The Fashion Show Goes Live: Exclusive and Mediatized Performance

Description

Beginning with Alexander McQueen's infamous attempt to live stream his 2009 Plato's Atlantis collection on SHOWStudio, this book traces how digital and social media have disrupted social structures within the field of fashion, and transformed the way it is communicated and consumed. Analysing key case studies, from Chanel, Givenchy, Yeezy and Opening Cermony to interactive social media and 'see now buy now' campaigns from Burberry, Topshop and Tommy Hilfiger, The Fashion Show Goes Live analyses the mode and impact of fashion shows' transmission. Through the rise of experimental film, fashion shows tailored for media transmission and the use of live streaming and social media to render shows 'immediate' to consumers, fashion weeks - and fashion shows - have become not just trend barometers but material sites that demonstrate media's effects. Rebecca Halliday evaluates the performativity of consumer relations to such live streams and other mediatized content. In linking these relations back to fashion show footage, she demonstrates that although intended to communicate fashion to mass audiences, these practices also promote it as exclusive and aspirational. Despite democratized, international access to content, the shows themselves remain elite events; kindling new forms of consumer attention, interaction, immaterial labour and desire. Through the microcosm of the fashion show, The Fashion Show Goes Live asks broader socio-political questions about the effects of the fashion industry's mediatization, challenging the notion that new technology has fostered inclusivity.

Rebecca Halliday is Assistant Professor in the School of Professional Communication at Ryerson University, Canada. Her research in fashion and digital media has been published in peer-reviewed journals and edited collections.

In The Fashion Show Goes Live, Rebecca Halliday convincingly interrogates the nature of the fashion show in the age of social media. Drawing on the concept of mediatization, she traces the different forces at play in the making of shows, paying attention to the dynamics of bodies, artefacts and technologies. The book is a pleasure to read, and is a vibrant and engaging contribution to studies of the fashion media and fashion communication. * Agnes Rocamora, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK * Halliday's brilliant analysis of the fashion show is a theoretically bracing, methods spanning, highly readable analysis that gorgeously fills a gap in fashion, media, and cultural studies' scholarship. A must-read, incisive guide to negotiating fashion's multifaceted rendering by today's media worlds. * Elizabeth Wissinger, City University of New York, USA * This is a timely and significant contribution to the analysis of fashion shows. Halliday's comprehensive analysis, and beautifully written account, covers the many aspects and functions of the fashion show, providing scholars and students with a definitive account of the continued importance of such events within the field of fashion. An essential read that belongs on all fashion reading lists. * Joanne Entwistle, King's College London, UK * Rebecca Halliday's contribution offers a comprehensive and insightful view on the origin, evolution and role of fashion shows within the cultural industry of fashion. Key issues such as mediatization and the impact of Covid-19 are also discussed. This is definitely a must-have book for fashion scholars. * Marco Pedroni, University of Ferrara, Italy *