This article discusses the language of screen costume and representations of masculinity via a close reading of the successful and critically acclaimed 2019 HBO drama series Euphoria. It considers three key characters, Rue, Nate and Fez, and how each of these characters makes visible certain cultural and sociological ideologies which concern and influence current debates around diverse masculinities, social class and creative subjectivity. It is argued that the production team behind Euphoria employs creative acts of appropriation to articulate and explore the diversity of masculine lived experience within the restricted language of television. This is evidenced through the character of ‘Rue’, who sits in opposition to all other characters identified as feminine or transitioning in both narrative context and, significantly, costuming. ‘Rue’ is therefore explored as the masculine articulation and/or manifestation of the creator – Sam Levinson’s subjective position. ‘Nate’ is explored in relation to the currency of damaging stereotypes of dominant masculinity within television drama and how misconceptions around gendered identities work to reinforce, perpetuate and normalize problematic behavioural traits. It is suggested that we need to expand understandings of ordinary clothing or costume as a language, how meaning is articulated within this language and how the materiality of ordinary or unexceptional dress evolves and mutates and becomes a set of unquestioned yet dangerous symbols or significations. ‘Fez’ will be examined in response to Henri Lefebvre’s 1960s ideas around moments of contestation, alongside a discussion of the role that the body and clothing play in marking out or positioning ideas around the intersection of social class and masculinity which can be applied to differing, global manifestations of social hierarchies. Readings of ‘Fez’ highlight middle-class insecurities around subjective value and distance from working-class experience and are played out through the character’s costuming.
{"title":"HBO’s Euphoria and the complexities at play in the costumed representations of contemporary masculinities","authors":"L. Betts","doi":"10.1386/ffc_00047_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ffc_00047_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses the language of screen costume and representations of masculinity via a close reading of the successful and critically acclaimed 2019 HBO drama series Euphoria. It considers three key characters, Rue, Nate and Fez, and how each of these characters makes visible certain cultural and sociological ideologies which concern and influence current debates around diverse masculinities, social class and creative subjectivity. It is argued that the production team behind Euphoria employs creative acts of appropriation to articulate and explore the diversity of masculine lived experience within the restricted language of television. This is evidenced through the character of ‘Rue’, who sits in opposition to all other characters identified as feminine or transitioning in both narrative context and, significantly, costuming. ‘Rue’ is therefore explored as the masculine articulation and/or manifestation of the creator – Sam Levinson’s subjective position. ‘Nate’ is explored in relation to the currency of damaging stereotypes of dominant masculinity within television drama and how misconceptions around gendered identities work to reinforce, perpetuate and normalize problematic behavioural traits. It is suggested that we need to expand understandings of ordinary clothing or costume as a language, how meaning is articulated within this language and how the materiality of ordinary or unexceptional dress evolves and mutates and becomes a set of unquestioned yet dangerous symbols or significations. ‘Fez’ will be examined in response to Henri Lefebvre’s 1960s ideas around moments of contestation, alongside a discussion of the role that the body and clothing play in marking out or positioning ideas around the intersection of social class and masculinity which can be applied to differing, global manifestations of social hierarchies. Readings of ‘Fez’ highlight middle-class insecurities around subjective value and distance from working-class experience and are played out through the character’s costuming.","PeriodicalId":41071,"journal":{"name":"Film Fashion & Consumption","volume":"68 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89086307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines the role popular media have played in disseminating images of mafia fashion. Through the representation of criminal apparel on-screen spectators are encouraged to identify with the societal transgressions of the mafioso, engendering an abiding fascination with mafia style. By looking at Italian and Italian American productions from early silent cinema through contemporary television crime series, menswear becomes a primary means of harnessing spectatorial desire and identification that embraces enduring associations that link southern Italian identity with criminality and style. In the analysis of these texts it becomes apparent how costuming communicates a series of semiotic properties that reflect the complex interplay of masculine identities in an environment based on violence, power and appearance.
