fashion & costume design in film & tv
spring 2021
This was one of my favorite courses I’ve taken at Northeastern. It examined the role of costume and fashion design in media, from the movies of the Golden Age of Hollywood to the latest high-tech motion pictures to the most recent cable miniseries. We studied the history and social contexts of clothing in media, as well as the critical role of fashion in relation to the narrative while looking closely at the work of notable costume designers through the ages.
MIDTERM
Our midterm assignment was to write a five page paper detailing the historical accuracy of the costume design of a period piece in either film or television. I wrote about the wardrobe choices of Gabriele Binder in the Netflix series The Queen's Gambit which was one of my favorite shows of 2020.
final
For our final we were given the freedom to write a ten page paper on any tv show or film costuming by analyzing the costumes and the purposes they served in the show or film. I chose to write about two popular teen dramas Gossip Girl set in New York and 90210 set in Beverly Hills. I compared the costume design in each of the shows while looking specifically at the goals of the different designers, how the different wardrobes represented the rift between east coast and west coast lifestyles, and which show had a more representative and accurate style in terms of what teenagers around the country were actually wearing to high school at the time.