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News Archive
04.06.2014
The film industry and the fashion industry have had a longstanding symbiotic
relation as regards fostering creativity and marketing, not least by means of stardom, product placement, and, in general, with
the fashion industry taking advantage of the spectacle of costume for the creation of ever more dramatic, expressive dress.
This conference seeks to bring together scholars and practitioners who have an interest in the creative industries and/or marketing, including fashion designers, costume directors and academics working in the fields of cinema, communication studies and business.
IRC-funded New Foundations Research Project 2014
Team: Armida de la Garza (PI), Pamela Church-Gibson, Sarah Street, Pavel Cortés, Ema Charleton, Sheila O’Donnell
The fashion industry is important from both an eco- nomic and a cultural perspective, commanding high revenues and forging individual and collective identi- ties.
Historically, it has been production, trade, policy, and crucially, the media, that have determined the rise and fall of fashion centres.Although Paris retains centre stage, after WWII American fashion was able to carve out a niche for itself and the film industry was fundamental for this to happen (Arnold, 2009). Cinema disseminated fashion through product placement strategies, and orchestrating large-scale tie-in contracts with designers and manufacturers. Hollywood also enlisted stars and celebrities in a most symbiotic relationship that continues today (Moseley, 2005).
And today not only are production, trade and policy changing once again, opening up an opportu- nity for Irish fashion to establish itself at the fore- front of this increasingly global industry, but the me- dia are also undergoing a major transition in which they are converging and becoming more accessible for production and participation, bypassing former gatekeepers in what has been called a ‘many to many’ dissemination of information pattern.
By way of example we can mention the whole new industry that has emerged in which users can purchase clothes designed for their avatars in narra- tive virtual environments that are strongly reminis- cent of films (Loschek 2009, 79), and in Asia forms of performance that involve dressing as film characters, a practice called Cosplay, is growing in popularity. (Gilligan 2012, 26-28) Screen Media can thus be en- listed to promote the fashion industry in new and highly effective ways. European designers have been pioneering these efforts—notably the late Alexander McQueen, who created whole collections after spe- cific films, constructed the fashion shows around narratives, and took advantage of the Internet to stream them live.As thriving forms of visual and ma- terial culture that allow for self as well as cultural expression, Film and Fashion are a fundamental part of youth, popular and diasporic cultures. The confer- ence and workshops that this grant funds all seek to gain contributions that, taken together, will map the changing relation between these two important creative industries and artistic fields at this crucial period of transition in modes of engagement and re- ception.