{"title":"‘Now you are one of us’: Mafia fashion on-screen","authors":"Rebecca Bauman","doi":"10.1386/ffc_00045_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ffc_00045_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the role popular media have played in disseminating images of mafia fashion. Through the representation of criminal apparel on-screen spectators are encouraged to identify with the societal transgressions of the mafioso, engendering an abiding fascination with mafia style. By looking at Italian and Italian American productions from early silent cinema through contemporary television crime series, menswear becomes a primary means of harnessing spectatorial desire and identification that embraces enduring associations that link southern Italian identity with criminality and style. In the analysis of these texts it becomes apparent how costuming communicates a series of semiotic properties that reflect the complex interplay of masculine identities in an environment based on violence, power and appearance.","PeriodicalId":41071,"journal":{"name":"Film Fashion & Consumption","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72767073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article, we examine period fashions in character costumes in the two Pixar/Disney computer-animated films, The Incredibles and Incredibles 2. These films have a strong mid-century modern design influence interwoven into the films’ narratives and aesthetic designs. The films have previously raised interest in fashion studies, due to their superhero concept. However, an analysis of the characters’ everyday dress is also valuable for understanding the influence of fashion and pop culture references on contemporary animated film costuming and how those elements embed within the technological development of digital characters’ clothing. We employ historical and visual analysis to highlight the integration of design elements of period-appropriate fashions into character costumes. Additionally, we examine the relationship between animation software development and the films’ design aesthetics to inspect how technological advancements support the behaviour of cloth, narrative progression and characters’ personal emotional arcs by reviewing industry articles as well as animator and designer interviews from the making of the films. This is a unique case study that explores the influences and inspiration of period-specific fashion in constructing costumes for computer-animated films, which are ostensibly set in an environment also inspired by the period and specific cultural zeitgeist.
{"title":"‘Who wants the pressure of being super all the time?’: Mid-century modern fashions and their influence on costume development in The Incredibles and Incredibles 2","authors":"Maarit Kalmakurki, Marley Healy","doi":"10.1386/ffc_00041_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ffc_00041_1","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we examine period fashions in character costumes in the two Pixar/Disney computer-animated films, The Incredibles and Incredibles 2. These films have a strong mid-century modern design influence interwoven into the films’ narratives and aesthetic\u0000 designs. The films have previously raised interest in fashion studies, due to their superhero concept. However, an analysis of the characters’ everyday dress is also valuable for understanding the influence of fashion and pop culture references on contemporary animated film costuming\u0000 and how those elements embed within the technological development of digital characters’ clothing. We employ historical and visual analysis to highlight the integration of design elements of period-appropriate fashions into character costumes. Additionally, we examine the relationship\u0000 between animation software development and the films’ design aesthetics to inspect how technological advancements support the behaviour of cloth, narrative progression and characters’ personal emotional arcs by reviewing industry articles as well as animator and designer interviews\u0000 from the making of the films. This is a unique case study that explores the influences and inspiration of period-specific fashion in constructing costumes for computer-animated films, which are ostensibly set in an environment also inspired by the period and specific cultural zeitgeist.","PeriodicalId":41071,"journal":{"name":"Film Fashion & Consumption","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85678928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article discusses the visual representation of Esther Denham, one of the female characters in Sanditon (2019, ITV, PBS), from the point of view of her displayed sartorial narrative, in relation to postmodern gender politics and female subjectivity. It argues that only a post-heritage adaptation of Jane Austen’s unfinished book manuscript would allow for such a narratological transposition of one of its characters into an outright Goth-inflected screen persona, characterized by outright dissent, interrogation, subversion, self-consciousness and ambiguity. The article foregrounds the crucial importance of Esther Denham’s embodied dress practice to get this message across by pointing out its necessarily diachronic screen costume rationale based on clothing items that are historically correct but which also resonate iconicity in our own time.
