Soma Ghosh
, June 4th, 2021 09:49
The release of Disney s Cruella offers another opportunity to examine a history of black and white fashion on film – and speaks to our neverending delight in wicked women, finds Soma Ghosh
Black marks dotting her headmaster’s register. Black-spotted white dogs arching murderously through the night. Even before Cruella encounters the black and white atelier of her brutal fashion boss, The Baroness, her story is written in harlequin monochrome.
Cruella, Disney’s origin story for Cruella de Vil, suggests that we can write our own story by embracing our black spots. Born Estella, with a split head of black and white hair, she sews clothes alongside her struggling single mum, and this defiant little girl is given the name Cruella by her mother, for ripping up dress patterns and people she finds ugly and wrong.