Sunday, February 2, 2014

Sherlock Homes in A Scandal In Belgravia- A review on fashion and Mystery.

Today , we will talk about this man with Poise and a completely iconic sense of fashion and style "Sherlock Holmes", 

Starting off with a remarkable work of Sir Arthur Conad Doyle`s Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories yet again, Sherlock may have a disembodied head in his fridge and eyeballs in his microwave, but what really impressed us with Benedict Cumber (Sherlock Holmes) batch’s was the contents of his wardrobe.


Sherlock’s sartorial elegance is envied by men – and, of course, admired by women – everywhere. So, here’s our guide to searching out that perfect capsule wardrobe on the high street. The game is on.



Double breasted coat in the picture above. Wear it with the collar up and never buttoned like Benedict.

Sherlock wore a couple of Spencer Hart shirts, but they were mostly from the mainline Dolce collection. Benedict is very slim so he pulled off suits from Vivienne Westwood

The dressing gown is one bit of luxury all Sherlock fans should have, perfect for sleuthing round the house in on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Now, you’ve saved


all that money on the rest of your wardrobe; why not splash out on this sactual silk robe from one of the scenes.



The whole episode starts of leaving us on tenterhooks and a quite uneasy scene by the pool.
A calm and serene scene by the stream is showcased beautifully, the mountains, the riverside and in that scene the mystery of suspicious hiker in a red jacket standing across a field being killed is overlooked.
Mycroft who dressed up like a true English Gentleman by and large, being an important head of state always makes the effort to dress smartly in public and wants to appear professional but approachable. The three-piece suit is not worn because it might make him seem “out of touch” with ordinary people.

He hires Holmes and Watson to retrieve compromising photos of a minor royal held on the camera phone of Irene Adler (Lara Pulver), being the ex-wife of a prominent novelist, in addition to being an American-born adventuress; she is also a world-class criminal. She is a woman who can take care of herself—a woman who will fight off two would-be attackers while in a bustle skirt, one who ignores the warnings of Sherlock Holmes by smugly stating: “I’ve never been in over my head”. She is just as savvy as she is sassy, and she uses her sexuality to Sherlock’s detriment.



One particular scene of note occurs when Sherlock visits Irene at her hotel room. She greets him naked , one that she drops for his benefit as she goes to put on her coat later on with the embarrassment to Johnson. The weaponization of sexuality is a double-edged sword in media. While on the sexual liberation of Irene Adler can be seen as a positive on the one hand, on the other it plays straight into male fantasy. Irene Adler is tantalizing Sherlock, the male protagonist with whom the audience is meant to identify. Thus, Irene invites the “male gaze”, acting as an object of desire. Additionally, while Irene is able to trick Sherlock, it is not through disguise, but by drugging him. Poison is, after all, a woman’s weapon.

Though in the episodes climax Irene is able to again manipulate Holmes into chasing after her so that Moriarty can steal the item he is after, she is ultimately caught in the end. The condition of women in film dictates that they who dare to show independence will be punished in some manner; the femme fatale never gets away with her deviant actions. Holmes obtains Adler's phone, but discovers it is booby-trapped and requires a code to disarm it. When Adler discovers that the CIA are on her trail, she disappears and is then apparently killed, only to reappear months later when the coast is clear. Adler manipulates Holmes into deciphering a coded message on her phone, which she obtained from another well-connected client. She sends the message to Moriarty, who in turn uses it to foil a British counter-terror operation. Adler then goes underground again.
Ritchie’s Adler is of limited success in terms of being a feminist figure. Though she is portrayed as being intelligent and mostly self-sufficient, her depiction does not overcome the male-centric film experience. Adler is a hyper-sexualized character who, while supposedly capable of handling herself, is captured by, rescued by, controlled by and eventually killed by the various male characters. She functions as an element of spectacle, one that is overcome by the more important men of the film.

 The episode concludes as Mycroft tells Watson that a terrorist group in Pakistan has killed her. This is another decoy: Sherlock helped her escape when she was on the brink of death.



Style of Reviewing - Priya Tanna (Vogue India editor)

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