In ‘Bonjour Tristesse,’ Designer Cynthia Merhej Gives the Costumes an Authentic Touch

“Deciding what to wear to the beach is kind of my nightmare as a designer,” says Cynthia Merhej, the thoughts at the back of unbiased logo Renaissance Renaissance. And then Merhej used to be enlisted to help gown dressmaker Miyako Bellizzi for Durga Chew-Bose’s debut movie, a remake of the 1958 French vintage Bonjour Tristesse, which stars Chloë Sevigny as—you guessed it—a dressmaker on a seaside holiday.

To be truthful, there’s extra nuance to Chew-Bose’s movie than that. The tale follows Lily McInerny because the teenage Cécile playing her summer time within the south of France together with her father, Raymond (Claes Bang), and his younger female friend Elsa (Nailia Harzoune). All is mundane and sun-bleached, with days of lounging at the rocky seaside, and smoky, wine-filled evenings. That is, till Sevigny’s Anne involves the town. An previous pal of Raymond and Cécile’s overdue mom, the visitor provides a slightly of color to Cécile’s sunny summer time paradise.

Anne’s arrival brings alternate, each atmospheric and sartorial. A dressmaker residing in Paris, she arrives to the seaside area with a bag stuffed with fabulous garments—and an unsolicited motherly contact. Bellizzi needed to take care of either one of those realities when dressing Sevigny’s persona for the movie. The gown dressmaker regarded to girls style designers of a undeniable age—those that have established each a tradition and sense of private taste—for inspiration. Muccia Prada and Phoebe Philo sat entrance of thoughts, as did jewellery dressmaker Sophie Buhai (who additionally lent items for the movie) and Georgia O’Keeffe. “She had this uniform she always wore, and that’s something I’m really inspired by,” Bellizzi says of the overdue artist. “As an artist or designer, the way you present yourself is often very different from the vision of how you design your world.”

Merhej, too, who joined Bellizzi at the French set, acted as a type of inspiration. The persona of Anne in Bonjour acts as a type of surrogate Renaissance Renaissance dressmaker, taking possession of Merhej’s designs and sketches all the way through the tale. And whilst Merhej claims it to be a nightmare to decorate for the seaside, in precise apply, she used to be ready to be successful, getting a handful of 19th-century lengthy linen shirts at an area marketplace and styling them with a couple of self-made linen pants all the way through manufacturing. “That was beautiful,” Bellizzi remembers of Merhej’s on-set taste. “You looked great.”

Merhej’s look on set used to be on the behest of Chew-Bose who, in keeping with Bellizzi, “had her heart set on” getting the dressmaker concerned. The authentic Bonjour Tristesse, a 1958 movie by means of Otto Preminger starring Jean Seberg and Deborah Kerr, featured costuming by means of Givenchy and jewellery courtesy of Cartier. Both manufacturers in a well mannered way declined the chance to get entangled within the remake, in keeping with Bellizzi, however Chew-Bose nonetheless sought after to handle that collaborative spirit. So, the crew regarded to extra fashionable manufacturers to fill the jobs, which led them to Renaissance Renaissance and Merhej.

“[Chew-Bose] said to me, ‘When I see Anne, I see these clothes,’” Bellizzi remembers. “I read the script with Cynthia’s designs in mind to help me build the world of the characters.”

Sevigny additionally benefited from Merhej’s presence, taking into account her persona takes inspiration from the dressmaker and her paintings. “I felt in safer hands,” the actress says. “It provided an easier route into discovering who this person was by seeing what she was creating.”

Instead of making each and every glance, despite the fact that, Merhej used to be thinking about two hero items—a yellow get dressed for McInerny’s Cécile and a crimson one for Sevigny’s Anne—in addition to different “bits and bobs” Bellizzi styled with antique items and different pieces she sourced for manufacturing. Merhej calls the enjoy of making paintings for Bonjour “nicer” than designing for her logo, despite the fact that she briefly corrects herself.

“I don’t want to say it’s nicer, but it’s more interesting,” she clarifies. “You’re not restrained, thinking, ‘Is this going to sell?’ You’re not trying to hit any targets commercially or thinking, ‘What’s the vision of the brand? How will this affect it?’ You’re just thinking, ‘What would Anne wear?’”

The resolution is a pared-back, refined cloth cabinet of oversize button downs and layered chiffon skirts. For an evening out, a crimson get dressed—the only designed by means of Merhej—used to be draped to fall off one shoulder, then amassed on the skirt with ribbons. In this scene, we additionally see Cecile in her “Anne original,” a faded yellow confection with a fitted most sensible and uneven bubble skirt that permits a sprig of red tulle to flee on the hem.

Clearly, each Sevigny and McInerny loved their time in Merhej’s designs. The latter wore a Renaissance Renaissance glance to a contemporary screening of the movie in New York, and whilst Sevigny used to be acquainted with Renaissance Renaissance previous to filming, manufacturing allowed for a extra formal advent to the logo. Long a patron of unbiased designers, Sevigny now considers herself partial to Merhej’s paintings or even wore a Renaissance Renaissance get dressed to the premiere of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans closing May. “I always admire independent houses,” she says. “It’s such a challenging business, especially for female designers. So I have a lot of admiration for what [Merhej is] doing there.”

But clothes isn’t the one factor Merhej lent to the movie. The dressmaker additionally supplied her sketches for a quiet scene between Anne and Cécile. Some of the photographs had been ripped proper from Merhej’s personal sketchbook, whilst others had been created for the good thing about the movie. Sketches can also be moderately a private side of an artist’s paintings, however Merhej felt no concern in exhibiting them.

“I wanted to do anything I could to help this make this project happen,” she says. “I believe in Durga’s vision and what she’s trying to do.”