Film, Fashion & Consumption - Volume 3, Issue 2, 2014

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.

This article examines the legacy of Diana Vreeland’s 1974 exhibition ‘Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design’ for contemporary curatorial approaches to Hollywood costume exhibitions. Staged during her time as a Special Consultant at the Costume Institute, this was the first blockbuster exhibition of Hollywood costume held in a major museum. Alongside exploring its historical significance, I argue that this exhibition offers particular insights into Vreeland’s body of work, articulating a synergy between curator and subject matter. To illustrate the ongoing influence of ‘Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design’, I explore a contemporary curatorial project, ‘Costumes from the Golden Age of Hollywood’, which has direct and indirect connections to Vreeland’s exhibition.

This article looks at the portrayal of disguise, criminality and British luxury fashion in the BBC’s Sherlock (2010–). Co-creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat have re-imagined Arthur Conan Doyle’s depiction of Victorian crime and appearance through the self-reflexive representation of contemporary British luxury fashion design – including Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen – as a mode of disguise that can alternatively hide or reveal characters. This article argues that Sherlock draws upon Arthur Conan Doyle’s rendering of the will of the individual in an increasingly modern metropolis, while satirically detailing the persistence of late-Victorian perceptions of agency and transgressive identity as represented by what one chooses to wear.

In 2010 the BBC commissioned an ambitious adaptation of Émile Zola’s Au Bonheur des Dames/The Ladies’ Paradise ([1883] 2012) by established dramatist Bill Gallagher. Transposing Zola’s story to Victorian England, Gallagher hoped that its topicality, set during a time of great social change, would resonate with a contemporary audience familiar with a dying high street and endless online shopping. The BBC targeted the global interest in British, quality period drama following the phenomenal success of Downton Abbey (2010). The Paradise aired in September 2012 but would run for only two series before being summarily decommissioned. Brutal market forces occasioned this dramatic change in fortunes. ITV had launched their own rival department store series about an American entrepreneur and his ambitious wife, Mr Selfridge (2012), capturing the audience desired by the BBC. This article contextualizes both productions and their audience appeal. At a time of economic austerity, with ‘make do and mend’ regarded as a virtue, and the high street struggling to survive as online shopping expands, what are we to make of the nostalgia for the traditional department store and its pleasures? Why did The Paradise fail to resonate with the domestic where Mr Selfridge succeeded?

The article investigates the recent rise of the hypermuscular gangster as a hero in Bollywood cinema, a rise that coincides with the revival of royal aesthetics both in film and fashion. It argues that this idealized muscular gangster, the ultimate self-made man and favourite neoliberal hero, reinforces the simultaneous revival of pre-imperial authoritarian kingly models that manifest themselves not only on the fashion ramp, but also in the rise of right wing politics. In order to shed some light on these relations, the article draws a parallel to the 80s revival of masculinity in the US under Ronald Reagan and the recent election of the muscular Narendra Modi as the Indian Prime Minister. Consequently, it shows that the heroic gangsters and aristocrats, the low class and the elite, belong not only to the same aesthetic regime, but are the most blatant symbols of current political and economic ideology as well.

When too much spectacle is not enough: Costume in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby

Dressing Dangerously: Dysfunctional Fashion in Film, Jonathan Faiers (2013) New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 304 pp. ISBN 978-0-300-18438-9, £35