Style Icon: Keira Knightley, Atonement

Gliding about an old English mansion in lace dresses and sunbathing by cool  lakes in white swimwear. This is essentially the day to day activities that Keira Knightley’s Cecilia must endure. There may also be a cocktail that she’ll have to sip delicately in a drawing room and a dinner party to attend at some point but somehow she manages to get it all done in a day. The protagonist of Ian McEwan’s novel and Joe Wright’s film, Cecilia is an enticing stylistic creation. She is equal parts Jane Austen and Agatha Christie, mixed with some regal glamour and an aristocratic English sensibility.

The scene where she is ripped from the arms of her lover, played by James McAvoy and marches out of the house in a forest green gown that screams post war chic, is a real winner. The dress hugs Knightley’s bony physique in a beautiful way. A tragic heroine fighting for the man she loves, she nevertheless never forgets to dress for the occasion. As with most costume dramas the look of the film and the world that the filmmakers create is one of the main draws. Take from Cecilia Talis her sense of the grand, dressing up for a dinner party is after all ever so much fun.

Alice Watson