If Looks Could Kill

Catalogue from the 2nd Fashion In Film Festival 'If Looks Could Kill', which features a line-up of new essays on the relationship between fashion and crime in cinema. It features writers such as Elizabeth Wilson, Caroline Evans, Tom Gunning and Charlie Porter, and examines a wide range of cinema, from the silent crime genre to film noir, thriller and gangster film.

Design by Séan O’Mara, Art Director

Marketa Uhlirova

Research Interests

Role and display of Fashion and Costume in Cinema
Fashion rhetoric’s and public debates
History and theory of the catalogue
Art, fashion, photography and visual culture (19th - 21st century)

Current Research

My research focuses on the period between 19th - 21st centuries and studies relationships between cultural production, institutions and society. I am interested in a variety of media, forms and practices as well as public debates (historical and contemporary) around them; these are above all film, art, fashion and photography.

I am the Director and Curator of Fashion in Film, a collaborative research project which explores the mutual impact of fashion and film industries across the entire history of cinema. We regularly contribute to exhibitions, events and conferences, and hold our own major festivals every two years, hosted by such venues as BFI Southbank and Tate Modern in London, and the Museum of the Moving Image in New York. Our research and curation promotes a sustained interest in film as an invaluable tool for fashion historians, and at the same time focuses on the interpretation of film costume and styling, which have played a vital role in many aspects of cinema and film culture.

While costume and fashion are always the key focus for us, we increasingly encourage comparative studies between film & fashion and a wide range of disciplines - from literature, theatre and dance to art, photography, architecture and music.