Lady Business

Soooo interesting! I have very little knowledge of early 20th century history so hearing about the way Germany was before the Nazi's makes me see the film in a whole new light.

'I read a subtext of femininity (much like now) being something one proves as a woman, in order to negotiate social status'

Yes, I think this comes through really well when Katniss has to put on the dress to go to the lottery ceremony as well. There's definitely something squicky in the way that Panem society treats women, we can see that in the way women are forced to wear traditionally female clothing. It's just not brought out as a front and centre issue.

'But I wondered if the overbearing, sort of desperate frippery was a sign of inner inequalities within the District. After all - the people who DO seem comfortable in their own skin, like the president, are also, not coincidentally, those with the most political power. Effie, in contrast, is just a pawn.'

I absolutely agree that this is a distinction which is being made in the film. I'd have to watch it again to be sure, but like you, I get the impression that Elizabeth Banks plays Effie at times, as a woman uncomfortable. She puts up as good a shield as she can, but sometimes her eyes or her lips betray that she may not be quite as distanced from criticism and protected/made confident by the elaborate shell of clothing she puts on as she might like others to think. And like you say President Snow is the most confident villain of the piece and also the least elaborately dressed. Thinking about other characters, in contrast to Effie's costume, with his elaborate beard and flash of red, Seneca's fashion choices seem rather pulled back, but he is making what could be called 'outlandish' choices for a man in a traditionally male society and he's the one whose power is eventually cut off. So I think that's a really interesting idea, that the fashion choices are intended to signal inner inequalities in this hugely rich society. That seems kind of like the new money/old money idea of the British class system, maybe?

Looking at the costuming with this idea as a frame, I think once again we can see that maybe the people who created The Hunger Games aren't interested in engaging with fashion in a particularly nuanced way. Sure, for some people elaborate fashion signals insecurity and their insecurity is only heightened by their elaborate style as they pick at the frills and buttons, but look at someone performative like Gaga. Her elaborate costuming could act as anything from a shield of confidence to an outward projection of her real inner confidence, but it definitely doesn't highlight any insecurities she might have. And I kind of still question why these insecurities might be visually projected using elaborate, but traditionally feminine dress. Elaborate traditionally masculine dress could also have been used to signal insecurity (I'm imagining some crazy cowboy suit, or overly performative gangster gear).

It'd be really interesting to think about what your idea of fashion signalling social division within Capitol society says about the creator's feelings on 'taste' as well, I think. Is one of the divisions signalled by Effie's choice of dress and her possible inferior Capitol status, one that marks out elements the creators of THG consider to be of good and bad taste? What does that tell us about our society's ideas about what taste is and the relationship between confidence, taste and status etc (hopefully that makes some kind of sense).

Off on a tangent: personally, I find reflecting character psychology/personality through dress and visual signals rlly, um...well maybe the easiest way to describe it is Dickensian. Looking at Dickens work it seems he was a huge believer that the outside of his characters reflected the inside (I know it's not just Dickens, there's probably some kind of historical reason for this attitude so please fill for my lack of knowledge if you can). Considering that Dickens was writing quite a long time ago, I find it interesting that it often feels like authors and film makers haven't really moved on from a time when someone's personality was reflected in the way they looked or dressed. THG is kind of different, because it reflects real socio-economic differences with it's different styles of dress, which...is a thing, unlike the personality/dress and body style match up (excluding deliberate attempts to project a personality through an aesthetic style) and it makes changes to the presentation of evil, by clothing a lot of Capitol society in pastels.Not sure really where I was going with that, guess it was just an observation :D