{"title":"Embodying female dissent in Sanditon: The case of Esther Denham’s two bodies","authors":"Boel Ulfsdotter","doi":"10.1386/ffc_00040_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ffc_00040_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses the visual representation of Esther Denham, one of the female characters in Sanditon (2019, ITV, PBS), from the point of view of her displayed sartorial narrative, in relation to postmodern gender politics and female subjectivity. It argues that only a\u0000 post-heritage adaptation of Jane Austen’s unfinished book manuscript would allow for such a narratological transposition of one of its characters into an outright Goth-inflected screen persona, characterized by outright dissent, interrogation, subversion, self-consciousness and ambiguity.\u0000 The article foregrounds the crucial importance of Esther Denham’s embodied dress practice to get this message across by pointing out its necessarily diachronic screen costume rationale based on clothing items that are historically correct but which also resonate iconicity in our own\u0000 time.","PeriodicalId":41071,"journal":{"name":"Film Fashion & Consumption","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87971367","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The film Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu, 2012, RO, FR, BEL) is set in a convent struggling with major financial problems in post-transitional Romania, where a deadly exorcism is being performed. The story is based on a true incident. Accordingly, the cinematic language operates through the means of realism. Nevertheless, at the level of the images, art historical traditions, contemporary design tendencies and current fashion trends are drawn upon to give the monastery a simple and timeless beauty. This transforms the monastery into a place of longing for the cinema audience. The film costume plays a special role in this. It contributes in a particular way to identification processes, invokes the sacred and connects with the upmarket consumer culture of contemporary lifestyle-movements.
电影Beyond The Hills (christian Mungiu, 2012, RO, FR, BEL)是在罗马尼亚过渡后的一个修道院与主要的财政问题作斗争,那里正在进行致命的驱魔。这个故事是根据一个真实事件改编的。因此,电影语言是通过现实主义的手段来运作的。然而,在图像的层面上,艺术历史传统、当代设计趋势和当前的时尚趋势被借鉴,赋予修道院一种简单而永恒的美。这使修道院成为电影观众向往的地方。电影服装在这方面起着特殊的作用。它以一种特殊的方式促进了识别过程,唤起了神圣,并与当代生活方式运动的高端消费文化联系在一起。
{"title":"Meeting the expectations of western consumers on the Romanian film Beyond the Hills by Cristian Mungiu","authors":"Ulrike Ettinger, B. Schrödl","doi":"10.1386/ffc_00039_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ffc_00039_1","url":null,"abstract":"The film Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu, 2012, RO, FR, BEL) is set in a convent struggling with major financial problems in post-transitional Romania, where a deadly exorcism is being performed. The story is based on a true incident. Accordingly, the cinematic language operates\u0000 through the means of realism. Nevertheless, at the level of the images, art historical traditions, contemporary design tendencies and current fashion trends are drawn upon to give the monastery a simple and timeless beauty. This transforms the monastery into a place of longing for the cinema\u0000 audience. The film costume plays a special role in this. It contributes in a particular way to identification processes, invokes the sacred and connects with the upmarket consumer culture of contemporary lifestyle-movements.","PeriodicalId":41071,"journal":{"name":"Film Fashion & Consumption","volume":"54 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72644951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
An analysis of the documentaries made for the magazine programme Imágenes in the historical archives of the NO-DO newsreels, used by the Franco dictatorship as an instrument of propaganda, can shed light on some important aspects of Spain’s recent history. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how these documentaries, which exhibit certain formal features suited to the spectator of their time, make fashion an effective instrument for conveying ideas of gender differences and female servility, self-denial and submission in a patriarchal regime.
