‘Great Gatsby’: Fashion Insiders Lament That Film Won’t Be Included in Awards Season 2012

Warner Bros.’ decision to push back the release date for Baz Luhrman‘s The Great Gatsby from Christmas 2012 to summer 2013 is reverberating throughout the film community, theater owners — and the fashion industry.

Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge, released in 2001, inspired many a French Belle Epoque-bordello look, with nearly every girl trying to turn herself into Nicole Kidman‘s romantic lead, Satine. The same was expected for Gatsby.

Carey Mulligan, playing the iconic Daisy Buchanon (portrayed by Mia Farrow in the original), is almost as much a fashion icon as her character, a jazz-age society wife who spares no expense for her deco finery.

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Mulligan is known to wear unique designs by Prada, Christopher Kane and other young designers, whose looks would seem overdone on anyone else (her metallic Prada dress at May’s Met Ball was the talk of the night). She looks amazing in both simple and flamboyant outfits, always keeping her short blonde hair and makeup simple, which looks so modern with stylized clothes.

Now that Mulligan won’t be working the awards circuit, so many fashion watchers’ awards season hopes and dreams are crushed — ours included.

Her absence will make the red carpet much less interesting this year. Not only that, but early images of the film portray the amazing work of Luhrman’s wife Catherine Martin, the Oscar winning costume designer from Moulin Rouge, to such perfection that it was clear a new wave of Deco chic was about to sweep the fashion world.

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We bet the spring 2013 shows — currently being prepped by designers for September and October runways — are filled with chevron details, cloche hats, gold threads and deco jewelry, with everyone knowing this was the movie to launch a thousand trends. We wonder if designers are quickly scrambling to shelve certain items for fall 2013, which wouldn’t hit stores until next August. 

Jewelry companies including Tiffany & Co., hoping the film would set off a Deco jewelry craze, are no doubt pulling back certain looks and styles in anticipation of the movie being delayed. While Brooks Brothers had been named the official menswear designer of the film, Tiffany & Co. was the official designer of jewels and Gatsby’s home furnishings.

And one large question still remains: who worked with Martin on Mulligan’s wardrobe for the film? Looks like we’ll have to wait a while longer to find out.