The Oncoming Hope

InStyle commissioned ten fashion designers to sketch their own interpretations of the "fire dress" from The Hunger Games, and the results are stunning.

I've written previously about my disappointment at Katniss's dress in the trailer from the film, which took:

"The creature standing before me in the full-length mirror has come from another world. Where skin shimmers and eyes flash and apparently they make their clothes from jewels. Because my dress, oh, my dress is entirely covered in reflective precious gems, red and yellow and white with bits of blue that accent the tips of the flame design. The slightest movement gives the impression I am engulfed in tongues of fire."

and gave us:

...ahem...moving on...It's hard to choose a favorite, but a hat tip goes to Joyce Azria, who not captures the magic of the outfit but shows the clearest understanding of Katniss as a character:

The Blonds take their assignment and vamp it up to a fairly ridiculous extent, but I think they capture an essential theme of the novels: the dark side of constantly being in performance mode:

Tadashi Shoji's design is another favorite. Oddly, she's the only one who understood the assignment, designing Katniss's performance dress, not a hybrid of Katniss the warrior and Katniss the reality tv star. It may not be as creative as some of the other designs, but it's definitely elegant.

TIBI designer Amy Smilovic has made the mystifying choice of aging Katniss up by approximately 80 years, which works on a symbolic level but led to a pretty ugly image:

Nicole Miller has designed to fashion Katniss as a native American bird, or something:

But the award for "I really didn't give a shit about this" goes to...Tommy Hilfiger! It's a weird supermodel kimono/poncho hybrid that's as ugly as it is uncreative.

What do you think? You can see the rest of the designs here: http://www.instyle.com/instyle/package/general/photos/0,,20542054_20549206_21085613,00.html

Also, if you're interested in the intersection between fashion and film (and tv) I highly recommend Hello, Tailor, which has wonderful analyses of things most delightful.