Subject Librarian
Lucinda M. Hall
Contact:
Evans Map Room, Baker-Berry Library
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 646-0962
Website Skype Contact: d1128r8@kiewit.dartmouth.edu
Course description
This course examines the interrelations between film, costuming, and fashion cultures. We will look at theories of fashion, “the fashioned body,” and costume, reading them against trends in fashionable dress, body image, and fashion subcultures, as well as against histories of film costuming and spectacle. Screenings include media texts from different historical periods that reflect or have influenced fashion of their time and/or represent interesting challenges for costuming.
[Source: ORC/Catalog, 07/31/2023]; Dist:ART; WCult:W
Defining costume (fashion)
COSTUME
The clothing or props worn by actors; an important element of production design and mise-en-scene in virtually all films. In film studies, early writing on costume (often in glossy large-format books) tended to focus on the role of individuals such as Hollywood studio-era costume designer, Edith Head, or French costume designer Rosine Delamare. More recent critical work has examined the role of costume in the cinema in a range of different ways, including: as a distinct feature of the iconography of genre films such as the western, gangster film, and, of course, the costume drama; as a discrete element of film style, especially in the role costume plays in the way an actor constructs a character and as a central feature of the cultivation of star personae (see stars). Costume is also considered an essential element of narrative where, it is claimed, it remains largely subservient to the demands of verisimilitude, continuity, and coherence of plot. However, costume is a site of excess and spectacle (especially in melodrama and the musical) and can therefore be disruptive of classical film style (see classical Hollywood cinema). ...
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Costume. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 31 Jul. 2023
In the Library's collections
You can use one of these subject headings to start your research in the library's online catalog:
- costume design AND motion picturesThis is a subject, keyword search to narrow the search to costume design in cinema.
Introductory reading(s)
Clothes make the character: the role of wardrobe in early motion pictures by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781476681856"Clothes make the man" (or woman). This is especially true in early Hollywood silent films where a character's appearance could show an immense number of different things about them. For example, Theda Bara's role in A Fool There Was (1915) was known for her revealing clothing, seductive appearance, and being the first "Vamp." Wardrobe and costume design played a larger role in silent films than in modern movies. The character's clothes told the audience who they were and what their role was in the movie. In this in-depth analysis, the author provides examples and explanations about noteworthy characters who used their appearance to further their fame.
The complete costume dictionary by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780810840041While there are costume and fashion dictionaries tied to specific countries or periods, none have been comprehensive. In The Complete Costume Dictionary, Elizabeth Lewandowski has collected from a variety of sources--including costume history texts, journal articles, historical publications, autobiographies, biographies, foreign language dictionaries, and contemporary publications--to create a resource that spans the globe, from the earliest record of fashion to the 21st century. Including more than 20,000 fashion and costume terms, this volume also features more than 300 illustrations. ...
Costume design by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C56 L35 2012ISBN: 9780240818665Actors often say they only really assume the identity of their character when they have donned the costumes painstakingly created for them by the costume designer. In this volume of the FilmCraft series of books, sixteen of the world's leading costume designers come together to share their inspiration and knowledge with the reader. They provide insights into the challenges of envisioning a character, working with budgets, and collaborating with production designers, actors and directors. ...
Creating the illusion: a fashionable history of Hollywood costume designers by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C56 J67 2015ISBN: 9780762456611Marilyn Monroe made history by standing over a subway grating in a white pleated halter dress designed by William Travilla. Hubert de Givenchy immortalized the Little Black Dress with a single opening scene in Breakfast at Tiffany's . A red nylon jacket signaled to audiences that James Dean was a Rebel Without a Cause. For more than a century, costume designers have left indelible impressions on moviegoers' minds. Yet until now, so little has been known about the designers themselves and their work to complement and enrich stories through fashion. Creating the Illusion presents the history of fashion on film, showcasing not only classic moments from film favourites, but a host of untold stories about the creative talent working behind the scenes to dress the stars from the silent era to the present day. ...
Fashion A to Z: an illustrated dictionary by Call Number: Sherman Art Library TT 503 .N493 2009ISBN: 9781856695732Aimed at fashion and textile students, Fashion A to Z fills a gap in the market for an affordable, accessible,and up-to-date guide to fashion terminology. Bringing together all the key words commonly used in colleges and in industry, this fashion reference book is beautifully illustrated with diagrams and drawings of fashion details and costumes that bring the subject to life. ...
