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Volume 10, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2044-2823
  • E-ISSN: 2044-2831
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Abstract

Costuming within the BBC television drama series (2018–) functions as a spectacular dressing-up box to support the representation of Villanelle (Jodie Comer) as the glamorous globe-trotting assassin. This article will argue that Villanelle’s fashion-forward wardrobe offers a multifarious representation of contemporary queer styling. Her costuming is characterized by gender fluidity and a play with the dominant codes and signifiers of lesbian style and identity. Villanelle’s looks move beyond the stereotyped constraints of the butch-femme binary to construct a polymorphous representation of femininity with broad cross-over appeal. In offering a striking silhouette that draws attention away from the material body onto costuming, Villanelle’s representation highlights the fluidity of gendered and sexual identities. Her costuming may appear to reduce Villanelle to a series of surface appearances, yet these iterations result in a significant queer representation on mainstream contemporary television.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • British Academy (Rising Star Engagement Award) (Award EN\170029)
© 2021 the Authors. Published by Intellect Ltd
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2021-10-01
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Fashion-forward killer: Villanelle, costuming and queer style in Killing Eve
Film, Fashion & Consumption 10, 353 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1386/ffc_00030_1
/content/journals/10.1386/ffc_00030_1
/content/journals/10.1386/ffc_00030_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): butch-femme; costuming; fashion; Killing Eve; lesbian style; queer style; television drama; Villanelle

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