Church Gibson, P. (2017). The fashion narratives of tom ford: Nocturnal animals and contemporary cinema. Fashion Theory, 21(6), 629-646.

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Kiyosha Teixeira

Church Gibson, P. (2017). The fashion narratives of tom ford: Nocturnal animals and contemporary cinema. Fashion Theory, 21(6), 629-646. 10.1080/1362704X.2017.1357367 Retrieved from http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/1362704x/v21i0006/629_tfnotfnaacc

The fashion industry is the most widespread commodity in the world. It is imperative to note the expansiveness of the fashion industry on a global scale to perhaps, fathom the importance of film, fashion and advertising coalescing in an inundated visual spectacle in such a way that Tom Ford does in his feature-length film Nocturnal Animals (Ford, 2016). The article in summation, written by Pamela Church Gibson does the due diligence of comparing the cinematic, commercial, and star power found within the fashion film with the film industry and its mechanisms. For the case of this article, fashion can be seen through two seemingly different scopes; as a form of art and as well as a commodifiable product. In either case, fashion is always seen as a status symbol, conveying the position in which someone may find themselves based on any given socio-economic standing. In its commercial form fashion functions to portray aspirations as creative directors, photographers and editors alike have created seamless integrations of lifestyle and dress together. While trying to create these aspirations, the creative minds are presented with a narrative to produce. Since fashion is layered in so much context and can be seen as a point of communication it is possible then for fashion and aesthetics such as décor and lifestyle to simultaneously bring forth a separate narrative to the general plot. Thus, the fashion in a film can be –at times – in disembodied from the plot. The article The Fashion Narratives of Tom Ford: Nocturnal Animals and Contemporary Cinema written by Pamela Church Gibson give an in-depth comparison of the way in which Tom Ford has gone from fashion designer to feature film director.

Nocturnal Animals (2016) is adapted from a book written by Austin Wright in 1993, Ford takes on this narrative first by changing the habitus of his main character, in which he changes her way of life and thus any detail following thereafter (character of husband, daughter, and villains) is in direct correspondence to the change Ford as made. This type of recrafting and rehousing offers a platform for fashion to be showcased. Nocturnal Animals had not featured any Tom Ford branded clothes, as this was not a fashion campaign but rather given the option to create this project with the feel of Tom Ford rather than a position to sell a product. The article states that Ford would use brands like Chanel or Bulgari whose eyewear and suits were similar enough to those of Tom Ford while still maintaining the prestige fashion has to offer. However, this was happening Ford was gaining reputable success during the Bond series in which he created many suits for the fictional international as well as capsule collections to sell. It is here we can see the two ways in which Ford is using fashion and it functions to ensure the narrative fidelity among his brand and the work he does outside of it. With a film series such as James Bond, the promotional value of a blockbuster includes quite obvious symbols of brand endorsements using jewelry, handbags and other accessories to become a part of the cinematic narrative and this made Tom Ford the brands accessible to customers.

Church Gibson provides the ways in which Tom Ford is able to create a feature film, in which she says the "radical reworking" (p. 632) of original narratives is a key feature of film. She goes on to say that there are times in which the adaptation of an original – in this case – novel can be shown differently than in a book because of the emphasis on which parts of the book lend themselves to the visual experience that is film. With fashion's "new degree" of visibility Church Gibson explains that Ford's films use of fashion functions in a way that is "disjunctive" in which the fashion of a particular character does disrupt the cinematic narrative. Using the examples of Blake Edward's Breakfast at Tiffany's of 1961 and Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby in 2016 clearly explain the ways in which fashion had been used commercially with the help of costume design, set production and the 3D gimmicks that allowed fashion display in the film. However, she further goes on to say in this form of film "the costume designer creates the overall effect, and the incursions of high fashion are contained; they are not allowed to destabilize the narratives" (p. 633).

Revisiting the fourth narrative of dress, décor, and lifestyle Ford uses these highly aesthetic factors to draw forth the extension of clothing in which contradicts the work of Stella Bruzzi in which she believes that "clothing exists as a discourse not wholly dependent on the structures of narrative and character signification" (p.635). Although this opinion is that of clothing and rather than fashion, Tom Ford's work in Nocturnal Animals gives fashion "new prominence" that disrupts the diegesis. "ideological fault lines" is a term Alan Sinfield had coined, in which he uses the term to describe "two incompatible intellectual traditions within a text, using as a metaphor the friction generated by two opposing tectonic plates moving in different directions" (p. 643). Church Gibson explains that these two opposing narratives (the film and the fashion) are in conflict and against the "viral-film aesthetic". With the push for fashion among society, Church Gibson suggests that fashion is omnipotent in that fashion [via the photo editorial] has created a mastery over the concept of mise-en-scene, however, the main goal of commercial fashion is the demand for the clothes to appear larger than life. Which she suggests the reworking of a more entertaining fashion show in a way that film hones in on the humility of an actress instead of the serene mannequin-ness of the runway model to further engage it's audience emotionally. With the format of feature film and cinema open to corruption it is possible that the online virality of fashion film (and in Tom Ford's work) can perhaps "spill over" to take up spaces traditionally reserved for a "main" feature rather than "the commercials that precede it" (p. 644) This dismantling of the fashion and film industries present a format of narrative that can be "bent out of shape" to lend itself to the world of high fashion.

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