Textiles on Film


Book Description

The imagined worlds of the cinematic mise-en-scène are rich with textiles: fabrics drape over sets, serve as props, and develop mood and character as dress and décor. A much-needed examination of the cultural and emotional impact of textiles as mediated through cinematic technology, Textiles on Film broadens our understanding of the dynamic relationship between fabric and film. Drawing on scholarship across multiple disciplines and exploring a wide range of films-from lesser-known avant-garde films to big-budget Hollywood productions-this book will inspire scholars and students of film, fashion, and textiles. Close readings of on-screen textiles redirect meaning to that which is often overlooked, including depictions of gender expression, behind-the-scenes labor, and architectural and bodily ornamentation. Attentive to the social nuances of fabrics from polyester to velvet, and to the physical qualities of the textiles themselves, Becky Peterson unearths new possibilities for reading media and textile cultures.




Luchino Visconti and the Fabric of Cinema


Book Description

Unveils the metaphoric and theoretical possibilities of fabric in the films of Luchino Visconti. In Luchino Visconti and the Fabric of Cinema, Joe McElhaney situates Visconti's films as privileged and deeply expressive instances of a trope that McElhaney identifies as the "cinema of fabric": a reoccurrence in film in which textiles—clothing, curtains, tablecloths, bedsheets—determine the filming process. An Italian neorealist, Visconti emerges out of a movement immediately following WWII wherein fabric assumes crucial functions, yet Visconti's use of fabric surpasses his colleagues in many ways, including its fluid, multifaceted articulations of space and time. Visconti's homosexuality is central to this theory in that it assumes metaphoric potential in addressing "forbidden" sexual desires that are made visible in the films. Visconti's cinema of fabric gives voice to desires not simply for human bodies draped in fabric but also for entire environments, a world of the senses in which fabric becomes a crucial method for giving form to such desires. McElhaney examines Visconti's neorealist origins in Ossessione, La terra trema, and Rocco and His Brothers, particularly through fabric's function within literary realism and naturalism. Neorealist revisionism through the extravagant drapings of the diva film is examined in Bellissima and Senso whereas White Nights and The Strangerare examined for the theatricalizing through fabric of their literary sources. Visconti's interest in German culture vis-à-vis The Damned, Death in Venice, and Ludwig, is articulated through a complex intertwining of fabric, aesthetics, politics, and transgressive sexual desire. Finally, Visconti's final two films, Conversation Piece and The Innocent, assess through fabric both the origins of Italian fascism and the political tensions contemporaneous with the films' productions. Fabric in Visconti is often tied to the aesthetic impulse itself in a world of visionaries attempting to dominate their surrounding environments and where a single piece of fabric may come to represent the raw material for creation. This book will tantalize any reader with a keen eye and strong interest in film and queer studies.




Cycling and Cinema


Book Description

A unique exploration of the history of the bicycle in cinema, from Hollywood blockbusters and slapstick comedies to documentaries, realist dramas, and experimental films. Cycling and Cinema explores the history of the bicycle in cinema from the late nineteenth century through to the present day. In this new book from Goldsmiths Press, Bruce Bennett examines a wide variety of films from around the world, ranging from Hollywood blockbusters and slapstick comedies to documentaries, realist dramas, and experimental films, to consider the complex, shifting cultural significance of the bicycle. The bicycle is an everyday technology, but in examining the ways in which bicycles are used in films, Bennett reveals the rich social and cultural importance of this apparently unremarkable machine. The cinematic bicycles discussed in this book have various functions. They are the source of absurd comedy in silent films, and the vehicles that allow their owners to work in sports films and social realist cinema. They are a means of independence and escape for children in melodramas and kids' films, and the tools that offer political agency and freedom to women, as depicted in films from around the world. In recounting the cinematic history of the bicycle, Bennett reminds us that this machine is not just a practical means of transport or a child's toy, but the vehicle for a wide range of meanings concerning individual identity, social class, nationhood and belonging, family, gender, and sexuality and pleasure. As this book shows, two hundred years on from its invention, the bicycle is a revolutionary technology that retains the power to transform the world.




Fashion and Film


Book Description

This book aims to explore various aspects of the use of moving images in fashion retail and fashion apparel companies in-store or online. The use of moving images is growing in numbers and in relevance for consumers. Films can be used in various forms by fashion businesses in traditional media like cinema or TV and in modern forms like in social media or moving images in high street stores. The book provides a data-oriented analysis of the state-of-the-art with certain future outlooks. Additional areas of covering fashion in moving images, such as ‘fashion company identity films’ or ‘fashion and music videos’ are covered in order to get a more complete analysis from a consumer influenced perspective.




