Film Fashion Frenzy

When Isaac Mizrahi has written a movie that will star his clothes, The Adventures of Sandee the Supermodel, you know that designers have taken over Hollywood. Here are 25 films crammed full of fashion.

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CELEBRITY

Woody Allen hasn't been front row center at fashion shows for the past year just because he wants to see Soon-Yi spiffed up--he's been doing research for his new film about the trials and tribulations faced by celebs of every stripe. Indeed, Woody's latest features snazzy duds from one end to the other. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a handsomely disheveled up-and-coming actor in Helmut Lang slacks and T-shirts. As his hip girlfriend, Gretchen Mol gets sweet and slightly trashy in Dolce & Gabbana dresses, and his buddy Sam Rockwell tags along in Moschino, Montana and Dolce & Gabbana suits. Melanie Griffith's glam-queen star sexes it up in Badgley Mischka and Herve Leger. Judy Davis, a housewife-turned-talk-show-host, favors Karl Lagerfeld suits, while her travel-writer husband, Kenneth Branagh, favors Brooks Brothers khakis and button-down shirts (a favorite of Allen himself). Winona Ryder's struggling actress can't afford anything but vintage rags and Levi's jeans. Playing a Soho fashion artist, designer Isaac Mizrahi doesn't wear his own creations, but everyone else in his scene does. Gianni Versace was also supposed to have made an appearance for Woody, but now only his spirit is present--very present: many of the "stars" in this film wear his designs for the scenes that take place at the movie premieres.

YOU'VE GOT MAIL

In this reworking of Ernst Lubitsch's classic The Shop Around the Corner, Meg Ryan plays the owner of a small, cozy bookstore that somehow manages to generate enough profit to keep her in Prada. Tom Hanks plays the heir to a Barnes and Noble-type chain that's moved into Ryan's neighborhood and is taking a bite out of her cash flow. Threatened with the prospect of having to limit her shopping trips to Prada, Ryan hates Hanks. Suaved out in Armani suits and ultra-luxurious J.P. Tod's shoes, Hanks can't stand her either. Ironically, of course, these two are all the while falling in love with each other anonymously over e-mail on the Internet, where neither can see what the other is wearing.

THE MOD SQUAD

When TV's trio of hip, formerly lawbreaking undercover cops from the late '60s-early '70s hit the big-screen beat, they'll be blending in with the fashion-savvy teens they want to bust by wearing BCBG Max Azria (which police officers might be able to afford with a lot of overtime). Groovy girl Claire Danes fancies lacquered suits with tight pants and, when her job calls for something a little naughtier, a beaded camisole Cheryl Tiegs would have killed for in the disco era. Co-cops Giovanni Ribisi and Omar Epps rely on lacquered suits not all that different from Danes's.

HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK

Stylish single working mom Stella (Angela Bassett) sees an ad on TV promoting Jamaica as a prime vacation spot and takes off for the tropics, leaving her power clothes (a knockout black suit by Moschino and a yellow one by Valentino) behind. Slipping on sleek dresses by Calvin Klein, a hot pink bikini by Ruth E. Carter and a blue frock from BCBG Max Azria, she becomes a new woman. The few times she does wear shoes, they're J.P. Tod's. This change of spirit and wardrobe attracts the very young Winston Shakespeare (Taye Diggs), the kind of guy a woman who dresses this well deserves.

GLORIA

Sharon Stone as a moll from the Bronx? Yes, Hollywood's biggest glamourpuss steps into the title role of the streetwise broad played nearly 20 years ago by Gena Rowlands. But just because Gloria's from the streets doesn't mean she dresses like she is. When she goes on the run from mobsters with an innocent boy in tow, Stone, a pelt-lover in real life, is warm and glamorous in Fendi fur.

STEPMOM

This weeper about a dying mother (Susan Sarandon) who overcomes jealousy, resentment and other appropriate emotions to bond with the much younger, decidedly non-maternal girlfriend (Julia Roberts) of her ex-husband (Ed Harris) in order to teach her how to raise the children, isn't exactly decked out in high fashion. Sarandon and Roberts play it very low-key, costumewise. And yet Valentino is all over the film. How? The reason Roberts needs mommy training is that she's a hotshot New York City photographer who spends most of her waking hours working on a Valentino ad campaign instead of thinking about kids.

