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BFI Filmstore  >   Books & Magazines >  Film Theory & Analysis  > Fashioning the Nation: Costume and Identity in British Cinema
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Fashioning the Nation: Costume and Identity in British Cinema

31 Mar 1996
170 pages
Published/distributed by BFI Publishing
ISBN/EAN: 9780851705743
Paperback
Price: £11.99
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Fashioning the Nation: Costume and Identity in British Cinema 
Cook, Pam
When Christian Dior launched his extravangantly feminine New Look in 1947, Gainsborough Studios had already begun to refashion British sexuality, Elizabeth Haffenden's sensual designs for the period costume romances produced by the studio between 1943 and 1950 projected a vision of femininity as both powerful and erotic. Just as the New Look sandalised those who preferred the masculinised androgyny of wartime utility clothing, so Gainsborough's spectacular display of the feminine outraged critics and official agencies dedicated to constructing a national cinema in terms of quality, aesthetic restraint and authenticity.

This book sets out to reveal the cultural implications of the scandal, challenging the consensus which, even today, tends to define British cinema in narrow parochial terms. The heroes and heroines of Gainsborough's period romances journeyed abroad in search of new hybird identities. Pam Cook demonstrates how costume in these films contributed to the process of redefining national identity by inviting audiences to imagine themselves as 'European'. Such adventures in masquerade, she claims, provide a model for cinema spectatorship that is fluid and mobile, crossing boundaries of nation, class and gender.

Pam Cook lectures in film at the University of East Anglia. She is editor of 'The Cinema Book' and co-editor of 'Women and Film: A Sight and Sound Reader'.
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