On Fashion Videos

Abstract

Until a few months ago, if not just a few a days, one of the most recurrent beliefs in the fashion journalistic landscape was the influence of the pandemic on the art of dressing. In the communicational imagery of the media, the long shadow of Covid19 seems to have fallen like an ax capable of changing the rules of clothing, of changing its DNA even at the level of forms. Clearly it would be absurd to underestimate the impact of such an epochal storm, but it is necessary to establish a fundamental distinction: the nefarious presence of the virus has upset the world of fashion only and exclusively from the point of view of communication and has not in the least affected the strength of styles. In a brief succession of examples, this essay aims to investigate the before and after, the use of video as an expressive medium, recognizing a full continuity of content on both sides of the pandemic watershed. For some time now, fashion films have been made objects of care and attention not infrequently conducted by the great film directors; they reach the most experimental results of contemporary art, resulting in solutions, effects and settings capable of competing with the best music video clips or with the most spectacular video games.