing a camel coloured sport jacket with leather details that symbolically contrasts with the more stiff Savile Row styles of the agents around him.
At times Eberlin also opts for a basic turtleneck rather than a shirt and tie, the more formal option favoured by Gatiss.
Farrow's wardrobe is an ode to dynamism and comprises a simple white cape edged with fur and a dark green and tomato red pleated dress matched with red tights and a short coat.
Also her evening wear conforms to the same dynamic rules: when we first meet her, Caroline is in a restaurant wearing a sky blue silk faille mini-dress covered in sequinned embroideries of flowers, but the shape with its cut-in armholes is extremely simple and allows her to move and run around quickly and practically while retaining a childish grace that her character embodies.
The last time Eberlin and Caroline meet by chance at a car race she is wearing a pink striped coat with a rolled up collar that genuinely contrasts with the murdering plans of the agents surrounding Eberlin and emphasise even more her naivety.
"Stay that way as long as you can, it's a beautiful state, the innocence," Eberlin tells Caroline at some point in the film and her final appearance in a pink and fuchsia outfit confirms she will remain in that state of naïve innocence.
Caroline's final look (and in some ways Eberlin's pink shirt in the country house scene and the pink/grey shades prevailing in some of the posters for this film) is the main inspiration for this new piece.
For what regards the materials I used pearl grey wool yarn and a band of neon coloured cotton; technique-wise I employed basic French knitting. There are no clasps to close the necklace that is instead kept together with an alpine coil, which means you can unfasten and refashion it in different ways (a further hint at duplicity...).
As a whole it's a rather simple necklace, but it took me a while to make it since it's roughly nine metres long and, while it may not be as conceptual as the previous one, the two materials and colours still tell a story, hinting at duplicity, innocence and naivety, the main themes of A Dandy in Aspic.
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