Fashion Film Festival


past events and projects



Friday 18th September 2009 The Fashion Object in Film Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam Fashion in Film’s Inga Fraser presented a new take on some of the themes we explored in our first festival Between Stigma and Enigma in 2006, as part of The Art of Fashion: Installing Illusions symposium in Rotterdam. More...



Summer/Autumn 2009 Fundraising collaboration with Artcycle Support Fashion in Film by buying art! 5 hand-picked high-profile contemporary artists have generously donated work to help raise money for the next Fashion in Film Festival in 2010. More...



Friday 20 March 2009 A Lady with a Hat Heads Up symposium, V&A Once again we are teamed up with the V&A to bring to you a fascinating (and fashionable) slice of social history. We screened Elsa Kvamme's moving documentary A Lady with a Hat (1999), screened during our 1st Fashion in Film Festival in 2006, and this time presented as part of a symposium at the V&A. More...



Thursday 8 January 2009 Cold War Fashion: Beyond Espionage BFI Southbank Fashion in Film presented Beyond Espionage programme in a new rendition on Thursday 8 January 2009 featuring a Q&A with Djurdja Bartlett, at the BFI Southbank. Programme curated by Renate Stauss and Marketa Uhlirova and presented in association with Central Saint Martins College and Friday Late / Cold War Modern at the V&A. More...



Friday 28 - Sunday 30 November 2008 The 2nd Fashion in Film Festival in Bristol If Looks Could Kill The deathly stylish If Looks Could Kill programme continued as the 2nd Fashion in Film Festival went to Bristol's Arnolfini at the end of November 2008. Highlights from the London programme were shown, including the fantasticly recieved "The Tenth Vicitm" (1965) and Dario Argento's "The Bird With the Crystal Plumage" (1970), plus, a new music score composed especially and performed by Bristol-based, Jean Hasse, Jack Beecroft and Emma Tennion, was showcased to accompany silent film "The Rat" (1925). More...



Friday 21 - Saturday 22 November 2008 Beyond Espionage: Fashion Under Socialism At Cold War Culture International Conference Fashion in Film's programme of newsreels and documentaries exploring the rhetorics of "socialist fashion", were screened again as part of the V&A Cold War Culture International Conference which was organised in conjunction with the V&A's exhibition Cold War Modern: Design 1945-70. This major international conference brought together many exciting thinkers on this post-war period to reflect and offer new perspectives.



31 October 2008 Beyond Espionage: Fashion Under Socialism French Connection Friday Late at the V&A Fashion in Film presented a new programme at French Connection Friday Late at the V&A, in conjunction with Cold War Modern. A selection of some of the most eloquent newsreels and documentaries from post-war East Germany and Czechoslovakia were screened, exploring the rhetorics of "socialist fashion". More...



10 - 31 May 2008 The 2nd Fashion in Film Festival in London If Looks Could Kill The 2nd Fashion in Film Festival in London went down a storm and was visited by over 4,000 people. The festival programme explored the compelling links between cinema, fashion, crime and violence. For more information and full programme click here.


Sweatshops in Focus On the second weekend of October 2007 Fashion in Film Festival presented a two-day event focusing on the troublesome issue of sweatshops. This was a unique opportunity to see two poignant documentaries, plus some militant art, and participate in a panel discussion that concluded the sessions. More...

Frankie : Exclusive UK release Fashion in Film Festival teamed up with Cine lumiere of the French Institute to bring you Frankie. This remarkable film is a recent feature-film debut by Fabienne Berthaud. It tells an insightful story of the defeat of one fashion model (starring the beautiful Diane Kruger who proves she can do apathetic really well), with a delicate soundtrack by the American duo Coco Rosie.

15-17 June 2007 The 1st Fashion in Film Festival at Arnhem Mode Biennale In June Fashion in Film Festival was happy together with Arnhem's Mode Biennale. The theme of the festival's second edition was Happy Fashion, celebrating fashion's positive vibe. The curators' interpretation of happiness seems more to do with the conditions of rawness, risk taking and provocation - all part of the creative process - rather than fairy-talish bliss. Mode Biennale included a never ending catwalk in the city of Arnhem, plus work by Viktor and Rolf, Maison Martin Margiela, Cassette Playa, Henrik Vibskov and Peter Pilotto among many others. full programme Arnhem Mode Biennale press release

body/language: fashion meets graphic design Fashion in Film Festival was featured at AIGA's conference in New York on Saturday 24 March 2007. For more details visit bodylanguage.aigany.org

17 to 25 March 2007 The 1st Fashion in Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image, New York Fashion in Film Festival collaborated with the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) to present its inaugural edition Between Stigma and Enigma in New York. New additions to the London programme were the films Unzipped, dir, Douglas Keeve (1995) and Dress Rehearsal and Karola 2, dir, Noll Brinckman (1979-1980). One of the highlights of the series was the screening of Slava Tsukerman's Liquid Sky, followed by a Q&A with the director, cinematographer and costume designer. more information full programme Liquid Sky slide show

24-26 November 2006 Death of Taste Symposium at the ICA in London Fashion in Film Festival will contribute a screening to The Death of Taste conference held at the ICA (24-25 November 2006). With other contributors including Dame Vivienne Westwood, Bodymap’s Stevie Stewart and Kim Jones. You can download a PDF of the programme here. The Death of Taste: unpicking the fashion cycle. programme notes

27 and 28 September 2006 The 1st Fashion in Film Festival Prague in Kino Svetozor, Prague Two of our Fashion in Film Festival's programmes, The Model and the World of Fashion and The Enigma of the Fashion Object, will be screened in Kino Svetozor, Prague, Czech Republic on 27th and 28th September 2006. The festival director Marketa Uhlirova will introduce each screening with a talk. This project is part of the TRANZIT programme. Programme flyer Audiovisual flyer

14-27 May 2006 The 1st Fashion in Film Festival London Ciné lumière, Horse Hospital and ICA, London The 1st Fashion in Film Festival sent London viewers on blissfully satisfying and fickle journeys peppered with fine clothes and foxy attitudes. The programme titled Between Stigma and Enigma explored the ambiguous relationship between fashion and film. For more information and full programme click here. You can still buy a copy of our 2006 catalogue with articles by festival curators and guest writers about various aspects of fashion in film. Only a handful of copies left. Get yours from the Horse Hospital


Special features archive

Join us on a journey through the exceptionally bold fashions of Slava Tsukerman's 1982 film Liquid Sky. Images courtesy of cinematographer Yuri Neyman and production and costume designer Marina Levikova. Click here.



Welcome to the strange world of 'La Femme', a couture salon and its mannequins, elegant on the surface and ugly underneath. A voyage through Arne Mattsson's viaully fantastic film Mannequin in Red (1958). Images courtesy of the Swedish Film Institute. Click here.



A journey through a distant 21st Century world where lusts for violence have led to the legalisation of murder through a game called 'The Big Hunt'. Elio Petri's The 10th Victim (1965) can only be described as an uber-cool italian '60s pop art sci-fi comedy extravaganza. Click here.