MA Diary - Fashion and Film

I have recently decided that I want to study the relationship between fashion film and the luxury industry and possibly create a project out of it for my portfolio. Why? I will demonstrate below:

Fashion’s collective obsession with film has been gaining some serious ground over recent seasons, with countless catwalk presentations introducing video elements or offering it as an alternative to the catwalk. Right now, the freestanding fashion film is enjoying (another) moment in the sun. Red carpet dressing for film premieres remains a huge industry, but it seems the fashion industry has shown that it has more serious designs on the film industry.

Two decades on from Lynch’s first advert for Calvin Klein’s Obsession fragrance in the late 1980s and following subsequent examples of the fashion-film-advertising trio like Baz Luhrmann for Chanel No 5 and Ridley Scott for Prada fragrance, the genre has evolved to incorporate two of the biggest developments to affect the luxury industry: social media and the globalisation of brands.

What’s most striking is that the commercial aspect of such films is diluted beyond recognition; branding consciously played down, if shown at all. Narrative is also kept to a minimum, partly due to the length of the film, and partly due to an approach that firmly places style over product placement. Instead it’s about summoning a “mood”, or, more accurately, a snapshot of a parallel universe created by that brand. These are used to demonstrate the brand’s sensitive, intellectual and cultural side – and can bring emotion and visual excitement to branding for the YouTube generation anywhere around the world.

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“The ‘fashion film’ was born out of the need to breathe life into the old static medium and set fashion in motion through the magic of cinema. The two disciplines have grown even closer thanks to the impact of the digital revolution, new commercial realities and a mutual fascination between fashion and film industry leaders,” says Diane Pernet, who is the mastermind behind A Shaded View on Fashion Film.