The ghost of cultures past: Fashion, Hollywood and the end of everything

The much heralded end of cinema, as well as the less loudly proclaimed end of fashion, raise crucial issues with regard to the relations between film as a social institution and the growth and propagation of consumer culture particularly in the form of dress and other items of self-adornment. Exploring the economic, cultural and technological changes that have lead to significant shifts in the nature of both cinema, as a social institution and a mode of representation, and the fashion system suggests continuities as well as breaks from the past, the consequences of which will not be fully encompassed without further significant interdisciplinary research.