Fashioning Frankenstein: Deathliness, technology and the body in contemporary fashion photography | Intellect Skip to content
1981
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Fashion, Style & Popular Culture
  4. Online First Articles
  5. Online First Article
image of Fashioning Frankenstein: Deathliness, technology and the body in contemporary fashion photography

Abstract

The deathly aesthetic of Heroin Chic caused a moral panic in the late 1990s for its aestheticization of cadaverously pale and skeletally thin models. Subsequent photographers have experimented with the female body as a prop, staging high-fashion crime scenes and mimicking the passivity of corpses in prone posture. Fashion photography offers an arena to explore daily life and the national imagination by materializing concepts through a focus on corporeality and compelling stylized visuals. These images therefore represent a commercialized articulation of broader cultural concerns surrounding mortality. Steven Klein’s 2015 fashion editorial ‘Love machine’, published in magazine, will be analysed to argue that this represents a cultural response to the shifting relationship between the human body and technology. The discourse of human–machine coexistence presents the transhumanist stance as idealized with the fashion field’s agenda of body modification, wellness and leisure assisted and instigated by technology. However, the tone of this shoot presents a less optimistic vision of a posthuman future. Whilst posthuman ideology is decisive and assured in its deference to technology, Klein’s use of Frankensteinian and cyborg motifs evidence the uncertainty and unease with which biological and technical forms begin to blur. The styling of the model as cyborg and the invocation of Frankenstein’s monster are a logical vehicle for personifying the ontological anxieties coming to the fore of public conscience as debates on digital immortality and artificial intelligence become more prevalent.

© 2024 Intellect Ltd
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/fspc_00246_1
2024-03-15
2024-04-27
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Andersson, S., Hedelin, A., Nilsson, A. and Welander, C. (2004), ‘Violent advertising in fashion marketing’, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 8:1, pp. 96–112, https://doi.org/10.1108/13612020410518727.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Anon. (2013), ‘Izima Kaoru’s “landscape with a corpse”: Artist creates staged death portraits in jarring fashion series (photos)’, HuffPost, 28 May, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/izima-kaoru-landscape-with-a-corpse-staged-death-scenes_n_3345522. Accessed 28 April 2023.
  3. Ansell-Pearson, K. (1997), ‘Life becoming body: On the “meaning” of post human evolution’, Cultural Values, 1:2, pp. 216–40.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Arnold, R. (1999), ‘Heroin chic’, Fashion Theory, 3:3, pp. 279–95, https://doi.org/10.2752/136270499779151405.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Arntfield, M. (2007), ‘The aesthetic calculus: Sex appeal, circuitry, and invisibility’, Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 27:1, pp. 37–47, https://doi.org/10.1177/0270467606295970.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. The Art Crime Archive (2015), ‘High fashion that incorporates sexual violence’, The Art Crime Archive, 29 November, https://artcrimearchive.net/2015/11/29/high-fashion-that-incorporates-sexual-violence/. Accessed 14 June 2023.
  7. Bendle, M. F. (2002), ‘Teleportation, cyborgs and the posthuman ideology’, Social Semiotics, 12:1, pp. 45–62, https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330220130368.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Blackstock, C. (1997), ‘The ugly side of heroin chic’, The Independent, 11 October, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-ugly-side-of-heroin-chic-1235403.html. Accessed 28 April 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Borecka, N. (2014), ‘Interview magazine’s “pretty wasted” editorial is pretty disturbing’, Lone Wolf Magazine, https://lonewolfmag.com/interview-pretty-wasted-editorial-pretty-disturbing/. Accessed 11 April 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Brown, S. (2019), ‘Dark realities: Exploring fashion’s fascination with mortality and the macabre’, The National, 11 April, https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/fashion/dark-realities-exploring-fashion-s-fascination-with-mortality-and-the-macabre-1.847759. Accessed 11 April 2023.
  11. Carter, K. (2010), ‘Fashion’s most tasteless moments’, The Guardian, 19 August, https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/18/fashions-most-tasteless-moments. Accessed 29 April 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. CFDA (2022), ‘How September 11 changed American fashion’, CFDA, 11 September, https://cfda.com/news/how-september-11-changed-american-fashion. Accessed 13 May 2023.
