I know everyone is eagerly awaiting the cinematic event of the summer: Ocean's Thirteen, third in a series of the lighthearted adventures of a gang of elegant rogues who like to pull off elaborate capers centered on lavish casino heists. Admittedly, the Eurocentric Ocean's Twelve was a somewhat rambling letdown, but the latest installment promises a return to Vegas and hopefully also to form.
Seeing buzz about the new movie reminded me of a review I read of Ocean's Twelve. To paraphrase, it expressed the sentiment "This isn't by any means a very good film, but man, these people sure know how to wear clothes." This summer's installment adds Ellen Barkin and Al Pacino to the cast, so the knowledge of clothes-wearing should only be enhanced. (Also Noureen DeWulf, although I'm not familiar with her work.)
So my question is, what does it mean to "know how to wear clothes"? We might at first guess that it refers to the ability of a person to choose clothes that are right for their style, their body type, and the occasion. But in a major motion picture, one presumes that there are professionals whose job it is to do the clothes-choosing, so (respecting the reviewer enough to imagine that they meant exactly what they said) that can't be it. It could also mean "is wearing nice clothes" or simply "is pretty hot," but neither of those talents would accurately be characterized as knowing how to wear clothes. So is there a specific kind of knowledge that refers to the ability to wear clothes? Is it not just a matter of picking out a good outfit, but a particular method of wearing them, adapting one's demeanor and bearing to the clothes one wears? Or are we just faced with a sloppy deployment of language in an attempt to convey "Boy, that George Clooney would look yummy in a burlap kilt" in an imaginative way? Help me out here, people. (p.s. Apparently we don't have a "fashion" category on this blog. Yet.)
