As contemporary cinema intersects with both celebrity (Church Gibson 2011) and convergence culture (Jenkins 2006a), it is vital that the academic analysis of screen costuming moves beyond the film text to consider the wider institutional processes and consumption practices connected to fashion and spectators. In examining the role of costume and fashion as a source of meaning and pleasure this article forms part of my wider research project, which includes a forthcoming monograph and adopts both textually centred and interdisciplinary cross-media methodological approaches. This methodological shift is reflected in this article - the examination of Shakespeare in Love (Madden, 1998) adopts a predominantly textually centred approach focusing on the cinematic representation of Viola/Thomas (Gwyneth Paltrow), in which I argue that costume functions as both a spectacular intervention and a visual narrative of gender transformation and sexual fluidity. In then shifting to a cross-media approach, I will discuss both Gwyneth Paltrow and Keira Knightley in relation to issues of fashion, femininity and celebrity culture. As contemporary popular cinema shifts from character centred narratives to the formation of transmedia worlds existing over multiple media platforms, the text-spectator relationship is one grounded in a participatory convergence culture (Jenkins 2006a). In the final section of this article I argue that the meanings and pleasures of cinematic costume are increasingly characterised by what I term 'tactile transmediality'. Through moving my analysis beyond the film text to explore gaming, cosplay and fashion in relation to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (Verbinski, 2003; 2006; 2007; Marshall, 2011), I will argue that clothing creates a tactile platform in which the spatial distance between the text and the spectator can be bridged via adornment and touch and thus the processes of identity transformation and performativity can be played out in our everyday lives.

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This article examines the ways in which the representation of Will Smith in / am Legend and I, Robot constructs postcolonial performative visual narratives that both foUow and disrupt existing discourses of sexualized black masculinity within visual culture. Through comparative analysis with examples drawn from photography, I will argue that Smith's representation enables the black body to be rendered as fashionable and aspirational, rather than simply objectified via sexualized visual discourses.

Costuming within the BBC television drama series Killing Eve (2018–) functions as a spectacular dressing-up box to support the representation of Villanelle (Jodie Comer) as the glamorous globe-trotting assassin. This article will argue that Villanelle’s fashion-forward wardrobe offers a multifarious representation of contemporary queer styling. Her costuming is characterized by gender fluidity and a play with the dominant codes and signifiers of lesbian style and identity. Villanelle’s looks move beyond the stereotyped constraints of the butch-femme binary to construct a polymorphous representation of femininity with broad cross-over appeal. In offering a striking silhouette that draws attention away from the material body onto costuming, Villanelle’s representation highlights the fluidity of gendered and sexual identities. Her costuming may appear to reduce Villanelle to a series of surface appearances, yet these iterations result in a significant queer representation on mainstream contemporary television.

Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear at the V&A Museum in London (19 March–6 November 2022) marked a significant curatorial and cultural moment. Curated by Claire Wilcox, Rosalind McKever and Marta Franceschini, the exhibition explored the shifting landscape of menswear by focusing on the intersections among fashion, art, time and gender. This review essay critically reflects on the curation of the Fashioning Masculinities exhibition and the accompanying two-day symposium (13–14 October 2022) co-convened by the V&A and the Masculinities Research Hub at London College of Fashion. It argues for the need for interdisciplinary research and curation on menswear and masculinity studies to explore a plurality of intersectional identities. Additionally, this article argues for the importance of engaging diverse audiences across the sector with rich stories of making, wearing and fashioning identities. There remains considerable scope to move beyond a focus upon historical dress and luxury designer items, to include the often invisible and untold narratives of ordinary and everyday dress.