Film And Fashion Essay

Charles Eckert famously disputed that “Hollywood arguably gave modern consumerism is distinctive bent” (Eckert, C 2009. p.357). Film and fashion are both children of modernity, thus they share a lot on common and have a mutually beneficial relationship. “Inscribed since the very beginnings of film”, says Eckert, “are innumerable opportunities for the product and brand name tie In’s… films function as living display windows for all that they contain; windows that are occupied by marvelous mannequins and swathed in fetish inducing ambience…”(Eckert, C 2009. P.103). Film enables a brilliantly subtle form of product placement that does not rely entirely on obvious shots of branded products (Financial Times, Cited in Osmond, S. 2014). Yet conversely, fashion enables film to portray subtleties of meaning and context through costume, as nothing is outside the system of fashion and meaning. “The creation of clothes as spectacle is the prerogative of the couturier; the overriding ethos of the costume designer is conversely to fabricate clothes which serve the purposes of the narrative” (Bruzzi 1997, p.3). An example of successful synergy between film and fashion consumption is the 1974 and 2013 ‘The Great Gatsby’ films.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ was written and set in the 1920s. This was a time of unparalleled wealth and is sometimes nostalgically remembered as a sort of decade long party which is exemplified by a rejection of the traditional social norms and an embracing of cultural freedom; epitomized by jazz music, the Charleston and illegal drinking. Fitzgerald's fictional character Jay Gatsby from his iconic novel remains a model figure of the age. The novel follows Jay Gatsby, “a man who orders his life around o...

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... TV and pop music” (Lutyens, D 2009). Post Vietnam America couldn’t get enough of the glitzy 20’s, even pop band Abba got involved with the trend; the two female singers wore slinky flapper dressers and sequined headbands in their film clip for ‘Money, Money, Money’.

By the 1970s, people were buying and wearing authentic clothing from the 1920s through the 1940s, instead of the 1970s modernised versions. And while wearing old clothes was still an idea many did not quite understand, vintage caught on and has continued to grow in popularity ever since. There have been many theories as to why the 1970s were so nostalgic everything from a longing for a simpler past to dissatisfaction with the present to a fear of the future. (Bramlett, L 2006).

It is evident through the study of the 1974 and 2013 ‘Great Gatsby’ screen adaptations just how influential film can be on the