Fashion in film by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C56 F385 2011ISBN: 9780253356130The vital synergy between dress and the cinema has been in place since the advent of film. Broaching topics such as vampires, noir, and Marie Antoinette looks, Fashion in Film uncovers the way in which the alliance of these two powerhouse industries use myriad cultural influences -- shaping narrative, national identity, and all points in between. ...
Selected book title(s)
Dressing dangerously: dysfunctional fashion in film by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C56 F35 2013ISBN: 9780300184389When Marlene Dietrich makes her entrance in Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright, the Dior dress she wears immediately draws the viewer's attention--not because of its designer label, but owing to the dramatic blood stains ruining its stylish surface. Fashion in film goes far beyond glamorous costumes on glamorous stars, as Jonathan Faiers proves in Dressing Dangerously, a pioneering study of the "cinematic negative wardrobe" revealed in mainstream movies. The book emphasizes how problematic, even shocking depictions of dress, until now largely overlooked, play pivotal roles in shaping film narrative. ...
Film, fashion, and the 1960s by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780253025593A fascinating look at one of the most experimental, volatile, and influential decades, Film, Fashion, and the 1960s, examines the numerous ways in which film and fashion intersected and affected identity expression during the era. ...
Fashion in fiction: text and clothing in literature, film, and television by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 56 .C684 F38 2009ISBN: 9781847883575Fashion in Fiction examines the ways in which dress 'performs' in a wide range of contemporary and historical literary texts. Essays by North American, European and Australian scholars explore the function of clothing within fictional narratives, including those of film, television and advertising. The book provides a groundbreaking examination of the interconnected worlds of fashion and words, providing perspectives from socio-cultural, historical and theoretical readings of fashion and text-based communication. ...
Film and fashion amidst the ruins of Berlin: from Nazism to the Cold War by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C56 G37 2018ISBN: 9781571135766This book steers attention toward two key aspects of German culture - film and fashion - that shared similar trajectories and multiple connections, looking at them not only in the immediate postwar years but as far back as 1939. They formed spectacular sites of the postwar recovery processes in both East and West Germany. Viewed against the background of the abundant fashion discourses in the Berlin-based press, the films discussed include classics such as The Murderers Are among Us, Street Acquaintance, and Destinies of Women as well as neglected works such as And the Heavens above Us, Martina, Modell Bianka, and Ingrid: Die Geschichte eines Fotomodells. ...
Hollywood catwalk: exploring costume and transformation in American film by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C56 M33 2010ISBN: 9781848850408The High School outsider takes off her glasses, puts on a dress, and becomes the Prom Queen; the dowdy woman has her hair done, buys some chic new clothes and starts to attract the men. Cinderella and Pygmalion stories still provide inspiration for the plots of Hollywood romantic comedies, dramas, and even action films. Their perennial use prompts a series of questions: is, for example, male agency necessary to effect the transformation, or can the woman change herself? Can she ever change him? Most pressingly, what do these images of change and transformation, of improvement and transcendence tell us, the viewers, about what we should be doing? ...
Hollywood dressed & undressed: a century of cinema style by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C56 S37 1998ISBN: 9780847821105A look at the most memorable costumes in film history offers lively anecdotes and facts about Hollywood's stars, their trademark outfits, and the designers who made them, illustrated with 240 photographs from classic and contemporary motion pictures.
In VOGUE: the illustrated history of the world's most famous fashion magazine by Call Number: Baker-Berry Oversize TT 500 .A1 A54 2006ISBN: 9780847828647A lavishly illustrated history of the international fashion magazine showcases hundreds of covers and archival interiors from past editions while tracing its history, development, and influence, in a volume that discusses each stage of the magazine's production, from runways and editorial meetings to the production process.
Undressing cinema: clothing and identity in the movies by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C56 B78 1997ISBN: 9780415139571From Audrey Hepburn in Givenchy, to sharp-suited gangsters in Tarantino movies, clothing is central to film. In Undressing Cinema, Stella Bruzzi explores how far from being mere accessories, clothes are key elements in the construction of cinematic identities, and she proposes new and dynamic links between cinema, fashion and costume history, gender, queer theory and psychoanalysis. ...
The United States of fashion: a new atlas of American style by Call Number: Baker-Berry TT 504.4 .U55 2021ISBN: 9780847871032In their February 2021 issue, VOGUE launched The United States of Fashion, a project that shined a spotlight on the creativity and craft flourishing throughout the country. Exploring the innovation and entrepreneurialism that defines American fashion, VOGUE goes coast to coast from Detroit to El Paso to Indianapolis to Nashville, where the most exciting new designers are creating and designing locally. ...
