The 20 Most Iconic Fashion Moments in Film

Film and fashion go together like Breton stripes and denim - two well-loved concepts that, married together, are more than the sum of their parts. They say clothes maketh the man, and it's certainly true that costumes maketh the character. After all, what would Sandy do without her skin-tight leather trousers to fall back on in Grease? More often than not, it's not the finer plot points but the on-screen outfits that linger in our memories - like these, still-iconic fashion moments in film.

Regularly topping polls of most iconic on-screen dresses, Knightley's smouldering impact in this backless satin gown made us all forget that mere mortals can't pull off a slip dress. Especially in that shade of green. It didn't just impress the audience though. Pinned up against the library wall by James McAvoy's Robbie, it also led to one of the most fan-yourself-ladies sex scenes of this millennium.

Who can forget Cher Horowitz, the spoiled yet charming California blonde, whose computer-automated wardrobe we're still waiting for to revolutionise our closets twenty years on? An expert in "like, totally important designers" like Azzedine Alaia and Calvin Klein, Cher's signature school girl style of tiny checked mini kilts and knee-high white socks summed up her superficial but somehow utterly winsome naivety, while still making sure she looked like "a total Betty."

If you think of 80's Madonna, you think of this look, and a flick back through anyone's home photo albums from that decade will unearth a million mini-Madges sporting that perm, that hair bow and that leather jacket. Ostensibly playing "Susan" but really just being herself, Madonna becomes an obsession for a bored and unfulfilled housewife who tracks her down for thrills, and this more-is-more look sums up "free-spirited, mega-magnetic cool girl" in a whirl of bangles, necklaces and curls. Madonna still has a penchant for wearing gloves (fingerless) three decades later.

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