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Wong Kar Wai’s romantic masterpiece, In the Mood for Love, begins with a pronouncement. “It is a restless moment” reads the title cards that flashes before the main characters are introduced. The film, which premiered 20 years ago today at the Cannes Film Festival, could be summed up with those words, though its costumes do an excellent job of telling the story, too. In Kar Wai’s world, mise-en-scene conveys as much information as dialogue and character’s clothing choices reveal sides of their personality they never express verbally. The quiet longing of Tony Leung’s journalist Chow Mo-Wan wouldn’t be the same without his buttoned-up wardrobe of suits and floral ties. Likewise, the sensuality of Maggie Cheung’s otherwise reserved secretary Su Li-zhen aka Mrs. Chan would not be as evident sans those immaculate Cheongsam dresses and bold red trench.
From the very first act, clothing plays a role in the film’s trajectory. Chow and Su both suspect their spouses are cheating on them, and their suspicions are confirmed via accessories, namely the tie that Su’s husband wears each day, purchased at the same store where Chow’s wife buys his. Each day she carries a new handbag identical to the Japanese purses Su’s spouse brings back for her after trips abroad. Those sartorial coincidences reveal the affair. Neither character addresses the cheating directly, but thanks to the intimacy of a shared wardrobe, they don’t have to.
As mutual betrayal brings them closer, Su and Chow begin the dress in sync, sharing a color scheme or pattern as they grow to rely on each other. The meals they spend reenacting scenarios based on the affair their partners are having feature coordinated looks, as do the moments they spend interacting on the streets of Hong Kong. The stripes of Su’s blue and red dress align perfectly with the pinstriped shirt Chow wears when they contemplate who must have made the first move in the affair. As they share dinner away from the noise of their neighbors playing Mahjong, the swirling pattern of her outfit mimics the tones on his tie. Despite resisting the urge to cheat, they signal their profound connection with harmonious outfits.
In a lesser movie, the romance would be revealed via a grand overture. Kar Wai and William Chang, who did double duty as the costume and production designer, relied on subtlety. The growing intimacy between the leads reflects in their clothes, and the sets that complement them, layers of visual cues that give the audience something to unpack. Granted, Cheng and Leung could generate heat in sweatpants, but their costumes are endlessly stylish. At once a period-accurate depiction of the fashions and textile trends prevalent in Hong Kong during the 1960s and a forward-thinking analysis of couples style, the clothes are half the fun.
The impact of the outfits was deliberate. Kar Wai had conceived of a much longer concept and filmed enough material to take the characters through the 1960s and into the late ’70s. In the final cut however, he edited things down to only include a single year. The abbreviated story meant a greater focus on the costumes. “My purpose at first was to try to show the film in a repetitious way. Like, we repeat the music, the angle of a location, always the clock, always the corridor, always the staircase. Because I want to show nothing changes, except the emotions of these two persons,” he told IndieWire in 2009. “We had 20 to 25 dresses for Maggie for the whole film. Because we cut the film short, it becomes like a fashion show; she changes all the time.”
Naturally, the fashion community responded to such eye-catching designs. In the years since its release, the film has become a popular reference amongst designers and photographers, making its mark on the runways of Roberto Cavalli, Erdem, and Derek Lam to name a few. Just last month, the Mulleavy sisters name checked it on their list of films to watch for isolation inspiration.
The story may be bittersweet, but In the Mood for Love hasn’t lost its luster. The news that Kar-Wai’s next project, Blossoms, will serve as a thematic sequel should introduce a whole new generation to the beauty of his most famous creation.