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Fashionating images – Where EUscreen meets Europeana Fashion?

Adriano D’Aloia, Marie-Aude Baronian and Marco Pedroni edited a special issue of Comunicazioni Sociali, Journal of Media, Performing Arts and Cultural Studies (January-April 2017), about audiovisual media studies and fashion. The issue, called ‘Fashionating images’, tries to explore “the intersection and cross fertilization between fashion studies and media studies.” We give you a short overview of their introduction.

They notice a strong mutual relationship between fashion and the moving image. Some similarities are stated: both are creative and performance industries aiming to offer distraction and enchantment, their respective modes of expression and circulation and their interest in movement stimulating visual pleasure.

Looking at the dialogue between fashion and cinema they argue one of the places to start is the wide range of films about fashion, think of Prêt-à-Porter (Robert Altman) or The Devil Wears Prada (David Frankel), documentaries of the fashion world and biopic feature films about designers like Coco Avant Chanel. Or ‘fashion films’, films by famous directors commissioned by fashion houses, like David Lynch for Dior and Wes Anderson for Prada. Not to mention the relationship between actors and fashion designers.

They write about the presence of fashion in the media landscape and the presence of the media in the world of fashion. Where in the fashion domain audiovisual characteristics are used increasingly for advertising strategies: Companies produce new media products using narrative audiovisual formats focussing on a story instead of the product, addressing the audience instead of the customer. Where in television world, they point out the fashion-based genres, like the make over. Besides that, ‘influencers’ are producing a lot of fashion imaginary and are fashion brand ambassadors.

Also, the mediatization affects the relationship between the fashion and audiovisual world. Fashion consumers experience the world through media and media are the ”tools to mediate the way we learn, experience, discuss and consume fashion.” Fashion blogs, vlogs, films and TV series dip into the pool of entertainment, information and commercial communication. As D’Aloia, Baronian and Pedroni say they are “contributing to a process of mediatization of fashion as both a consumption object and an entertainment experience.”

Read Adriano D’Aloia’s, Marie-Aude Baronian’s and Marco Pedroni’s introduction
Fashionating Images – Audiovisual Media Studies Meet Fashion’ to this fashionating subject.

If you like to read more of this special issue, visit Comunicazioni Sociali’s website.

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