In the series "They were doing fashion tech ahead of their time", let’s look back at the dress with moving clouds from Jacques Demy's film Donkey Skin, celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, next December 16.

By Ludmilla Intravaia

"It's a splendor, I've never had anything like it", marvels the Lilac Fairy, discovering the colour of the weather dress worn by her goddaughter, in the film Donkey Skin by Jacques Demy, in 1970 (images below : © Marianne Productions/Parc Film).

"To tell the truth I didn't think it was possible," she wonders, admiring the incredible blue dress with changing patterns. In fact, if the three dresses ordered by the princess from her father, the colour of the weather, the colour of the moon and the colour of the sun, were deliberately a challenge to be made, the costumes worn by Catherine Deneuve, playing the main character of the film, were no less so. In particular, the famous colour of the weather dress, on which bright clouds come alive. A dress designed by the costume designer Agostino Pace and made in Italy by the costume designer Gitt Magrini, in a movie canvas fabric, serving as a support for the projection of luminous clouds, symbols of a good weather sky. Check out the three dresses, including the colour of the weather one, in the film Donkey Skin, below.

As the three dresses in the film had not been not preserved, at least not in a condition that would allow their restoration, they were recreated in 2013 for a retrospective on director Jacques Demy at the Cinémathèque française. Dresses, moreover, very cumbersome, as reported by Catherine Deneuve: "The dresses were heavy to wear and it was difficult for me to wander through the interminable staircases of the castle of Chambord. But these difficulties did not interest Jacques. For him, it was as if a dancer had come complaining about his bleeding feet or his broken back. It had nothing to do with the movie itself, so why talk about it?" 

Under the supervision of Agostino Pace, the costume designer Rosalie Varda, daughter of Agnès Varda, the wife of Jacques Demy, of whom she is the adopted daughter, was inspired by the film and the costumer's drawings to revive the three dresses, presented in the exhibition entitled Le monde enchanté de Jacques Demy. Below, a report from Agence France Presse about the event. 

Below, take a look at the color of weather dress, in the Cinémathèque exhibition which took place from April 10 to August 4, 2013, in Paris. 

Watch Donkey Skin trailer below. 

On July 4, 2012, the couturier Franck Sorbier paid tribute to Jacques Demy's movie, in his haute couture fall-winter 2012/2013 presentation, in Paris. A model wore a white dress, made in collaboration with the electronics company Intel, a dress on which were projected light patterns by video mapping, augmented reality technology allowing videos to be projected onto volumes. "This great first will allow haute couture customers in front of a screen around the world to order 'a dress color of the sun'" the couturier told Le Monde, two days later. Discover Franck Sorbier's dress, in the video below.

* Find videos on the recreation of the dresses in 2013 on the Cinémathèque française website here. 

* On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Peau d´âne, the book Il était une fois Peau d'âne (Once Upon a Time Peau d'âne) by Rosalie Varda-Demy and Emmanuel Pierrat benefits from a new augmented edition by Editions de La Martinière. More info here on the publisher's website.

* Continue reading in this new section "Old school fashion tech" from Le Boudoir Numérique:

- Spacer, Sheila B. Devotion’s music video

- The gabardine-gadget of Louis de Funès in Fantômas