{"title":"Female fashion in the Franco era and the Imágenes magazine programme","authors":"Ana Melendo","doi":"10.1386/ffc_00038_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ffc_00038_1","url":null,"abstract":"An analysis of the documentaries made for the magazine programme Imágenes in the historical archives of the NO-DO newsreels, used by the Franco dictatorship as an instrument of propaganda, can shed light on some important aspects of Spain’s recent history. The aim\u0000 of this article is to demonstrate how these documentaries, which exhibit certain formal features suited to the spectator of their time, make fashion an effective instrument for conveying ideas of gender differences and female servility, self-denial and submission in a patriarchal regime.","PeriodicalId":41071,"journal":{"name":"Film Fashion & Consumption","volume":"1 4-5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72493569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Review of: Worn: Footwear, Attachment and the Affects of Wear, Ellen Sampson (2020) London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 250 pp., ISBN 978-1-35008-718-7, h/bk, £70
{"title":"Worn: Footwear, Attachment and the Affects of Wear, Ellen Sampson (2020)","authors":"Clare M. Wilkinson","doi":"10.1386/ffc_00035_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ffc_00035_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: Worn: Footwear, Attachment and the Affects of Wear, Ellen Sampson (2020)\u0000London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 250 pp.,\u0000ISBN 978-1-35008-718-7, h/bk, £70","PeriodicalId":41071,"journal":{"name":"Film Fashion & Consumption","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66706586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article reviews my academic research on costume design in film, and introduces a number of my short stories on dress and adornment. The article argues that research and creative work are more closely allied than is often thought, and that they can share approaches, methods and discourses.
{"title":"From research to practice: The talking frocks1","authors":"Sue Harper","doi":"10.1386/ffc_00033_7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ffc_00033_7","url":null,"abstract":"This article reviews my academic research on costume design in film, and introduces a number of my short stories on dress and adornment. The article argues that research and creative work are more closely allied than is often thought, and that they can share approaches, methods and discourses.","PeriodicalId":41071,"journal":{"name":"Film Fashion & Consumption","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41975574","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Through the examination of two subcultural fashion trends spawned on the micro-vlogging platform TikTok, this article will consider how the mythic functions of the archetypal ‘clown’ and ‘rebel’ have been redeployed by Generation Z TikTok users in an attempt to push back against prevailing beauty ideals. These short-form film performances reveal the specular world-view of a demographic that is as used to being watched as it is watching others. The bulk of TikTok’s content revolves around viral trends; dances that spread by mimesis, hashtags that agglomerate universally relatable human experiences and the usual aspirational travel and fashion material. Those that break away from this mould find themselves in algorithmically led micro-communities (self-termed ‘core aesthetics’), which form satellites around more popular content forms and occasionally gain virality themselves for their freakishness or downright surrealism. The ‘clown’ and ‘rebel’ are still seen as liminal characters in the social space – affording them certain freedoms from the visual dominance of celebrity culture but also requiring certain compromises; existing at the fringes is, by definition, to be excluded and ‘othered’.
{"title":"TikTok teens: Turbulent identities for turbulent times","authors":"L. Rogers","doi":"10.1386/ffc_00031_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ffc_00031_1","url":null,"abstract":"Through the examination of two subcultural fashion trends spawned on the micro-vlogging platform TikTok, this article will consider how the mythic functions of the archetypal ‘clown’ and ‘rebel’ have been redeployed by Generation Z TikTok users in an attempt to push back against prevailing beauty ideals. These short-form film performances reveal the specular world-view of a demographic that is as used to being watched as it is watching others. The bulk of TikTok’s content revolves around viral trends; dances that spread by mimesis, hashtags that agglomerate universally relatable human experiences and the usual aspirational travel and fashion material. Those that break away from this mould find themselves in algorithmically led micro-communities (self-termed ‘core aesthetics’), which form satellites around more popular content forms and occasionally gain virality themselves for their freakishness or downright surrealism. The ‘clown’ and ‘rebel’ are still seen as liminal characters in the social space – affording them certain freedoms from the visual dominance of celebrity culture but also requiring certain compromises; existing at the fringes is, by definition, to be excluded and ‘othered’.","PeriodicalId":41071,"journal":{"name":"Film Fashion & Consumption","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46537619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}