If you love fashion and shopping, you’re not alone. There’s something so rewarding about working on our own image and reinventing ourselves, using an iconic item to make a statement about how we want to come across to the world. If done well, shopping can be so much fun, and you don’t even need to be buying something to enjoy the feeling of looking for new clothes. Window shopping for outfit inspo can be just as rewarding and even therapeutic, especially if you had a bad day and need to cheer yourself up.
Everyone shops in a different way. Some prefer to look at clothes in person, so they can try them on and make sure they like the way they look on them. Others opt for online shopping on various sites, such as the popular fashion platform Pinco. And then there are those who choose to renew old outfits to match the current season’s trends and colors. But if you’re just searching for inspiration, movies can help too!
We made a list of 5 movies about fashion and shopping that all feature fantastic outfits that will certainly inspire you, as well as telling enthralling stories with interesting characters you’ll love to watch. Find them all below, in alphabetical order. Enjoy!
1. Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)
P.J. Hogan
If there’s one thing New Yorker Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) loves to do, it’s shopping. She loves it so much, in fact, that she can’t seem to stop, and as a result, she’s deeply into debt and in desperate need of a job. Becky is a writer, and of course she aspires to work in fashion; she has been dreaming of landing a job at the high-fashion magazine ‘Alette’ for as long as she can remember. After one too many failed attempts, she eventually manages to find the next best thing: she gets hired as a columnist by another magazine owned by the same company that owns ‘Alette’.
That magazine, ironically named ‘Successful Saving’, is a financial magazine, but that’s not going to stop Becky from giving it her all. Just like that, her column is an overnight success. But what happens when the magazine’s editor, Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy), and her new colleagues find out her secret?
Confessions of a Shopaholic is adapted from the late Sophie Kinsella’s bestselling book of the same name, which has been incredibly popular ever since it was published in 2000, followed by many sequels about Becky’s adventures as she grows into a more functional ‘shopaholic’. Part of what makes the book so appealing is Kinsella’s infectious writing style, and the movie adaptation doesn’t quite match up to it. Still, the cast is fantastic – not just Fisher and Dancy, but also Krysten Ritter, Joan Cusack, John Goodman, Kristin Scott Thomas, John Lithgow and more recognizable names all playing key roles – and so are the clothes. On top of this, it’s also a charming rom-com that’s guaranteed to put you in a good mood.
2. Cruella (2021)
Craig Gillespie
What if we told you that Disney’s live action origin story of the beloved animated villain contains just as many breathtaking outfits and references to fashion as all the other films on this list? From director, Craig Gillespie, Cruella begins in 1964 England, where a little girl is determined to leave a mark on the world in the most “fabulous” way possible. That girl, Estella (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland), soon learns to suppress the most creative and rebellious aspect of her personality, which her mother (Emily Beecham) named Cruella, and this conflict within our protagonist leads to more trouble as she grows up.
That is, until she finds herself in 1970s London, right in the middle of the punk-rock movement, with two unlikely allies – thieves Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser) – as her family of sorts. And it’s this acceptance that gives Estella the courage to be herself; soon, she earns the admiration of the Baroness (Emma Thompson), a local fashion icon who starts to commission pieces from Estella. But if the film starts as a Devil Wears Prada kind of story, it soon turns into something else when Cruella emerges, determined to be the only fashion diva in London. And it’s when the film, and its protagonist, are at their most unpredictable and ruthless that the real fun begins, with plenty of adventures for our titular villain and tons of gorgeous clothes to match her moods, accompanied by the perfect punk-rock soundtrack.
Emma Stones thrives in a role she was born to play in what is soon to become your next guilty pleasure.
3. The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
David Frankel
“Florals? For Spring? Groundbreaking.” The protagonist of David Frankel’s iconic comedy may be an intern at a fashion magazine, but it’s the company’s Editor-in-Chief who has the best lines in the movie. The Devil Wears Prada follows a young aspiring journalist named Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) who one day somehow manages to land a job that many fashion lovers would die to get: that of intern to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), Editor of “Runway” magazine and pretty much the authority on the subject. Of course, Andy knows absolutely nothing about clothes; though that may very well be what got her the job in the first place, Andy soon finds herself having to adapt to this world in order to survive – and being irrevocably changed by it.
The movie mainly revolves around Andy’s relationship with Miranda and rivalry with her colleague Emily (Emily Blunt), but plenty of screen time is dedicated to the gorgeous clothes everyone wears in the film. From fashion expert Nigel’s (Stanley Tucci) styling advice to Andy to our heroine’s makeover; from business meetings to actual runways in Paris, you’ll find many stunning garments to look at and plenty of namedropping of designers you’ll recognize. On top of this, The Devil Wears Prada is the rare comedy that also has something to say, and with the sequel coming next year, this is the perfect time to watch it!
4. Pretty Woman (1990)
Garry Marshall
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, chances are you’ve at least heard of Pretty Woman. But if you simply know it as that film where Julia Roberts plays a prostitute who teams up with a wealthy businessman (Richard Gere) who falls in love with her while on a business trip in Los Angeles, think again. There is so much more to the movie than the romance at its center, starting from a protagonist who refuses to be anyone but herself even when the world around her suddenly changes, and takes full advantage of it with no regrets.
One of the film’s most iconic scenes sees Vivian (Roberts) enter a shop on Rodeo Drive, wearing her pre-makeover clothes, and be snubbed by its employees, only to return the day after, mid-shopping and wearing expensive clothes, to let them know just how “big; huge!” their mistake had been. Even though Pretty Woman‘s plot and themes are quite superficial and this is certainly a product of its time, it’s rewarding moments like that, the cast’s superb acting and personality, and the clothes on display that make it the beloved classic that it is.
5. Sex and the City (2008)
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Adapted from the immensely popular HBO show of the same name, Sex and the City (2008) continues the story of the series by following our protagonists four years later. As always, at the center of it all is New York City-based columnist Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), who is now in a committed relationship with Mr. Big (Chris Noth) but still dealing with some decisions to make. Her friends have grown up too: Samantha (Kim Cattrall), now a cancer survivor, is giving monogamy a try; Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is married. And then there’s Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), who now lives in Brooklyn, and whose marriage is falling apart.
A lot happens in the first Sex and the City movie, and while most would agree that the film isn’t as good as the hit show, one thing is certain: no matter the story, you’re always going to love spending time with our four protagonists and marvelling at their outfits. Though a certain wedding dress absolutely steals the scene, there are plenty of iconic looks that make this a must-watch for fashionistas.
From Clueless to Crazy Rich Asians; from House of Gucci to Phantom Thread; from Coco Before Chanel to Personal Shopper, there are plenty of films out there about fashion and shopping. This article lists five popular movies that all feature fantastic outfits while also giving you compelling, uplifting stories that are bound to inspire you for your own shopping. Happy watching!