Tracing patterns: Critical approaches to on-screen fashion

<jats:p>In 1990, Jane Gaines and Charlotte Herzog’s hugely influential edited collection, Fabrications, opened up the discussion of the complex relationship between the female consumer and the female viewer; and while an important body of work has developed within this area, the study of on-screen fashion continues to be somewhat marginalised in the academy. This article examines some of the recent contributions to the study of on-screen fashion, situating them in relation to broader debates about fashion, costume, feminism and identity. In so doing, it seeks to examine the fortitude field, 21 years on from Fabrications, in order to examine how the study of on-screen fashion has developed and how it may evolve in the future.</jats:p>