The category is “Susperia, but make it department store chic”. Peter Strickland pays homage to vintage giallo horrors and Hammer Film Production with In Fabric. It takes place in a distorted version of either 1970s or 1980s England, in a fictional town that clings to the fading idea of luxury where a beautiful artery-red dress wreaks havoc on the lives of all who come in contact with it. While the premise is simple, the film is anything but that.
Sheila Woolchapel (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is a newly-single mother whose former partner has already found a new love. Her parental duties become diminished as her teenage son Vince (Jaygann Ayeh) is preoccupied with his bitchy and vampy girlfriend, Gwen (Gwendoline Christie) and dinners with his father and his father’s new partner. In search of a more rewarding relationship, and in attempt to feel seen, Sheila scans the lonely-hearts ads in the newspaper. After securing a date with a man who promises excitement, but ends up failing to deliver, Sheila is faced with a dilemma as old as time: figuring out what to wear.
Lured by hypnotic and vaguely satanic commercials, Sheila finds herself buying a red dress at a department store, Dentley & Soper’s, from one of the many saleswomen there who are garbed in high-collared Victorian dresses and who only speak in Lewis Carroll-like riddles. Despite her unanswered questions about the dress’ apparently fluid size, Sheila wears the dress as she is reassured by a saleswoman that the article of clothing will bewitch any prospective romantic interests. Sheila is soon unknowingly being led down a path of terror as the saleswomen’s ritualistic practices appear to be controlling the dress and its intentions.
After Sheila no longer has a use for the dress, or rather, after the dress no longer has a use for Sheila, we find it in a thrift store. It soon falls into the hands of Reg Speaks (Leo Bill), a washing machine repair man, whose friends force him to wear it at his bachelor party. Reg and his now-wife Babs experience similar horrors as Sheila as they both end up wearing the dress. The abrupt jump from Sheila’s story to Reg’s takes more away from the film than it gives; it creates more confusion than intrigue.
While the soundtrack is mesmerising, the cinematography is truly incredible, and Jean-Baptiste’s performance is stronger than consumerism’s hold on most people, the script is lacking. Strickland’s film feels devoid of any real emotion, as it feels like he’s just trying really hard to be noticed and to ensure that viewers don’t realize that his script is bad by ensuring that everything else about In Fabric is the best it can be. What I am guessing is that an aspect of his own personal artistic style is imbued in the film, as Strickland has tackled sex and BDSM in his previous films. The few sexual encounters in the film fail to add anything to the plot and they just feel predatory. This is not surprising, as this movie is made by a straight, white, cisgender, British man, after all.
With images of dismembered mannequins and magazine models throughout the film, In Fabric wants so badly to be a sly and fresh critique on consumerism. The film doesn’t really say anything about consumerism that hasn’t been said before, it just says it all in an eerie and uncomfortable way. In Fabric, darling, you’re just a polyester blend trying to be cashmere. Go take your place on the sale rack.
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