Fashion on Television provides a comprehensive critical examination of the intersection between fashion, television and celebrity culture. The book brings together theoretical approaches to the symbolic force of television and fashion-forward programming on a global scale.
Examining case studies such as Sex and the City, Gossip Girl, Ugly Betty and Mad Men, the book examines how TV has made style icons out of leading actresses and fashion-conscious consumers out of audiences. Using a varied methodology, including textual and contextual analysis, this study explores the cultural uses of onscreen fashion at the level of industry, text and intertext.
Fashion on Television is essential reading for those seeking to understand the cultural function of costume in a television context. Written accessibly with a multi-disciplinary approach, it will appeal to students and scholars from film and media, fashion and cultural studies, to sociology and women's studies.
Foreword by Pamela Church Gibson, Reader in Historical and Cultural Studies, London College of Fashion
1 Introduction: Approaching Fashion, Identity and Celebrity Culture
PART I: Production Cultures and Industry Explanations of Contemporary Fashion Television
2 The Place of Fashion Television in Cinema History: Industrial Discourse and Cultural Legitimacy
3 Costume Design, Practices and Production Cultures
PART II: Textual Approaches to Fashion, Costume and Narrative
4 Fashion, Costume and Narrative Tropes in TV Drama
5 Teen Fashion: Youth and Identity in Popular Teen Dramas
6 Fashioning the Past: Gender, Nostalgia and Excess in 'Quality' Period Drama
PART III: Conceptualising Fashion and Celebrity Culture
7 Fashioning Celebrity: Class, Tastemaking and Cultural Intermediaries
8 Consuming Masculinity: Gender, Fashion and TV Celebrity
9 Locating the Real: America Ferrera, Fashion, Ethnicity and Authenticity
10 Conclusion
Bibliography
Notes
Index
