Burberry was the big event at London Fashion Week last night and Barry Keoghan was among the celebrities in attendance for the presentation kitted out, naturally, in a beige Burberry set with a white turtleneck – a short king claiming his fashion space in clothes that are typically sent down the runway on people with longer proportions. And, as you can see, he looks great.
Barry is what Sarah would call a fashion girly, we’ve seen this all award season, and he recently told W Magazine that clothing is part of his work, or future work:
“Certain clothes can change your whole posture. What you wear represents what you’re trying to express. The Louis Vuitton suit had this punk rock thing to it, and that opens doors for people to have a vision of you in a movie that they might not have had before. They’re like, ‘Oh! Maybe he could play that part!’”
He’s referring to the Louis Vuitton suit he wore at the Golden Globes. And I appreciate that he is confirming here for men what has already been a truth for women: that there is strategy in a wardrobe, and celebrities are wearing clothes with intention, whether it’s to honour a character or send a message, the clothes are meant to start a conversation.
That quote comes from a new joint interview with Barry and Emerald Fennell who directed him in Saltburn. She themed the shoot after his scene in the film where he says, “Lucky for you, I’m a vampire”, a scene that’s been overshadowed by what happens in the bathtub which I think I’ve mentioned is way hotter to me and I’m not sure why the internet hasn’t fixated on that the way they have on the bath water. Then again maybe I shouldn’t be surprised given the ongoing stigma re: menstruation and women’s biology. But that was the move where Oliver had me for life.
Oliver of course is a vampire in multiple ways, literally sucking the life out of that family, each and every member. Which is kinda what I wish he would do to Sylvie’s heinous family in One Day. Here are two recent productions that are clowning English aristocracy in the most delicious way – they don’t dwell on this in One Day the way they do in Saltburn but pop culture now has two high profile super viral examples of upper class mockery and I wonder what effect this might have, if any, on the people these portraits are based on.
To go back to Barry and Emerald, it’s interesting what Emerald says towards the end of the piece, about being a successful director with two children and how that experience is different for women:
“Fennell is one of a growing but still small number of high-profile female filmmakers. Is there a sense of solidarity among them? “Absolutely,” she says immediately. “I really feel the support and the reaching out, and I just think it’s so necessary, especially with the tribulations of being a mother and doing this job.” (Fennell has two young children.) While she says that other female directors understand “the very specific, grueling work,” the culture at large is still “not set up” for women to make films. “There’s still a weird ‘show your workings’ assumption that can be quite draining.”
So, what needs to change? Fennell is reluctant to answer. “Whenever I talk about the craft of the work, I find myself drawn into the politics of it, and I always want to pause and ask myself, Are male filmmakers asked these same questions? I’m not sure they are.” Instead, she turns to her immediate plans: “I need to lie face down with a cold compress like an institutionalized Victorian woman. It’d be a huge relief to have a lobotomy. And then the next thing I’ll do, well, nobody knows. That makes it sound like I’m being tantalizing, but, actually, I’ll just go and write. I don’t tell anyone what I’m doing because I like it to be a fun, corrupting pleasure when I give it to them.”
Ironic though, non? Because the star of her film has an infant child and by his own admission has spent the last several months away from him in London to live in Los Angeles so as to build on his career momentum, and he certainly has NOT been asked about that in most of his interviews, including the big GQ profile where there was barely a follow-up question when he mentioned it. Would a woman be able to get away with the same?
Click here for more from Barry and Emerald in W.
