Fashion/Photo/Film: The Intertextual Discourse of Funny Face (1956)
In this paper I mobilize Funny Face (dir. Stanley Donen, 1956) to examine the intertextual nexus between fashion, fashion photography, and film. Set in New York City and Paris, with costume design by Hubert de Givenchy and Edith Head, the film is a latter day telling of the Pygmalion myth, such that...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre for Fashion Diversity and Social Change, Ryerson University
2018-06-01
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| Series: | Fashion Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://www.fashionstudies.ca/fashion/photo/film |
| _version_ | 1828883639759273984 |
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| author | Paul Jobling |
| author_facet | Paul Jobling |
| author_sort | Paul Jobling |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this paper I mobilize Funny Face (dir. Stanley Donen, 1956) to examine the intertextual nexus between fashion, fashion photography, and film. Set in New York City and Paris, with costume design by Hubert de Givenchy and Edith Head, the film is a latter day telling of the Pygmalion myth, such that photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) and Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson), the dictatorial Fashion Editor of Quality, take up the challenge of converting Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn), whom they regard as an unprepossessing bookstore intellectual, into a top model. Thus I analyze how a film that is more generally regarded as a benchmark in the Hollywood musical for its exuberant use of colour and songs is, more particularly, a cinematic locus for both the mediation and mediatization of fashionable identities. To this end, I assess how the film elaborates the power of the fashion industry as a matter of social practice in regards to Foucauldian discourse and the related concept of the énoncé, or event/statement. Thus I evince I two events/statements — “Think Pink!” and “Bonjour Paris” — to discuss in particular the relationship of style to national identities and the need or desire for America to assert cultural leadership in fashion photography, art, and design over France in the context of 1950s Cold War politics. By comparison, I enlist the statements, “Take the Picture!” and “A Bird of Paradise,” to examine respectively the dynamic of looking/gazing between the fashion photographer and designer and their (in this case) female models, the nexus between star designing, clothing, and gender identity, and what Foucault calls assujetissement — subjection — which connotes the dual process of Jo’s subordination as well as the act of her becoming or “being made” a subject according to a system of power. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T10:53:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c0bef48a01084dd39ab06133e3f79acf |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2371-3453 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T10:53:09Z |
| publishDate | 2018-06-01 |
| publisher | Centre for Fashion Diversity and Social Change, Ryerson University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Fashion Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-c0bef48a01084dd39ab06133e3f79acf2022-12-21T23:49:45ZengCentre for Fashion Diversity and Social Change, Ryerson UniversityFashion Studies2371-34532018-06-011113310.38055/FS010109Fashion/Photo/Film: The Intertextual Discourse of Funny Face (1956)Paul Jobling0Parsons New School, ParisIn this paper I mobilize Funny Face (dir. Stanley Donen, 1956) to examine the intertextual nexus between fashion, fashion photography, and film. Set in New York City and Paris, with costume design by Hubert de Givenchy and Edith Head, the film is a latter day telling of the Pygmalion myth, such that photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) and Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson), the dictatorial Fashion Editor of Quality, take up the challenge of converting Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn), whom they regard as an unprepossessing bookstore intellectual, into a top model. Thus I analyze how a film that is more generally regarded as a benchmark in the Hollywood musical for its exuberant use of colour and songs is, more particularly, a cinematic locus for both the mediation and mediatization of fashionable identities. To this end, I assess how the film elaborates the power of the fashion industry as a matter of social practice in regards to Foucauldian discourse and the related concept of the énoncé, or event/statement. Thus I evince I two events/statements — “Think Pink!” and “Bonjour Paris” — to discuss in particular the relationship of style to national identities and the need or desire for America to assert cultural leadership in fashion photography, art, and design over France in the context of 1950s Cold War politics. By comparison, I enlist the statements, “Take the Picture!” and “A Bird of Paradise,” to examine respectively the dynamic of looking/gazing between the fashion photographer and designer and their (in this case) female models, the nexus between star designing, clothing, and gender identity, and what Foucault calls assujetissement — subjection — which connotes the dual process of Jo’s subordination as well as the act of her becoming or “being made” a subject according to a system of power.https://www.fashionstudies.ca/fashion/photo/filmdiscourseintertexualitystyle and nationalismsubjection |
| spellingShingle | Paul Jobling Fashion/Photo/Film: The Intertextual Discourse of Funny Face (1956) Fashion Studies discourse intertexuality style and nationalism subjection |
| title | Fashion/Photo/Film: The Intertextual Discourse of Funny Face (1956) |
| title_full | Fashion/Photo/Film: The Intertextual Discourse of Funny Face (1956) |
| title_fullStr | Fashion/Photo/Film: The Intertextual Discourse of Funny Face (1956) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Fashion/Photo/Film: The Intertextual Discourse of Funny Face (1956) |
| title_short | Fashion/Photo/Film: The Intertextual Discourse of Funny Face (1956) |
| title_sort | fashion photo film the intertextual discourse of funny face 1956 |
| topic | discourse intertexuality style and nationalism subjection |
| url | https://www.fashionstudies.ca/fashion/photo/film |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT pauljobling fashionphotofilmtheintertextualdiscourseoffunnyface1956 |