Fashion on the Red Carpet

'This important study advances our understanding of the historical, cultural, economic, and performative functions of fashion in modern life and everyday consciousness. Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén reveals how the red-carpeting of global culture still is expanding through established and newly innovated transmedia platforms. The study is a history of the Academy Awards observed through the lenses of fashion, celebrity, and media. Additionally, it refocuses on unexpected areas, such as the surprisingly crucial function of the anonymous fans who populate the bleachers aside the red carpet. The exemplary, meticulous, research utilizes original documents available only in the Academy's archives. The depth and breadth of this scholarship are unparalleled.' Donald Crafton, University of Notre Dame The Academy Awards' red-carpet is the most prominent fashion show in media culture. Fashion on the Red Carpet investigates the historical liaison between Hollywood and fashion institutions, to describe how public relations campaigns and the media articulate fashion discourses around the Oscars. The power-shift towards television, the emergence of celebrity culture, the post-war reactivation of transatlantic trade, the growth of fashion journalism, and the increasing circulation designer names in the media, are converging factors leading to the institutionalisation of the red-carpet as a fashion event in its own right. Departing from archival sources, and tracing discourses of fashion, stardom, and celebrity surrounding Hollywood and the Oscars, this fascinating book explains how the red-carpet became a marquee for the endorsement of high-end fashion brands. Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén is a Lecturer at the Department of Media Studies of Stockholm University. Cover image: Lupita Nyong'o attends the Oscars in Hollywood, California, 2014 (c) Christopher Polk/Getty Images Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-1-4744-6180-1 Barcode