CRUEL INVENTIONS

When the sexual schemers of the 18th-century French classic Les Liaisons Dangereuses were portrayed in films (in 1988's Dangerous Liaisons and 1989's Valmont), they wore yards and yards of silk and satin. With the tale transplanted to the land of nubile, contemporary twentysomethings, much less fabric is required. The few times schemer par excellence Sarah Michelle Gellar does cover up, it's with a BCBG Max Azria leather coat. Rogue Ryan Phillippe relies on suits by Prada--when he's not baring his chest, that is.

A CIVIL ACTION

Hotshot Boston attorney John Travolta wears a Canali suit to go after a couple of mondo corporations that have contaminated the water supply of Woburn, Massachusetts, with toxic waste. And this is not just a Canali suit, it's a lucky Canali suit--Travolta almost has a meltdown when it gets misplaced by his dry cleaner just prior to his scheduled showdown in court.

THREE TO TANGO

After Chicago billionaire Dylan McDermott, wearing dashing suits by Sulka (a label that used to outfit Cary Grant), hires theoretically gay architect Matthew Perry to renovate a historical museum, he enlists him to snoop around his free-spirited glassblowing artist girlfriend Neve Campbell, who, done up in sexy dresses from British designer label Ghost, just might be cheating. Of course, the gayest guy in the Windy City would be knocked out by the way Campbell looks in these numbers from Ghost, a name that's hot in England but hardly known here. Since Perry's character isn't really gay, the effect Campbell has is exactly what you might expect.

HURLYBURLY

It's no mystery who dresses most of Hollywood most of the time--Giorgio Armani. So it's no wonder that a movie about Hollywood folk--from stylists to screenwriters--would be jam-packed with Armani duds. Movie costume designer Darlene (Robin Wright Penn) wears Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani for work and play, and for those chillier shoots, gets cozy in a ski jacket by the new line Armani Neve ("neve" being Italian for snow). Casting director Mickey (Kevin Spacey) is an Armaniphile, too, and practically never gives direction without it. In case the casting of Sean Penn as Spacey's partner doesn't tell you this character is the rebellious type, the point is made by having him be the only one who doesn't wear Armani. Not that he wears vintage motorcycle--he simply favors another Italian, Nino Cerruti.

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Living in a bomb shelter for 30 years can seriously hamper anyone's sense of style. And indeed, after emerging from the underground living quarters where he was born because his parents (Sissy Spacek and Christopher Walken) believed the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis led to nuclear war, Adam (Brendan Fraser) has only some sewn-together sheets for clothes. But then Dad cashes in his now-priceless baseball card collection and is suddenly more than able to fund his son's shopping spree. Not surprisingly, everything Fraser fancies has an early '60s vibe--Calvin Klein khakis, collared Armani sweaters, a Barneys leather blazer, Helmut Lang jeans and a spiffy semi-retro Dolce & Gabbana suit. As for his very '90s girlfriend (Alicia Silverstone), she's all Banana Republic, Vivienne Tarn and Moschino, plus tight Juicy Couture T-shirts.

THE ASTRONAUT'S WIFE

When astronaut Johnny Depp comes back from space he has a few bugs in his system (like, he starts muttering Martian-esque code language and communing with his TV), but that doesn't mean his wardrobe suffers. Nor does his wife Charlize Theron's. Most of the stylish getups worn by this stylish pair are handmade by costume designer Isis Mussenden, but when the action gets chilling, Theron relies on MaxMara and Jil Sander coats to keep her warm.

200 CIGARETTES

You can only expect passing-to-horrific getups in a movie that takes place in New York City on New Year's Eve in the early '80s--this is the decade that adored Cyndi Lauper and Boy George, not to mention lace gloves, net tops and ripped sweatshirts. In this film, the clothes will be slightly garish, but in a comedic way. For example, when Long Island teen Gaby Hoffmann tries to fit into the East Village crowd, she goes to the mall to buy spanking-new duds from designer Betsey Johnson, then accessorizes the cute, frilly dresses to death and ends up with nerd written all over her. Courtney Love's character, on the other hand, gets it right with '50s skirts and a very hot leopard-skin coat, all vintage.

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