Clothing Poverty


Book Description

‘An interesting and important account.’ Daily Telegraph Have you ever stopped and wondered where your jeans came from? Who made them and where? Ever wondered where they end up after you donate them for recycling? Following a pair of jeans, Clothing Poverty takes the reader on a vivid around-the-world tour to reveal how clothes are manufactured and retailed, bringing to light how fast fashion and clothing recycling are interconnected. Andrew Brooks shows how recycled clothes are traded across continents, uncovers how retailers and international charities are embroiled in commodity chains which perpetuate poverty, and exposes the hidden trade networks which transect the globe. Stitching together rich narratives, from Mozambican markets, Nigerian smugglers and Chinese factories to London’s vintage clothing scene, TOMS shoes and Vivienne Westwood’s ethical fashion lines, Brooks uncovers the many hidden sides of fashion.




Federal Register


Book Description




Digital Design for Custom Textiles


Book Description

Digital Design for Custom Textiles: Patterns as Narration for Stage and Film is a beginner's guide for creating custom textile patterns for performing arts production, with an emphasis on storytelling through design using hand and digital design techniques. The book offers essential information for the beginning digital designer, such as: methods of designing patterns, appliqués, and unique textures for custom textiles; custom textile examples including various styles of pattern repeats, digital embroidery, and cut and sew textiles; full-color, step-by-step instructions and practice exercises; production timelines; a textiles and patterns glossary. Digital Design for Custom Textiles will allow students and design professionals to embrace digital media to enhance their work, apply digital alternatives to find the perfect fabrics and embellishments, and create more meaningful and personalized designs for the stage.




Textiles in Sport


Book Description

The technical developments in the sports clothing industry has resulted in the use of functional textiles for highly-specialised performances in different sports. Developments include thermal and functional properties and coated and laminated clothes. With bio- and smart materials providing such a strong focus in the textile industry generally, companies are going for 'value-added' textiles, such as in-built sensors which monitor performance. In-built wear comfort is a growing market trend and includes clothing which improves the skin's performance. Written by a distinguished editor and a team of authors from the cutting edge of textile research, Textiles in sport discusses high-performance, high-function and intelligent textiles for sportswear. - Invaluable for a broad range of readers - Discusses high-performance, high-function and intelligent textiles for sportswear




Multidisciplinary Know-How for Smart-Textiles Developers


Book Description

Smart-textiles developers draw on diverse fields of knowledge to produce unique materials with enhanced properties and vast potential. Several disciplines outside the traditional textile area are involved in the construction of these smart textiles, and each individual field has its own language, specific terms and approaches. Multidisciplinary know-how for smart-textiles developers provides a filtered knowledge of these areas of expertise, explaining key expressions and demonstrating their relevance to the smart-textiles field.Following an introduction to the new enabling technologies, commercialisation and market trends that make up the future of smart-textiles development, part one reviews materials employed in the production of smart textiles. Types and processing of electro-conductive and semiconducting materials, optical fibres for smart photonic textiles, conductive nanofibres and nanocoatings, polymer-based resistive sensors, and soft capacitance fibres for touch-sensitive smart textiles are all discussed. Part two then investigates such technologies as the embedding of electronic functions, the integration of thin-film electronics, and the development of organic and large-area electronic (OLAE) technologies for smart textiles. Joining technologies are also discussed, alongside kinetic, thermoelectric and solar energy harvesting technologies, and signal processing technologies for activity-aware smart textiles. Finally, product development and applications are the focus of part three, which investigates strategies for technology management, innovation and improved sustainability, before the book concludes by exploring medical, automotive and architectural applications of smart textiles.With its distinguished editor and international team of expert contributors, Multidisciplinary know-how for smart-textiles developers is a key tool for readers working in industries including design, fashion, textiles, through to electronics, computing and material science. It also provides a useful guide to the subject for academics working across a wide range of fields. - Reviews materials used in the production of smart textiles - Examines the technologies used in smart textiles, such as optical fibres and polymer based resistive sensors - Investigates strategies for technology management, innovation and improved development




Modern Textile Characterization Methods


Book Description

This work details current advances in assessing the characteristics of polymers, single fibres and fibrous systems, and associated processes based on evolving theories in the physical, chemical and mechanical sciences. It focuses on recent develpments in selected characterization methods - such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Fourier transform nuclear magnetic resonance, electron diffraction, x-ray diffraction and electron microscopy - applicatble to polymers, fibres and textiles.