Film, Fashion & Consumption - Volume 9, Issue 1, 2020

In this commercial space age, audiences increasingly expect realism in science fiction. Weightlessness is commonly simulated through physical or virtual special effects, but reduced gravity aircraft offer opportunities for capturing the effects of microgravity more authentically. While this poses practical challenges for costume designers, it also invites the possibility of creative engagement with weightlessness. Costume can be employed to visibly evidence the effects of weightlessness, but to take advantage of this opportunity, designers must discard many of the fundamental principles of fashion design. This article examines the effects of weightlessness on costume in sequences shot on board reduced gravity aircraft, from Apollo 13 (Howard, 1995), The Mummy (Kurtzman, 2017), and the music video for OK Go's 'Upside Down & Inside Out' (Kulash and Sie, 2016), as well as footage of real-life astronauts. It then identifies those features of clothing design which must be reconsidered when designing costume for microgravity.

This article is concerned with the clothing and costuming of children in the Disney Princess transmedial universe. This extends to the fictional children who grow into their 'princesshood' within the film, as well as the nonfictional children who are the implied audience both for the films and for their associated merchandise. Since Disney acquired Pixar in 2006 and John Lasseter was made creative director of both companies, there has been an increased focus on childhood in Disney's output, and this is particularly notable in the 'princess' films produced under Lasseter: The Princess and the Frog (Clements and Musker, 2009), Tangled (Greno and Howard, 2010), Brave (Andrews and Chapman, 2012), Frozen (Buck and Lee, 2013) and Moana (Clements and Musker, 2016). This article first explores the films' use of costume simultaneously to establish the childness of the characters and visually foreshadow the 'princesses' they will become. It then turns to the implied child audience of these films, considering the Disney Princess line of merchandise and the role of clothing and costume within it.

Despite increasing sociological scholarship pertaining to girl gang membership in the last few decades, there continues to be a lack of engagement with the meaning of their stylistic practices and how this manifests on screen. As a corrective to this, this article considers the complexities, contradictions and ambiguities in girl gang styles and their 'symbolic meaning' for young Chicanas as represented in the first feature-length film to bring contemporary girl gang activity from the streets to the mainstream, Mi Vida Loca (1994). Examining Chola makeup, gang tattoos and dress, the article explores how the gang girl can produce meaning (political, feminist or other) and power through styles, and the tensions between 'authentic' agentic subcultural defiance and mainstream consumption, and the dualistic constructions of girlhood itself. Disadvantaged by intersecting forces, it is argued that gang girls do not necessarily have less opportunity, but greater difficulty in imposing meaning onto the world and resisting hegemonic forces through subcultural aesthetics.

On 31 January 1950 British actress Jean Simmons turned twenty-one. At the time Simmons was one of the most popular and successful British film stars, voted actress of the year in the Daily Mail National Film awards the same year. Simmons twenty-first birthday was therefore viewed as international news. However, rather than choosing a birthday wardrobe from a haute couturier, as a film star of her status undeniably could have, Simmons chose garments designed by London ready-to-wear firm Frederick Starke.

This article questions why Simmons chose a wardrobe from Starke and investigates how these garments helped Simmons to project a certain image. It also considers how the outfits selected were later used as Simmons' costume in the Ealing Studios crime drama Cage of Gold (Dearden, 1950). The film credits Anthony Mendleson, Ealing Studios resident designer and wardrobe supervisor, for the costumes. However Starke designed the majority of the clothes worn by Simmons in the film. This is an intriguing example whereby Simmons' garments are, at once, both her personal clothing and her costume.

Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring explores the contemporary obsession with commodities and celebrity culture which leads a group of Californian teenagers to break into the homes of celebrities, in order to steal their clothes and accessories. This article examines Coppola's critique of celebrity culture and consumerism through the movie itself, and through her casting of British actor Emma Watson and the ways in which she mobilizes the celebrity persona of Watson in order to further her critique. The Bling Ring will be compared to Coppola's work to understand how it contributes to her postfeminist image. Coppola's position as a celebrity figure through her association with her father, through her own work and through her participation within the worlds of fashion and music are also explored, in order to problematize the position from which she critiques celebrity culture.

Nordic Noir dramas have dominated the landscape of contemporary television, transforming the crime genre beyond the traditional English-speaking productions whilst forging a path for female protagonists to dominate. This article seeks to analyse the relationship between the narrative, fashion and interiors through the main female protagonist Saga Noren (Sofia Helin) in Bron/Broen (The Bridge) (2011–18), the Danish-Swedish production of the Nordic Noir drama.