Skip to search boxSkip to navigationSkip to main content

‘Women’s tales’: postfeminist adventures into consumerville

  • Elena Caoduro
Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

This article examines the project ‘Women’s Tales’, an on-going series of short films that fashion designer Miuccia Prada commissioned from international female directors, among them Lucrecia Martel, Ava DuVernay and Agnès Varda. By situating this endeavour in relation to female agency, authorial expressivity, and consumerism, it is argued that the project conforms to postfeminist media culture for its celebration of feminine bonds, make-over strategies and the use of luxury as a tool for pleasure and empowerment. As a series of fashion films at the interstices of different systems: advertisement and art, film and online media, experimental and mainstream practices, ‘Women’s Tales’ occasionally contain some critical potential, but struggle to challenge existing fashion paradigms. This article questions the postfeminist ethos that the project espouses, claiming that through its in-between, interstitial status, ‘Women’s Tales’ destabilise representational conventions without really disrupting fashions’ foundation.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 37-42

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Comunicazioni Sociali (Volume 2017, Issue 1)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 30/04/2017

Publication status

Published - 30/04/2017

ISSN

0392-8667

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/622433