Our mission is to promote a deeper understanding of the convergence between the moving image and fashion, showing how cinema in its broadest sense has represented and interpreted fashion as a concept, an industry and a cultural form. We also aim to raise awareness of the role of costume design in cinema.
Fashion in Film’s key project is a biennial festival, launched in May 2006, which combines screenings with lectures, talks, events and special projects. The festival has toured internationally since 2006, collaborating with venues small and large, including Tate Modern, Victoria and Albert Museum, BFI Southbank, Barbican, ICA and The Horse Hospital in London, Museum of the Moving Image in New York, Arnhem Mode Biennale in Arnhem and Det Danske Filminstitut in Copenhagen. We also host symposia and produce publications. Our special focus is on presenting unseen and rarely-screened films as well as re-positioning celebrated works in new contexts to encourage new interpretations. We work closely with international archives, curators, filmmakers and artists to that end. Our projects engage with academia, industry and the general public alike and generate new ways of thinking that influence creative practice, inspire and support new forms of expression, help preserve and present our cultural heritage and also contribute to the dynamism and prosperity of the creative industries.
More than just a celebration of fashion in film, the festival encourages critical response to its content, and addresses current practices in the context of film’s long history. Dedicated to promoting new ideas and experimentation, FFF also commissions new work in contemporary “fashion moving image”, bringing together artists, designers, photographers, filmmakers, performers and musicians.