Tilda Swinton : performing fashion

Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperConference Paper

Abstract

![CDATA[In 2003, the Dutch avant-garde design duo, Viktor & Rolf, confirmed British actress Tilda Swinton’s status as a fashion icon and muse when they sent her down the catwalk for their Autumn-Winter collection, followed by an army of ‘Tilda’ clones. A decade later, Swinton collaborated with the curator Olivier Saillard on the performance piece The Impossible Wardrobe (2012). Once described as “a text on which ideologies are written” (Barbazon 1994), Swinton’s persona was forged in performance art and avant-garde cinema. This performativity resonates throughout her many fashion editorials, fashion films, fashion shows and campaigns – always, she is edgy, offbeat and cool. Swinton wears fashion deeply, but she is not a fashion model; and as a fashion icon, she does not always get it right. In this paper, I explore how Swinton’s embodiment of fashion’s values of metamorphosis, transformation and artifice work to expose the seams of fashion’s exacting aesthetic standards and argue that, in her performance of the fashionable ideal, Tilda Swinton is not modeling, but performing, fashion.]]
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPopular Culture Association of Australia, Asia, and New Zealand (PopCAANZ) 7th International Conference, Sydney University Village, Sydney, Australia, 29 June to 1 July 2016
PublisherPopular Culture Association of Australia, Asia, and New Zealand
Number of pages1
Publication statusPublished - 2016
EventPopular Culture Association of Australia, Asia, and New Zealand. Conference -
Duration: 1 Jan 2016 → …

Conference

ConferencePopular Culture Association of Australia, Asia, and New Zealand. Conference
Period1/01/16 → …

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