Cutting the Fashion Body: Why the Fashion Image Is No Longer Still

This article considers the arrival of digital fashion film on the Internet by exploring the manner in which time, fragmentation, and a sense of play relate to our understanding of fashion. As a new form of high gloss representation, fashion film has challenged more traditional forms of fashion media. Some have argued that we are witnessing a period of change in which the digital image will render the static image obsolete. The article will focus on an analysis of stillness and movement as it relates to the iconic and symbolic meaning of the fashion image. Drawing upon the example of SHOWstudio's "The Fashion Body" and three of the forty-two films, which make up the project, the article will seek to demonstrate the profound nature of the change from the photograph to the moving image and in doing so will introduce digital fashion film as a genre that it is not simply a tool to stimulate consumption, but is something that is set to change our notion of fashion as a moment in time.