Other library resource(s)
Costume and fashion from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286Costume is an essential element of the overall design of a film. Working within the director’s vision for the film, costume designers try to replicate clothing by investigating the dress and fashion of the time, or historical period, and essentially dress actors to look (or more fully become) their characters. A costume can be tailor made, purchased, or rented. In the earliest days of cinema, actors wore their own clothing, but this would change with the advent of feature-length narrative films. The costume designer soon became an important part of the production design team. ...
VOGUE magazine archive by Call Number: Electronic resourceVOGUE is an American monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine that covers haute couture fashion, beauty, culture, living, the runway and other topics.
JSTOR image searchCall Number: Electronic resourceYou can use this searchable database of more than 300,000 images to find examples of fashion used in films and those designers who worked in films.
Videofashion by Call Number: Streaming videoVideofashion is the world’s premiere fashion video producer and supplier. Videofashion’s archive is a veritable time capsule documenting the art and industry of fashion from 1976 to present day.- Videofashion collections by Call Number: Streaming videoVideofashion Collections presented by Videofashion Daily is a front row seat to the creative genius of New York, London, Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks that set the fashion trends for Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter. Videofashion Collections delivers comprehensive and rapid coverage of each major fashion show, complete with extensive and unparalleled VIP access to, and interviews with: designers, fashion editors, makeup artists, models, fashion luminaries, and celebrities. ...
Selected film(s) for Film and Fashion
Fashion in film by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #18554Fashion and film definitely go hand in hand because a movie's costume design influences the way audiences perceive actors or the characters they are portraying. Perfect or people who don't know much about clothes or don't really care who is wearing what on the red carpet, this documentary successfully summarizes the history of motion picture costume design. It emphasizes the fact that costume designers are intimately involved in film production, because what stars wear on screen often kick-starts new fashion trends. ...
Finding scholarly articles & journal title(s)
You can find scholarly literature for fashion in film studies in a variety of journals. However, if you want to do targeted searching, you can use a subject specific database such as Film & Television Literature Index. We have one journal which looks exclusively at fashion and film. It is listed below. You can also use the search box at the top of the page.
Film, fashion & consumptionCall Number: Electronic journalFilm, Fashion & Consumption is a peer-reviewed journal designed to provide an arena for the discussion of research, methods and practice within and between the fields of film, fashion, design, history, art history and heritage. ... The journal aims to unite and enlarge a community of researchers and practitioners in film, fashion, consumption and related fields, whilst also introducing a wider audience to new work, particularly to interdisciplinary research which looks at the intersections between film, fashion and consumption.
Art full text by Call Number: Electronic resourceOffers full text plus abstracts of articles published from 1984-present. Coverage includes all aspects of the Visual Arts & Art History. Indexing includes images and advertisments.
Film & television literature indexCall Number: Electronic resourceThis index covers over 300 journal and magazine titles for film and television reviews, scholarly and critical analysis of cinema and television, and articles of popular interest about film and television. About half the journals and magazines are film periodicals and the other half cover film and television with some regularity. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
Screen studies collection by Call Number: Electronic resourceA comprehensive survey of current publications related to film scholarship alongside detailed filmographies. This collection includes the FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database and the detailed and complementary filmographies created by the American Film Institute (AFI) and the British Film Institute.
Web of science citation databases by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
Internet resource(s)
- Edith Head Papers, 1934-1965
The Edith Head Collection contains the papers of one of Hollywood's leading costume designers. The collection features some of her personal papers, but is largely comprised of costume sketches completed by Head and her teams of designers. Watercolor, pen and ink, and pencil sketches, many bearing notes on fabric and costs, comprise the majority of the collection. ... - Fashion in FilmFrom the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), Vanity Fair and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, this exhibit celebrates fashion, design, and style on the silver screen.
- Irene Scrapbooks
This digital collection contains selected Irene scrapbooks, which include clippings, correspondence, photographs and other ephemera. Irene, born Irene Lentz and also known as Irene Gibbons, was an American costume designer active from the 1930s to early 1960s. She received Oscar nominations for costume design for B.F.'s Daughter (1948) and Midnight Lace (1960). [Margaret Herrick Library Digital Collections]
Citing and Tracking Your Bibliographic References
Use this guide to help you learn how to correctly cite and keep track of the references you find for your research.
Keeping up with Film Studies journal literature
Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Film Studies? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's, you can download and read the articles you want from the journals for which we have subscriptions.
You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.
Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's also available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.