What to wear to the end of the world: The function of fashion in apocalyptic narrative

Narratives of the apocalypse remain a powerful fixture in storytelling across media by confronting notions of mortality and the significance of life. Lorene Scafaria’s Seeking a Friend for the End of the World represents one of several recent, mixed-genre films to unpack a pre-apocalyptic scenario with a more realistic setting than common sci-fi and fantasy approaches. Setting the stage in a world that is ordinary rather than fantastic allows the audience a relatable perspective into an extraordinary event and provides a more pragmatic experience of the familiar myth of total destruction. By exploring identity and symbolism through the everyday ritual of dress, this article examines clothing as a material representation of social and psychological processes at the world’s end. Dress is dissected in discussion with physiological needs and cultural norms as well as critically analysed from phenomenological and feminist standpoints.