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Volume 11, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2050-070X
  • E-ISSN: 2050-0718
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Abstract

Film premieres, festivals and award ceremonies function as key sites of labour within the creative industries, creating a synergy between film, fashion and star-celebrity culture. Despite the pivotal role that fashion plays in film promotion strategies, ageing masculinities and menswear on the red carpet remains an under-examined area of critical analysis. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach drawing upon critical work in fashion, film and cultural studies, this article examines the sartorial representation of Keanu Reeves during the promotion of Through the visual analysis of his look at the London premiere in March 2023, I argue that Reeves’s adoption of sprezzatura deliberately disrupts sartorial expectations of red carpet masculinities, maximizing his brand value as a celebrity-commodity. In negotiating the fashioning of ageing masculinity, Reeves’s star-celebrity styling evokes both the aesthetic of the Gen Z dark academia viral trend and nostalgia for his youthful eroticized self to perpetuate his enduring cross-generational appeal.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • School of Design, Arts and Creative Industries at Northumbria University
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Intellect Ltd.
This article is Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The CC BY licence permits commercial and noncommercial reuse. To view a copy of the licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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2025-03-28
2025-05-24
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/content/journals/10.1386/csmf_00086_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): celebrity culture; cinema; dark academia; fashion; gender; masculinity; menswear

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