  13. Cheng, A. (2021), ‘5 iconic New York designers reflect on 9/11’s impact on the fashion industry’, Bustle, https://www.bustle.com/style/911-fashion-week-impact-designers. Accessed 13 May 2023.
  14. Clark, M. (2022), ‘Balenciaga apologises for children’s campaign featuring “bondage” teddy bears’, The Independent, 23 November, https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/balenciaga-plush-bear-bag-holiday-campaign-b2231068.html. Accessed 17 June 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Clynes, M. and Kline, N. (2018), ‘Cyborgs and space’, New York Times, https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/surf/022697surf-cyborg.html. Accessed 29 April 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Cooper, S. (2018), ‘The story of Gia: The world’s first supermodel who died of AIDS at 26’, Dazed, 14 September, https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/41317/1/the-story-of-gia-the-world-s-first-supermodel-who-died-of-aids-at-26. Accessed 28 April 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. de Cosmo, L. (2022), ‘Google engineer claims AI chatbot is sentient: Why that matters’, Scientific American, 12 July, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/google-engineer-claims-ai-chatbot-is-sentient-why-that-matters/. Accessed 29 April 2023.
  18. Di Minico, E. (2017), ‘Ex-machina and the feminine body through human and posthuman dystopia’, Ekphrasis: Images, Cinema, Theory, Media, 17:1, pp. 67–84, https://doi.org/10.24193/ekphrasis.17.5.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Evans, C. (2012), Fashion at the Edge Spectacle, Modernity and Deathliness, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. la Ferla, R. (2015), ‘Fashion finds a more perfect model: The robot’, New York Times, 29 July, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/30/fashion/fashion-finds-a-more-perfect-model-robots.html. Accessed 10 April 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Foiret, C. (2009), ‘“The total lady” by Steven Klein for Vogue Italia’, Trendland, https://trendland.com/the-total-lady-by-steven-klein-for-vogue-italia/. Accessed 27 June 2023.
  22. Frommherz, G. (2017), ‘Meme wars: Visual communication in popular transhumanism’, The International Journal of the Image, 8:4, pp. 1–19, https://doi.org/10.18848/2154-8560/cgp/v08i04/1-19.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Graham, E. L. (2002), Representations of the Post/Human, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Haraway, D. (2017), ‘Cyborg manifesto’, in D. Haraway (ed.), Manifestly Haraway, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fictionnownarrativemediaandtheoryinthe21stcentury/manifestly_haraway_----_a_cyborg_manifesto_science_technology_and_socialist-feminism_in_the_....pdf. Accessed 28 April 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Hartley, J. and Rennie, E. (2004), ‘About a girl’, Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism, 5:4, pp. 458–79, https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884904044205.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Hasan, M. (2014), ‘High fashion or “highly offensive” fashion?’, The News on Sunday, 24 August, https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/556955-high-fashion-highly-offensive-fashion. Accessed 14 June 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Hauskeller, M. (2016), Mythologies of Transhumanism, Cham: Springer.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Huett, S. and Goodman, D. (2014), ‘Alterity’, in T. Teo (ed.), Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, New York: Springer, pp. 82–87, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_13.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Humann, H. D. (2018), ‘The intersectional internet: Race, sex, class, and culture online’, Feminist Media Studies, 18:4, pp. 790–91, https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2018.1478704.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. King, C. R. (2006), ‘The prosthetic impulse: From a posthuman present to a biocultural future by M. Smith and J. Morra (eds)’, review, Disability Studies Quarterly, 26:4, https://library.osu.edu/ojs/index.php/dsq/article/view/824/999. Accessed 27 June 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Klein, S. (n.d.), ‘Red dress in surgical room, 2005’, Steven Klein, https://stevenklein.us/products/red-dress-in-surgical-room-2005. Accessed 27 June 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Kristeva, J. (2010), Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, New York: Columbia University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Larbi, M. (2018), ‘Former fashion photographer criticises magazines for female corpse trend’, Metro, 12 February, https://metro.co.uk/2018/02/12/former-fashion-photographer-criticises-magazines-female-corpse-trend-7305379/. Accessed 6 February 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Magazine Heaven (n.d.), ‘W magazine: Fashion magazine heaven’, Magazine Heaven, https://www.magazineheaven.com/catalog/product/view/id/12810/s/w-magazine. Accessed 29 April 2023.
