The fashion of Jean-Luc Godard: Examining the French New Wave director’s influence on style

Look back at Jean Luc-Godard’s style setting moments »

It’s no secret that the French have an enviable way with style. Effortless chic is basically in their DNA (think #iwokeuplikethis, circa always), and nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the 1960s films of Jean-Luc Godard. The French-Swiss filmmaker best known for pioneering the French New Wave changed the way films were made by taking a Brechtian approach to storytelling, alienating and distancing the spectators from his often unlikable characters. “A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order,” he famously said.

Beyond influencing award-winning filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Godard’s ultra-stylized movies have had a huge impact on the fashion world, inspiring the collections of everyone from Anna Sui to Rodarte and Band of Outsiders. In fact, Godard’s muse and wife of four years was Danish model Anna Karina (so named by none other than Coco Chanel) who embodied ’60s style on the cover of Elle and in high-profile ads for Palmolive. Brigitte Bardot’s voluminous bedroom hair in Contempt and Jean Seberg’s pixie cut in Breathless are regular runway references that make it easy to spot how Kate Upton and Jennifer Lawrence found their signature ’dos.