  35. Moeran, B. (2006), ‘More than just a fashion magazine’, Current Sociology, 54:5, pp. 725–44, https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392106066813.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Mower, S. (2018), ‘Gucci Fall 2018 Ready-to-Wear collection’, Vogue, 21 February, https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/fall-2018-ready-to-wear/gucci. Accessed 28 April 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Nayar, P. (2011), ‘Haunted knights in Spandex: Self and othering in the superhero mythos’, Mediterranean Journal of Humanities, 2:1, pp. 171–83, https://doi.org/10.13114/mjh/20111799.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Nitchie, E. (1953), Mary Shelley, Westport, CT: Greenwood.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Noble, D. F. (1999), The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention, New York: Penguin Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Pepperell, R. (2005), ‘The posthuman manifesto’, Kritikos, 2, https://www.intertheory.org/pepperell.htm. Accessed 20 March 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Pullen, M. (2002), ‘High Fashion Crime Scenes by Melanie Pullen’, Lens Culture, https://www.lensculture.com/books/6446-high-fashion-crime-scenes. Accessed 21 March 2023.
  42. Pullen, M. (2005), ‘High fashion crime scenes’, Landscape Stories, https://landscapestories.net/en/archive/2015/crime/projects/melanie-pullen. Accessed 29 April 2023.
  43. Reynolds, P. (1996), ‘A fashion world hooked on “Heroin Chic”’, Boston Globe, 26 July.
     [Google Scholar]
  44. Ryken, P. (1996), ‘Heroin chic’, Tenth Presbyterian Church, 10 November, https://www.tenth.org/resource-library/articles/heroin-chic/. Accessed 6 February 2023.
  45. Sauers, J. (2009), ‘The problem with fashion’s obsession with death’, Jezebel, 2 November, https://jezebel.com/the-problem-with-fashions-obsession-with-death-5395343. Accessed 7 June 2023.
  46. Scanlon, J. (2009), Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown, New York: Penguin.
     [Google Scholar]
  47. Shelley, M. (1998), Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  48. Shinkle, E. (2017), ‘The feminine awkward: Graceless bodies and the performance of femininity in fashion photographs’, The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture, 21:2, pp. 201–17.
     [Google Scholar]
  49. Stevens, S. (2019), ‘The medium is the monster: Canadian adaptations of Frankenstein and the discourse of technology’, Canadian Journal of Communication, 44:3, pp. 473–74, https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.2019v44n3a3617.
     [Google Scholar]
  50. Tseëlon, E. (1995), The Masque of Femininity: The Presentation of Woman in Everyday Life, London and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
     [Google Scholar]
  51. Van Rensburg, T. (2016), ‘Uneasy bodies femininity and death: Representing the female corpse in fashion photography and selected contemporary artworks’, MA thesis, Pretoria: University of Pretoria.
     [Google Scholar]
  52. Vita-Moore, N. (2020), ‘The Transhumanist Manifesto’, Dr Natasha Vita-More, https://natashavita-more.com/transhumanist-manifesto/. Accessed 10 April 2023.
  53. Wren, C. S. (1997), ‘Clinton calls fashion ads’ “Heroin Chic” deplorable’, New York Times, 22 May, https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/22/us/clinton-calls-fashion-ads-heroin-chic-deplorable.html. Accessed 28 April 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  54. Young, S. (2018), ‘Former fashion photographer Jennifer Moss criticises magazines for female corpse trend’, The Independent, 11 February, https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/female-corpse-trend-magazines-criticised-fashion-photographer-jennifer-moss-victims-a8205166.html. Accessed 27 June 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/fspc_00246_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keywords: robotic body ; transhumanism ; fashion media ; Steven Klein ; heroin chic ; mortality ; cyborg ; posthumanism

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error